Equipment Account: Integrated Thin Film Deposition and Analysis System
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Cambridge
Department Name: Research Services Division
Abstract
During the past decade, there have been dramatic improvements in the techniques for epitaxial thin film growth, meaning that the qualities of some films are now approaching those of single crystals. Not only does this mean that it is possible to perform different types of measurements on highly complex materials (many devices are much more easily fabricated using thin films than with single crystals), but it is possible to create perfect interfaces between them by making artificial structures in which perfect single unit-cell layers with atomically-perfect surfaces are brought together in superlattice structures. For example, much recent interest has focused on the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 system in which a two-dimensional electron gas appears at the interface and can show both magnetic and superconducting properties.
The deposition system being applied for will predominantly be used to grow ultrahigh quality oxide thin films both for basic science and more applied studies.The basis of the equipment requested here is pulsed laser deposition (PLD) which material is ablated from a target onto the growing film in an ultra-high vacuum chamber. To transform PLD into a precision growth technique capable of reliably creating the perfect crystal structures needed to study these materials systems, other systems need to be designed and properly integrated into a principal growth chamber. Firstly, in order to count the number of unit-cells deposited, and to stop precisely at the point at which a complete layer has been grown, a reflective high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) is required which is capable of working in the high gas pressures used for deposition. Secondly, in order to minimise structural and chemical disorder, sample growth needs to occur at higher-than-normal temperatures, it must be very carefully controlled and changed precisely and rapidly when going from one layer to another. This requires a laser heater. Finally, we need to be able to perform chemical and electronic studies of the materials grown without exposing them to contamination from the atmosphere and hence the samples need to be transferred under vacuum to a photoelectron spectroscopy chamber. This chamber is to be integrated into the complete system.
Predominantly oxide materials and their interfaces will be studied for their huge range of potential novel science, but in a separate exploratory chamber some non-oxide intermetallic topological insulator compounds will be explored.
On the oxide side, there are huge numbers of complex oxides which have amazing potential for novel functional properties but which never been explored. The intricate crystal structure of complex oxides can give rise to an enormous range of properties: for example the materials system SrRuxOy encompasses a metal (RuO2), a ferromagnet (SrRuO3), an unconventional superconductor (Sr2RuO4) and a potentially nematic electronic liquid (Sr3Ru2O7). The flip-side of this wealth of properties is an often extreme sensitivity of those properties to slight distortions of the structure, and as a result many of the most exciting properties are currently only observable in very high quality bulk single crystals. Furthermore, there is an even greater range of possibilities if oxides of two different compositions are interfaced together. Here, novel two-dimensional structures which do not exist in nature can be created and precise modulation of charge, strain and structural reconstructions can be realised. With the right tools, there is a whole new world of atom-by-atom materials discovery waiting to be explored.
Ultimately, we aim to achieve amazing new properties in ultrathin structures, using an atom-by-atom approach. Unlike unsupported nanostructures, these are stable, controllable and encapsulated devices giving us novel electronic systems which can be exploited in the real world, for example in next-generation IT or in novel medical diagnostics.
The deposition system being applied for will predominantly be used to grow ultrahigh quality oxide thin films both for basic science and more applied studies.The basis of the equipment requested here is pulsed laser deposition (PLD) which material is ablated from a target onto the growing film in an ultra-high vacuum chamber. To transform PLD into a precision growth technique capable of reliably creating the perfect crystal structures needed to study these materials systems, other systems need to be designed and properly integrated into a principal growth chamber. Firstly, in order to count the number of unit-cells deposited, and to stop precisely at the point at which a complete layer has been grown, a reflective high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) is required which is capable of working in the high gas pressures used for deposition. Secondly, in order to minimise structural and chemical disorder, sample growth needs to occur at higher-than-normal temperatures, it must be very carefully controlled and changed precisely and rapidly when going from one layer to another. This requires a laser heater. Finally, we need to be able to perform chemical and electronic studies of the materials grown without exposing them to contamination from the atmosphere and hence the samples need to be transferred under vacuum to a photoelectron spectroscopy chamber. This chamber is to be integrated into the complete system.
