Recent studies of oxide-semiconductor heterostructures using aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy

Journal of Materials Research volume 32, pages912–920(2017)Cite this article

Abstract

The integration of dissimilar materials is highly desirable for many different types of device applications but often challenging to achieve in practice. The unrivalled imaging capabilities of the aberration-corrected electron microscope enable enhanced insights to be gained into the atomic arrangements across heterostructured interfaces. This paper provides an overview of our recent observations of oxide-semiconductor heterostructures using aberration-corrected high-angle annular-dark-field and large-angle bright-field imaging modes. The perovskite oxides studied include strontium titanate, barium titanate, and strontium hafnate, which were grown on Si(001) and/or Ge(001) substrates using the techniques of molecular-beam epitaxy or atomic-layer deposition. The oxide layers displayed excellent crystallinity and sharp, abrupt interfaces were observed with no sign of any amorphous interfacial layers. The Ge(001) substrate surfaces invariably showed both 1× and 2× periodicity consistent with preservation of the 2 × 1 surface reconstruction following oxide growth. Overall, the results augur well for the future development of functional oxide-based devices integrated on semiconductor substrates.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work has primarily been supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research through Grants FA9550-12-10494 and FA9550-14-10090 and the National Science Foundation Award CMMI-1437050. The authors gratefully acknowledge the use of facilities in the John M. Cowley Center for High Resolution Electron Microscopy at Arizona State University.

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287-1504, USA

    David J. Smith & Martha R. McCartney

  2. School of Engineering for Matter, Transport and Energy, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287-6106, USA

    HsinWei Wu & Sirong Lu

  3. LeRoy Eyring Center for Solid State Science, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287-1704, USA

    Toshihiro Aoki

  4. Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA

    Patrick Ponath, Kurt Fredrickson, Agham B. Posadas & Alexander A. Demkov

  5. Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA

    Martin D. McDaniel, Edward Lin & John Ekerdt

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  1. David J. Smith
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  2. HsinWei Wu
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  3. Sirong Lu
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  4. Toshihiro Aoki
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  5. Patrick Ponath
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  6. Kurt Fredrickson
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  7. Martin D. McDaniel
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  8. Edward Lin
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  9. Agham B. Posadas
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  10. Alexander A. Demkov
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  11. John Ekerdt
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  12. Martha R. McCartney
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Correspondence to David J. Smith.

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Smith, D.J., Wu, H., Lu, S. et al. Recent studies of oxide-semiconductor heterostructures using aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy. Journal of Materials Research 32, 912–920 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2016.273

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