Pushing the detection of cation nonstoichiometry to the limit
Nanoscale complex-oxide thin films prepared by well-established growth techniques, such as pulsed-laser deposition or molecular-beam epitaxy, often exhibit compositions that deviate from the ideal stoichiometry. Even small variations in composition can lead to substantial changes in the technologica...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
American Physical Society (APS)
2020
|
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/124375 |
| _version_ | 1811076131665739776 |
|---|---|
| author | Lu, Qiyang Yildiz, Bilge |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering Lu, Qiyang Yildiz, Bilge |
| author_sort | Lu, Qiyang |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Nanoscale complex-oxide thin films prepared by well-established growth techniques, such as pulsed-laser deposition or molecular-beam epitaxy, often exhibit compositions that deviate from the ideal stoichiometry. Even small variations in composition can lead to substantial changes in the technologically relevant electronic, magnetic, and optical properties of these materials. To assess the reasons behind this variability, and ultimately to allow tuning the properties of oxide films with precise control of the deposition parameters, high-resolution detection of the nonstoichiometry introduced during growth is needed. The resolution of current techniques, such as x-ray diffraction, fluorescence, or spectroscopy, is limited to estimating composition differences in the percent level, which is often insufficient for electronic-device quality. We develop an unconventional approach based on scanning tunneling microscopy for enabling the determination of cation imbalance introduced in thin films with exceptionally small detection limit. We take advantage of the well-controlled surface reconstructions on SrTiO3(110), and use the established relation between those reconstructions and the surface composition to assess the cation excess deposited in pulsed-laser grown SrTiO3(110) films. We demonstrate that a <0.1% change in cation nonstoichiometry is detectable by our approach. Furthermore, we show that, for thin films that accommodate all the nonstoichiometry at the surface, this method has no fundamental detection limit. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:16:43Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/124375 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:16:43Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | American Physical Society (APS) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1243752024-06-25T20:17:42Z Pushing the detection of cation nonstoichiometry to the limit Lu, Qiyang Yildiz, Bilge Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Electrochemical Interfaces Nanoscale complex-oxide thin films prepared by well-established growth techniques, such as pulsed-laser deposition or molecular-beam epitaxy, often exhibit compositions that deviate from the ideal stoichiometry. Even small variations in composition can lead to substantial changes in the technologically relevant electronic, magnetic, and optical properties of these materials. To assess the reasons behind this variability, and ultimately to allow tuning the properties of oxide films with precise control of the deposition parameters, high-resolution detection of the nonstoichiometry introduced during growth is needed. The resolution of current techniques, such as x-ray diffraction, fluorescence, or spectroscopy, is limited to estimating composition differences in the percent level, which is often insufficient for electronic-device quality. We develop an unconventional approach based on scanning tunneling microscopy for enabling the determination of cation imbalance introduced in thin films with exceptionally small detection limit. We take advantage of the well-controlled surface reconstructions on SrTiO3(110), and use the established relation between those reconstructions and the surface composition to assess the cation excess deposited in pulsed-laser grown SrTiO3(110) films. We demonstrate that a <0.1% change in cation nonstoichiometry is detectable by our approach. Furthermore, we show that, for thin films that accommodate all the nonstoichiometry at the surface, this method has no fundamental detection limit. NSF CAREER Award of the National Science Foundation, Division of Materials Research, Ceramics Program, Grant No. 1055583 U. S. National Science Foundation, Division of Materials Research (Grant no. 1419807) 2020-03-27T13:46:58Z 2020-03-27T13:46:58Z 2019-04 2018-11 2020-02-27T16:06:01Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2475-9953 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/124375 Riva, Michele, et al., "Pushing the detection of cation nonstoichiometry to the limit." Physical review materials 3 (2019): no. 043802 doi: 10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.3.043802 ©2019 Author(s) en 10.1103/PHYSREVMATERIALS.3.043802 Physical review materials Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Physical Society (APS) APS |
| spellingShingle | Lu, Qiyang Yildiz, Bilge Pushing the detection of cation nonstoichiometry to the limit |
| title | Pushing the detection of cation nonstoichiometry to the limit |
| title_full | Pushing the detection of cation nonstoichiometry to the limit |
| title_fullStr | Pushing the detection of cation nonstoichiometry to the limit |
| title_full_unstemmed | Pushing the detection of cation nonstoichiometry to the limit |
| title_short | Pushing the detection of cation nonstoichiometry to the limit |
| title_sort | pushing the detection of cation nonstoichiometry to the limit |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/124375 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT luqiyang pushingthedetectionofcationnonstoichiometrytothelimit AT yildizbilge pushingthedetectionofcationnonstoichiometrytothelimit |