Electron-Beam Writing of Atomic-Scale Reconstructions at Oxide Interfaces.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 39486436.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c02913 and PMC identifier 11565737.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
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 nonepitaxial stacking of membranes, opening new possibilities for materials design. Here, we introduce a method for writing, with atomic precision, ionically bonded crystalline materials across the gap between an oxide membrane and a carrier substrate. The process involves a thermal pretreatment, 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<sub>3</sub> membrane and a niobium-doped SrTiO<sub>3</sub>(001)-oriented carrier substrate. These findings indicate new strategies for fabricating synthetic heterostructures with novel structural and electronic properties.