Phase transitions via selective elemental vacancy engineering in complex oxide thin films

Defect engineering has brought about a unique level of control for Si-based semiconductors, leading to the optimization of various opto-electronic properties and devices. With regard to perovskite transition metal oxides, O vacancies have been a key ingredient in defect engineering, as they play a c...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2016-04, Vol.6 (1), p.23649-23649, Article 23649
Main Authors: Lee, Sang A., Jeong, Hoidong, Woo, Sungmin, Hwang, Jae-Yeol, Choi, Si-Young, Kim, Sung-Dae, Choi, Minseok, Roh, Seulki, Yu, Hosung, Hwang, Jungseek, Kim, Sung Wng, Choi, Woo Seok
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/301/119/995
639/766/119/2795
Engineering
Humanities and Social Sciences
multidisciplinary
Oxides
Phase transitions
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Thin films
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Defect engineering has brought about a unique level of control for Si-based semiconductors, leading to the optimization of various opto-electronic properties and devices. With regard to perovskite transition metal oxides, O vacancies have been a key ingredient in defect engineering, as they play a central role in determining the crystal field and consequent electronic structure, leading to important electronic and magnetic phase transitions. Therefore, experimental approaches toward understanding the role of defects in complex oxides have been largely limited to controlling O vacancies. In this study, we report on the selective formation of different types of elemental vacancies and their individual roles in determining the atomic and electronic structures of perovskite SrTiO 3 (STO) homoepitaxial thin films fabricated by pulsed laser epitaxy. Structural and electronic transitions have been achieved via selective control of the Sr and O vacancy concentrations, respectively, indicating a decoupling between the two phase transitions. In particular, O vacancies were responsible for metal-insulator transitions, but did not influence the Sr vacancy induced cubic-to-tetragonal structural transition in epitaxial STO thin film. The independent control of multiple phase transitions in complex oxides by exploiting selective vacancy engineering opens up an unprecedented opportunity toward understanding and customizing complex oxide thin films.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep23649