Precise arrays of sub-100 nm diameter nanodots are fabricated from magnetic oxide perovskites with the total coverage area up to 5 mm2. Epitaxial single crystal structure of the nanodots is demonstrated by cross-sectional TEM. Low temperature MFM study confirmed the ferromagnetism of the produced particles.
Chalcogenide perovskites have emerged as a new class of electronic materials, but fundamental properties and applications of chalcogenide perovskites remain limited by the lack of high quality epitaxial thin films. We report epitaxial thin film growth of BaZrS3, a prototypical chalcogenide, by pulsed laser deposition. X-ray diffraction studies show that the films are strongly textured out of plane and have a clear in-plane epitaxial relationship with the substrate. Electron microscopy studies confirm the presence of epitaxy for the first few layers of the film at the interface, even though away from the interface the films are polycrystalline with a large number of extended defects suggesting the potential for further improvement in growth. X-Ray reflectivity and atomic force microscopy show smooth film surfaces and interfaces between the substrate and the film. The films show strong light absorption near the band edge and photoluminescence in the visible region. The photodetector devices show fast and efficient photo response with the highest ON/OFF ratio reported for BaZrS3 films thus far. Our study opens up opportunities to realize epitaxial thin films, heterostructures, and superlattices of chalcogenide perovskites to probe fundamental physical phenomena and the resultant electronic and photonic device technologies.
Strain engineering has attracted great attention, particularly for epitaxial films grown on a different substrate. Residual strains of SiC have been widely employed to form ultra-high frequency and high Q factor resonators. However, to date the highest residual strain of SiC was reported to be limited to approximately 0.6%. Large strains induced into SiC could lead to several interesting physical phenomena, as well as significant improvement of resonant frequencies. We report an unprecedented nano strain-amplifier structure with an ultra-high residual strain up to 8% utilizing the natural residual stress between epitaxial 3C SiC and Si. In addition, the applied strain can be tuned by changing the dimensions of the amplifier structure. The possibility of introducing such a controllable and ultra-high strain will open the door to investigating the physics of SiC in large strain regimes, and the development of ultra sensitive mechanical sensors.
The hybrid perovskite CH3NH3PbX3 (X= Cl, Br, I) is a promising material for developing novel optoelectronic devices. Owing to the intrinsic non-layer structure, it remains challenging to synthesize molecularly thin CH3NH3PbX3 with large size. Here, we report a low-cost and highly efficient fabrication route to obtain large-scale single-crystalline 2D CH3NH3PbX3 perovskites on a mica substrate via liquid epitaxy. The 2D perovskite is characterized as 8 nm in thickness and hundreds of micrometers in lateral size. First-principles calculations suggest the strong potassium-halogen interactions at the perovskite/mica interface lower the interface energy of perovskites, driving their fast in-plane growth. Spectroscopic investigations reveal 2D CH3NH3PbBr3 possess small exciton binding energy of 30 meV, allowing a superior visible-light photodetector with a photoresponsivity of 126 A/W and a bandwidth exceeded 80 kHz. These features demonstrate that liquid epitaxy is a bottom-up approach to fabricate the non-layer structured 2D perovskites, which offer a new material platform for the device applications and fundamental investigations.
Ferromagnetic insulators (FMIs) are one of the most important components in developing dissipationless electronic and spintronic devices. However, since ferromagnetism generally accompanies metallicity, FMIs are innately rare to find in nature. Here, novel room-temperature FMI films are epitaxially synthesized by deliberate control of the ratio of two B-site cations in the double perovskite Sr2FeReO6. In contrast to the known ferromagnetic metallic phase in stoichiometric Sr2FeReO6, a FMI state with a high Curie temperature (Tc~400 K) and a large saturation magnetization (MS~1.8 {mu}B/f.u.) is found in highly cation-ordered Fe-rich phases. The stabilization of the FMI state is attributed to the formation of extra Fe3+-Fe3+ and Fe3+-Re6+ bonding states, which originate from the excess Fe. The emerging FMI state by controlling cations in the epitaxial oxide perovskites opens the door to developing novel oxide quantum materials & heterostructures.
5d iridates have shown vast emergent phenomena due to a strong interplay among its lattice, charge and spin degrees of freedom, because of which the potential in spintronic application of the thin-film form is highly leveraged. Here we have epitaxially stabilized perovskite SrIr$_{0.8}$Sn$_{0.2}$O$_3$ on [001] SrTiO$_3$ substrates through pulsed laser deposition and systematically characterized the structural, electronic and magnetic properties. Physical properties measurements unravel an insulating ground state with a weak ferromagnetism in the compressively strained epitaxial film. The octahedral rotation pattern is identified by synchrotron x-ray diffraction, resolving a mix of $a^+b^-c^-$ and $a^-b^+c^-$ domains. X-ray magnetic resonant scattering directly demonstrates a G-type antiferromagnetic structure of the magnetic order and the spin canting nature of the weak ferromagnetism.