Predominantly oxide materials and their interfaces will be studied for their huge range of potential novel science, but in a separate exploratory chamber some non-oxide intermetallic topological insulator compounds will be explored.
On the oxide side, there are huge numbers of complex oxides which have amazing potential for novel functional properties but which never been explored. The intricate crystal structure of complex oxides can give rise to an enormous range of properties: for example the materials system SrRuxOy encompasses a metal (RuO2), a ferromagnet (SrRuO3), an unconventional superconductor (Sr2RuO4) and a potentially nematic electronic liquid (Sr3Ru2O7). The flip-side of this wealth of properties is an often extreme sensitivity of those properties to slight distortions of the structure, and as a result many of the most exciting properties are currently only observable in very high quality bulk single crystals. Furthermore, there is an even greater range of possibilities if oxides of two different compositions are interfaced together. Here, novel two-dimensional structures which do not exist in nature can be created and precise modulation of charge, strain and structural reconstructions can be realised. With the right tools, there is a whole new world of atom-by-atom materials discovery waiting to be explored.
Ultimately, we aim to achieve amazing new properties in ultrathin structures, using an atom-by-atom approach. Unlike unsupported nanostructures, these are stable, controllable and encapsulated devices giving us novel electronic systems which can be exploited in the real world, for example in next-generation IT or in novel medical diagnostics.
Planned Impact
The deposition equipment being applied for will enable fundamental research to develop new physical phenomena for applications in future low-energy electronic devices (including memory devices, computer processors, magnetic, optical or thermal sensors, energy harvesters, novel thin film batteries). Novel materials discovery will be another very important outcome of the work as we build two dimensional structures artificially, atom-by-atom and couple them to other interactive layers. At the same time, an understanding of the materials science which controls the growth of complex and multicomponent oxide films and their interfaces will be gained. This will have wide applicability to groups and industries involved in oxide film growth for a variety of applications, both functional and structural.
In the basic science area, by exploring new methods to control the perfection of thin films and by coupling across interfaces we hope to greatly enhance the understanding of novel electronic states. There are also identified long-term applications areas for the research beyond what we can predict now. For example, aspects of this research also have the potential to impact on the distant prospect of quantum computing via devices based on Majorana fermions.
In the basic science area, by exploring new methods to control the perfection of thin films and by coupling across interfaces we hope to greatly enhance the understanding of novel electronic states. There are also identified long-term applications areas for the research beyond what we can predict now. For example, aspects of this research also have the potential to impact on the distant prospect of quantum computing via devices based on Majorana fermions.
Organisations
Publications
Choi EM
(2014)
Ferroelectric Sm-doped BiMnO3 thin films with ferromagnetic transition temperature enhanced to 140 K.
in ACS applied materials & interfaces
Zhang KHL
(2017)
Electronic Structure and Band Alignment at the NiO and SrTiO3 p-n Heterojunctions.
in ACS applied materials & interfaces
Wang T
(2018)
Bottom-up Formation of Carbon-Based Structures with Multilevel Hierarchy from MOF-Guest Polyhedra
in Journal of the American Chemical Society
Zhang J
(2018)
Electronic and transport properties of Li-doped NiO epitaxial thin films
in Journal of Materials Chemistry C
Li W
(2018)
Origin of Improved Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting in Mixed Perovskite Oxides
in Advanced Energy Materials
Wu R
(2018)
All-Oxide Nanocomposites to Yield Large, Tunable Perpendicular Exchange Bias above Room Temperature.
