Synthesis of crystalline perovskite-structured SrTiO<Subscript>3</Subscript> nanoparticles using an alkali hydrothermal process

We report an experimental route for synthesizing perovskite-structured strontium titanate (SrTiO₃) nanocubes using an alkali hydrothermal process at low temperatures without further heating. Furthermore, we studied the influence of heating time (at 180℃) on the crystallinity, morphology, and perovskite phase formation of SrTiO₃. The SrTiO₃ powder, which is formed via nanocube agglomeration, transforms into cubic particles with a particle size of 120–150 nm after 6 h of hydrothermal sintering. The crystallinity and percentage of the perovskite phase in the product increased with heating time. The cubic particles contained 31.24at% anatase TiO₂ that originated from the precursor. By varying the weight ratio of anatase TiO₂ used to react with the strontium salt precursor, we reduced the anatase-TiO₂ content to 18.8at%. However, the average particle size increased when the anatase-TiO₂ content decreased.     

Atomic-scale imaging of nanoengineered oxygen vacancy profiles in SrTiO3

At the heart of modern oxide chemistry lies the recognition that beneficial (as well as deleterious) materials properties can be obtained by deliberate deviations of oxygen atom occupancy from the ideal stoichiometry. Conversely, the capability to control and confine oxygen vacancies will be important to realize the full potential of perovskite ferroelectric materials, varistors and field-effect devices. In transition metal oxides, oxygen vacancies are generally electron donors, and in strontium titanate (SrTiO3) thin films, oxygen vacancies (unlike impurity dopants) are particularly important because they tend to retain high carrier mobilities, even at high carrier densities. Here we report the successful fabrication, using a pulsed laser deposition technique, of SrTiO3 superlattice films with oxygen doping profiles that exhibit subnanometre abruptness. We profile the vacancy concentrations on an atomic scale using annular-dark-field electron microscopy and core-level spectroscopy, and demonstrate absolute detection sensitivities of one to four oxygen vacancies. Our findings open a pathway to the microscopic study of individual vacancies and their clustering, not only in oxides, but in crystalline materials more generally.     

Improper ferroelectricity in perovskite oxide artificial superlattices

Ferroelectric thin films and superlattices are currently the subject of intensive research because of the interest they raise for technological applications and also because their properties are of fundamental scientific importance. Ferroelectric superlattices allow the tuning of the ferroelectric properties while maintaining perfect crystal structure and a coherent strain, even throughout relatively thick samples. This tuning is achieved in practice by adjusting both the strain, to enhance the polarization, and the composition, to interpolate between the properties of the combined compounds. Here we show that superlattices with very short periods possess a new form of interface coupling, based on rotational distortions, which gives rise to 'improper' ferroelectricity. These observations suggest an approach, based on interface engineering, to produce artificial materials with unique properties. By considering ferroelectric/paraelectric PbTiO3/SrTiO3 multilayers, we first show from first principles that the ground-state of the system is not purely ferroelectric but also primarily involves antiferrodistortive rotations of the oxygen atoms in a way compatible with improper ferroelectricity. We then demonstrate experimentally that, in contrast to pure PbTiO3 and SrTiO3 compounds, the multilayer system indeed behaves like a prototypical improper ferroelectric and exhibits a very large dielectric constant of epsilon(r) approximately 600, which is also fairly temperature-independent. This behaviour, of practical interest for technological applications, is distinct from that of normal ferroelectrics, for which the dielectric constant is typically large but strongly evolves around the phase transition temperature and also differs from that of previously known improper ferroelectrics that exhibit a temperature-independent but small dielectric constant only.     

Graphene/SrTiO3 hetero interface studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

The present paper focuses on study of graphene and strontium titanate(SrTiO_3 or STO) interface. An ambient pressure chemical vapour deposition(AP-CVD) setup is used to grow graphene on STO(110)substrates in the presence of methane, argon and hydrogen gases at 1000 °C for 4 h. Raman spectroscopy measurements confirm the presence of graphene on STO substrates due to the existence of typical D and G peaks referring to graphene. These characteristic peaks are missing in the spectrum for bare substrates.X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) is carried out for elemental analysis of samples, and study their bonding with STO substrates. We employed the valence band spectrum to calculate the valence band offset(VBO) and conduction band offset(CBO) at the G-STO interface. Also, we present an energy band diagram for Bi-layer and ABC(arranging pattern of carbon layers) stacked graphene layers.     

Two-dimensional electron gas with universal subbands at the surface of SrTiO(3)

As silicon is the basis of conventional electronics, so strontium titanate (SrTiO(3)) is the foundation of the emerging field of oxide electronics. SrTiO(3) is the preferred template for the creation of exotic, two-dimensional (2D) phases of electron matter at oxide interfaces that have metal-insulator transitions, superconductivity or large negative magnetoresistance. However, the physical nature of the electronic structure underlying these 2D electron gases (2DEGs), which is crucial to understanding their remarkable properties, remains elusive. Here we show, using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, that there is a highly metallic universal 2DEG at the vacuum-cleaved surface of SrTiO(3) (including the non-doped insulating material) independently of bulk carrier densities over more than seven decades. This 2DEG is confined within a region of about five unit cells and has a sheet carrier density of ～0.33 electrons per square lattice parameter. The electronic structure consists of multiple subbands of heavy and light electrons. The similarity of this 2DEG to those reported in SrTiO(3)-based heterostructures and field-effect transistors suggests that different forms of electron confinement at the surface of SrTiO(3) lead to essentially the same 2DEG. Our discovery provides a model system for the study of the electronic structure of 2DEGs in SrTiO(3)-based devices and a novel means of generating 2DEGs at the surfaces of transition-metal oxides.     

钛酸锶钡拉曼光谱的理论计算与实验研究

钛酸钡是一种重要的铁电体，在居里温度130 ℃附近介电常数最大，为了降低钛酸钡的居里温度，通常在钛酸钡中掺杂锶.采用水热合成法制备了钛酸锶钡粉末，并且建立2×2×1的超晶胞进行第一性原理计算.随着锶掺杂量的增加，其XRD衍射峰向右偏移，说明钛酸锶钡的晶胞结构逐渐从四方相转变到立方相.计算结果表明:随着锶掺杂量增加，钛酸锶钡的晶胞参数逐渐减小；晶胞参数c与a的比值逐渐减小，与实验相符；Raman光谱特征峰的强度逐渐减弱，说明掺杂后钛酸锶钡的自发极化程度逐渐减弱，Ti和O分别偏离晶胞体心和面心的位移逐渐减小.由于掺杂后钡原子被比其原子半径小的锶原子取代，使得晶胞参数变小，阻碍了Ti的自发偏移，Ti只需要较低的热振动能即可克服与O的库仑作用，稳定位于晶胞体心，居里温度(居里点)随之下降.     

Room-temperature ferroelectricity in strained SrTiO3

Systems with a ferroelectric to paraelectric transition in the vicinity of room temperature are useful for devices. Adjusting the ferroelectric transition temperature (T(c)) is traditionally accomplished by chemical substitution-as in Ba(x)Sr(1-x)TiO(3), the material widely investigated for microwave devices in which the dielectric constant (epsilon(r)) at GHz frequencies is tuned by applying a quasi-static electric field. Heterogeneity associated with chemical substitution in such films, however, can broaden this phase transition by hundreds of degrees, which is detrimental to tunability and microwave device performance. An alternative way to adjust T(c) in ferroelectric films is strain. Here we show that epitaxial strain from a newly developed substrate can be harnessed to increase T(c) by hundreds of degrees and produce room-temperature ferroelectricity in strontium titanate, a material that is not normally ferroelectric at any temperature. This strain-induced enhancement in T(c) is the largest ever reported. Spatially resolved images of the local polarization state reveal a uniformity that far exceeds films tailored by chemical substitution. The high epsilon(r) at room temperature in these films (nearly 7,000 at 10 GHz) and its sharp dependence on electric field are promising for device applications.     

溶胶-水热法制备BaTiO3基PTC超细粉体

采用乙酸钡和钛酸四丁酯为原料,用溶胶沉淀与水热相结合的方法制备钛酸钡基正温度系数(PTC)纳米粉体.通过改变KOH强碱溶液用量调节水热反应的pH值,用X射线衍射分析了不同pH值条件下钛酸钡粉体晶相,确定了钛酸钡晶核稳定存在的条件.采用化学沉淀和溶液滴定方法研究了反应前驱物中Ba(AC)2和Ti(OC4H9)4的摩尔比对生成粉体化学计量比的影响.将Ba(AC)2Ti(OC4H9)4按照摩尔比为1配置的前驱物置于饱和氢氧化钡溶液构成的富钡环境下进行水热反应,获得了符合化学计量比、晶粒尺寸30nm左右的立方相钛酸钡纳米粉.在钛酸钡纯粉制备基础之上,将施主元素Y及受主元素Mn在前驱物制备过程中引入,瓷体实现了半导化,并获得了PTC效应.     

硬脂酸溶胶-凝胶法合成SrTiO_3纳米晶

以硬脂酸、醋酸锶和钛酸丁酯为原料，采用硬脂酸溶胶－凝胶法（ＳＡＧ）合成凝胶，经过热处理获得ＳｒＴｉＯ３纳米晶．ＩＲ、ＴＧ－ＤＴＡ分析了凝胶的热处理过程；ＳＥＭ、ＸＲＤ分析了纳米ＳｒＴｉＯ３的形貌及晶相．在６５０℃保温３ｈ合成四方相ＳｒＴｉＯ３纳米晶，颗粒均匀呈球形，平均粒径６０ｎｍ．     

静压下GaN/AlN应变超晶格的晶格动力学研究

利用弹性理论计算出静压下应变超品格两种组分材料的纵向晶格常数的改变，并用来修正应变存在时的面间力常数．在此基础上研究了应变对GaN／A1N超晶格的L-声子的色散关系和振动模式的影响．结果表明，应变可以在一定程度上破坏GaN和A1N中L-声子的准限制模式．另外静压对L-声子的色散关系影响显著，而对原子的振动模式影响较小．     

微光夜视仪用无铅高压陶瓷电容的研发

本文采用BaTiO3作为基料,SrTiO3、CaCO3、Bi2O3·3TiO3等作为辅料,制备无铅高压陶瓷电容器介质材料,探索和研究了添加剂对介质材料性能的变化和影响,得到了介电常数可调、综合介电性能稳定的介质材料结果.从研究结果表明,在BaTiO3中加入摩尔数分数40%Sr-TiO3、15%CaCO3,3%Bi2O3...     

The interface between silicon and a high-k oxide

The ability of the semiconductor industry to continue scaling microelectronic devices to ever smaller dimensions (a trend known as Moore's Law) is limited by quantum mechanical effects: as the thickness of conventional silicon dioxide (SiO(2)) gate insulators is reduced to just a few atomic layers, electrons can tunnel directly through the films. Continued device scaling will therefore probably require the replacement of the insulator with high-dielectric-constant (high-k) oxides, to increase its thickness, thus preventing tunnelling currents while retaining the electronic properties of an ultrathin SiO(2) film. Ultimately, such insulators will require an atomically defined interface with silicon without an interfacial SiO(2) layer for optimal performance. Following the first reports of epitaxial growth of AO and ABO(3) compounds on silicon, the formation of an atomically abrupt crystalline interface between strontium titanate and silicon was demonstrated. However, the atomic structure proposed for this interface is questionable because it requires silicon atoms that have coordinations rarely found elsewhere in nature. Here we describe first-principles calculations of the formation of the interface between silicon and strontium titanate and its atomic structure. Our study shows that atomic control of the interfacial structure by altering the chemical environment can dramatically improve the electronic properties of the interface to meet technological requirements. The interface structure and its chemistry may provide guidance for the selection process of other high-k gate oxides and for controlling their growth.     

(AlAs)_3(GeGe)_3(001)超晶格体内的自建电场

在(AlAs)_3(GeGe)_1(001)超晶格的LMTO-ASA能带计算的基础上,采用“冻结势方法”,计算了超晶格中各个分子层的平均键能E_和价带边E_,揭示了超晶格体内自建电场与界面电荷的关系。     

添加剂对SrTiO3系高压介质

研究了添加剂对SrTiO3系高压介质介电性能的影响规律，并对各种添加剂的作用机理进行了解释。结果表明MnO2的加入能降低介质的介质损耗，Dy2O3的加入能提高介质的介电常数，CaTiO3、MgTiO3、NiO的加入能降低该材料介电常数的温度变化率。     

Growth of nanowire superlattice structures for nanoscale photonics and electronics

The assembly of semiconductor nanowires and carbon nanotubes into nanoscale devices and circuits could enable diverse applications in nanoelectronics and photonics. Individual semiconducting nanowires have already been configured as field-effect transistors, photodetectors and bio/chemical sensors. More sophisticated light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and complementary and diode logic devices have been realized using both n- and p-type semiconducting nanowires or nanotubes. The n- and p-type materials have been incorporated in these latter devices either by crossing p- and n-type nanowires or by lithographically defining distinct p- and n-type regions in nanotubes, although both strategies limit device complexity. In the planar semiconductor industry, intricate n- and p-type and more generally compositionally modulated (that is, superlattice) structures are used to enable versatile electronic and photonic functions. Here we demonstrate the synthesis of semiconductor nanowire superlattices from group III-V and group IV materials. (The superlattices are created within the nanowires by repeated modulation of the vapour-phase semiconductor reactants during growth of the wires.) Compositionally modulated superlattices consisting of 2 to 21 layers of GaAs and GaP have been prepared. Furthermore, n-Si/p-Si and n-InP/p-InP modulation doped nanowires have been synthesized. Single-nanowire photoluminescence, electrical transport and electroluminescence measurements show the unique photonic and electronic properties of these nanowire superlattices, and suggest potential applications ranging from nano-barcodes to polarized nanoscale LEDs.     

钛含量对PZT/STO铁电电容器隧穿电阻的影响

采用Landau-Devonshire自由能理论和晶格模型,研究了PbZr1-xTixO3(PZT)/SrTiO3(STO)复合薄膜中PZT的钛(Ti)含量(x=0.5,0.6,0.8,1.0)对铁电隧道结极化强度、总电势、电导和隧穿电阻等的影响,从而增大隧穿电阻.模拟结果表明:随着层数增加,复合薄膜极化强度增大;随着Ti含量增加,隧道结电导先减小后增大,其隧穿电阻率先增大后减小;PZT极化强度、STO总电势和PZT总电势的斜率均在x=0.8时最大.     

钛酸钡的合成、结构与性质研究

本文分别以四氯化钛和氯化钡为钛源和钡源,用NaOH作沉淀剂,在pH大于13.5的条件下合成出了BaTiO_3。反应条件为:反应温度为90℃,时间4小时,反应物料Ba:Ti=0.8-10.5(摩尔比);X-射线物相分析表明,产品为立方晶系,a=4.003。电镜观察,粒度均匀,大小为0.2-0.3μm。为除去产品中微量的碳酸盐杂质,用稀盐酸对产品进行后处理,(处理液用Ys-1和Ys-2代替),结果发现,待Ys-2处理后,产品由立方晶系变成了更稳定的四方晶系。差热分析结合X-rag相分析表明,立方晶系的钛酸钡在750℃转变成了四方晶系。这同用Ys-2处理的结果是相吻和的。另外,本文还就反应温度、反应时间、沉淀剂的量等对产品的影响作了详细研究。     

Wave-vector-dependent Tunneling Transmission Characteristics in Periodic and Quasiperiodic Semiconductor Superlattices

Introduction　　Thepropositionofsemiconductorsuper-lattices[1],thediscoveryofquasicrystalsandtherealizationofGaAs/AlAsFibonaccisuperlatticeshavemotivatedalargebodyofcurrentresearchworkonthephysicalpropertiesofperiodicandquasiperiodicsuperlattices.Manyelectronicandoptoelectroniceffectshavebeendiscovered.Thequasiperiodicstructuresareintermediatebetweencompletelyperiodicperfectcrystalsandrandomordisorderedamorphoussolids.Becauseoftheaperiodicityandself-similarity,competitionbetweenlocalizationa…     

Fe/Cr(001)超晶格层间耦合和自旋极化的第一性原理计算

采用基于密度泛函理论的平面波赝势法对Fe／Cr（001）起晶格的层间耦合和自旋极化进行了系统地研究．结果表明：理想Fe／Cr超晶格的层间耦合随反铁磁Cr层层数的增加呈短周期性振荡；在较稳定的结构中，整个Cr层都以较大的磁矩被极化，且极化程度受铁磁层原子数的影响较大．     

Thin-film thermoelectric devices with high room-temperature figures of merit

Thermoelectric materials are of interest for applications as heat pumps and power generators. The performance of thermoelectric devices is quantified by a figure of merit, ZT, where Z is a measure of a material's thermoelectric properties and T is the absolute temperature. A material with a figure of merit of around unity was first reported over four decades ago, but since then-despite investigation of various approaches-there has been only modest progress in finding materials with enhanced ZT values at room temperature. Here we report thin-film thermoelectric materials that demonstrate a significant enhancement in ZT at 300 K, compared to state-of-the-art bulk Bi2Te3 alloys. This amounts to a maximum observed factor of approximately 2.4 for our p-type Bi2Te3/Sb2Te3 superlattice devices. The enhancement is achieved by controlling the transport of phonons and electrons in the superlattices. Preliminary devices exhibit significant cooling (32 K at around room temperature) and the potential to pump a heat flux of up to 700 W cm-2; the localized cooling and heating occurs some 23,000 times faster than in bulk devices. We anticipate that the combination of performance, power density and speed achieved in these materials will lead to diverse technological applications: for example, in thermochemistry-on-a-chip, DNA microarrays, fibre-optic switches and microelectrothermal systems.