Electron-Beam Writing of Atomic-Scale Reconstructions at Oxide Interfaces

Kavli Affiliate: Andrea D. Caviglia

| First 5 Authors: Greta Segantini, Chih-Ying Hsu, Carl Willem Rischau, Patrick Blah, Mattias Matthiesen

| Summary:

The epitaxial growth of complex oxides enables the production of high-quality
films, yet substrate choice is restricted to certain symmetry and lattice
parameters, thereby limiting the technological applications of epitaxial
oxides. In comparison, the development of free-standing oxide membranes gives
opportunities to create novel heterostructures by non-epitaxial stacking of
membranes, opening new possibilities for materials design. Here, we introduce a
method for writing, with atomic precision, ionically bonded crystalline
material across the gap between an oxide membrane and a carrier substrate. The
process involves a thermal pre-treatment, followed by localized exposure to the
raster scan of a scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) beam. STEM
imaging and electron energy-loss spectroscopy show that we achieve atomically
sharp interface reconstructions between a 30 nm-thick SrTiO${_3}$ membrane and
a niobium-doped SrTiO${_3}$(001)-oriented carrier substrate. These findings
indicate new strategies for fabricating synthetic heterostructures with novel
structural and electronic properties.

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