in ACS applied materials & interfaces
Sun X
(2018)
Three-dimensional strain engineering in epitaxial vertically aligned nanocomposite thin films with tunable magnetotransport properties
in Materials Horizons
Park C
(2018)
Use of Mesoscopic Host Matrix to Induce Ferrimagnetism in Antiferromagnetic Spinel Oxide
in Advanced Functional Materials
Chen A
(2019)
Strain Enhanced Functionality in a Bottom-Up Approach Enabled 3D Super-Nanocomposites
in Advanced Functional Materials
Ji Y
(2019)
Tuning critical phase transition in VO2 via interfacial control of normal and shear strain
in Applied Physics Letters
Singh S
(2019)
Growth of Doped SrTiO 3 Ferroelectric Nanoporous Thin Films and Tuning of Photoelectrochemical Properties with Switchable Ferroelectric Polarization
in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
Xu R
(2019)
Optical and electrical properties of (111)-oriented epitaxial SrVO3 thin films
in Ceramics International
Giri S
(2019)
Strain induced extrinsic magnetocaloric effects in La 0.67 Sr 0.33 MnO 3 thin films, controlled by magnetic field
in Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics
Zhao R
(2019)
Controllable conduction and hidden phase transitions revealed via vertical strain
in Applied Physics Letters
Wang T
(2019)
Rational approach to guest confinement inside MOF cavities for low-temperature catalysis
in Nature Communications
Sun X
(2019)
Strain and property tuning of the 3D framed epitaxial nanocomposite thin films via interlayer thickness variation
in Journal of Applied Physics
Jagt R
(2020)
Rapid Vapor-Phase Deposition of High-Mobility p -Type Buffer Layers on Perovskite Photovoltaics for Efficient Semitransparent Devices
in ACS Energy Letters
Choi EM
(2020)
Nanoengineering room temperature ferroelectricity into orthorhombic SmMnO3 films.
in Nature communications
MacManus-Driscoll J
(2020)
New approaches for achieving more perfect transition metal oxide thin films
Kursumovic A
(2020)
Lead-free relaxor thin films with huge energy density and low loss for high temperature applications
in Nano Energy
Li W
(2020)
Atomic-Scale Control of Electronic Structure and Ferromagnetic Insulating State in Perovskite Oxide Superlattices by Long-Range Tuning of BO 6 Octahedra
in Advanced Functional Materials
Abfalterer A
(2020)
Colloidal Synthesis and Optical Properties of Perovskite-Inspired Cesium Zirconium Halide Nanocrystals.
in ACS materials letters
Li W
(2020)
Interface Engineered Room-Temperature Ferromagnetic Insulating State in Ultrathin Manganite Films.
in Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany)
Zhang X
(2020)
Achieving Ohmic conduction behavior at high electric field via interface manipulation
in Applied Surface Science
Tian C
(2020)
Electronic Structure, Optical Properties, and Photoelectrochemical Activity of Sn-Doped Fe 2 O 3 Thin Films
in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C
MacManus-Driscoll J
(2020)
New approaches for achieving more perfect transition metal oxide thin films
in APL Materials
Pan H
(2020)
Dielectric films for high performance capacitive energy storage: multiscale engineering.
in Nanoscale
Li W
(2020)
Defects in complex oxide thin films for electronics and energy applications: challenges and opportunities
in Materials Horizons
Wu R
(2020)
Influence of atomic roughness at the uncompensated Fe/CoO(111) interface on the exchange-bias effect
in Physical Review B
Sun X
(2020)
Spontaneous Ordering of Oxide-Oxide Epitaxial Vertically Aligned Nanocomposite Thin Films
in Annual Review of Materials Research
Di Martino G
(2020)
Real-time in situ optical tracking of oxygen vacancy migration in memristors
in Nature Electronics
Description | This equipment is unique in the UK and will help everyone |
First Year Of Impact | 2014 |
Sector | Electronics,Energy,Environment |
Impact Types | Societal,Economic |
Title | Research data supporting "Real-Time In-Situ Optical Tracking of Oxygen Vacancy Migration in Memristors" |
Description | |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2020 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/311290 |
Description | Advantages of advanced PLD for oxide film growth talk to IOP Thin FIlms group |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | talk about the deposition system we were building up |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |