On stoichiometry and intermixing at the spinel/perovskite interface in CoFe2O4/BaTiO3 thin films

The performance of complex oxide heterostructures depends primarily on the interfacial coupling of the two component structures. This interface character inherently varies with the synthesis method and conditions used since even small composition variations can alter the electronic, ferroelectric, or magnetic functional properties of the system. The focus of this article is placed on the interface character of a pulsed laser deposited CoFe2O4/BaTiO3 thin film. Using a range of state-of-the-art transmission electron microscopy methodologies, the roles of substrate morphology, interface stoichiometry, and cation intermixing are determined on the atomic level. The results reveal a surprisingly uneven BaTiO3 substrate surface formed after the film deposition and Fe atom incorporation in the top few monolayers inside the unit cell of the BaTiO3 crystal. Towards the CoFe2O4 side, a disordered region extending several nanometers from the interface was revealed and both Ba and Ti from the substrate were found to diffuse into the spinel layer. The analysis also shows that within this somehow incompatible composite interface, a different phase is formed corresponding to the compound Ba2Fe3Ti5O15, which belongs to the ilmenite crystal structure of FeTiO3 type. The results suggest a chemical activity between these two oxides, which could lead to the synthesis of complex engineered interfaces

Growth of Epitaxial Oxide Thin Films on Graphene

The transfer process of graphene onto the surface of oxide substrates is well known. However, for many devices, we require high quality oxide thin films on the surface of graphene. This step is not understood. It is not clear why the oxide should adopt the epitaxy of the underlying oxide layer when it is deposited on graphene where there is no lattice match. To date there has been no explanation or suggestion of mechanisms which clarify this step. Here we show a mechanism, supported by first principles simulation and structural characterisation results, for the growth of oxide thin films on graphene. We describe the growth of epitaxial SrTiO3 (STO) thin films on a graphene and show that local defects in the graphene layer (e.g. grain boundaries) act as bridgepillar spots that enable the epitaxial growth of STO thin films on the surface of the graphene layer. This study, and in particular the suggestion of a mechanism for epitaxial growth of oxides on graphene, offers new directions to exploit the development of oxide/graphene multilayer structures and devices

Structure of low-density nanoporous dielectrics revealed by low-vacuum electron microscopy and small-angle x-ray scattering

We use low-vacuum scanning electron microscopy to image directly the ligament and pore size and shape distributions of representative aerogels over a wide range of length scales ({approx} 10{sup 0}-10{sup 5} nm). The images are used for unambiguous, real-space interpretation of small-angle scattering data for these complex nanoporous systems

Geometrical Effect in 2D Nanopores

A long-standing problem in the application of solid-state nanopores is the lack of the precise control over the geometry of artificially formed pores compared to the well-defined geometry in their biological counterpart, that is, protein nanopores. To date, experimentally investigated solid-state nanopores have been shown to adopt an approximately circular shape. In this Letter, we investigate the geometrical effect of the nanopore shape on ionic blockage induced by DNA translocation using triangular h-BN nanopores and approximately circular molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanopores. We observe a striking geometry-dependent ion scattering effect, which is further corroborated by a modified ionic blockage model. The well-acknowledged ionic blockage model is derived from uniform ion permeability through the 2D nanopore plane and hemisphere like access region in the nanopore vicinity. On the basis of our experimental results, we propose a modified ionic blockage model, which is highly related to the ionic profile caused by geometrical variations. Our findings shed light on the rational design of 2D nanopores and should be applicable to arbitrary nanopore shapes.This work was financially supported by the European Research Council (grant 259398, PorABEL), by a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Consolidator grant (BIONIC BSCGI0_157802), by SNSF Sinergia grant 147607 ... The work performed in Cambridge was supported by the EPSRC Cambridge NanoDTC, EP/L015978/1. The work performed in UIUC was supported by grants from Oxford Nanopore Technology and the Seeding Novel Interdisciplinary Research Program of the Beckman Institute. The UIUC authors gratefully acknowledge also supercomputer time provided through the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) grant MCA93S028 and by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on the TAUB cluster

Single crystal, luminescent carbon nitride nanosheets formed by spontaneous dissolution

A primary method for the production of 2D nanosheets is liquid-phase delamination from their 3D layered bulk analogues. Most strategies currently achieve this objective by significant mechanical energy input or chemical modification but these processes are detrimental to the structure and properties of the resulting 2D nanomaterials. Bulk poly(triazine imide) (PTI)-based carbon nitrides are layered materials with a high degree of crystalline order. Here, we demonstrate that these semiconductors are spontaneously soluble in select polar aprotic solvents, that is, without any chemical or physical intervention. In contrast to more aggressive exfoliation strategies, this thermodynamically driven dissolution process perfectly maintains the crystallographic form of the starting material, yielding solutions of defect-free, hexagonal 2D nanosheets with a well-defined size distribution. This pristine nanosheet structure results in narrow, excitation-wavelength-independent photoluminescence emission spectra. Furthermore, by controlling the aggregation state of the nanosheets, we demonstrate that the emission wavelengths can be tuned from narrow UV to broad-band white. This has potential applicability to a range of optoelectronic devices

Noise characteristics of the gas ionization cascade used in low vacuum scanning electron microscopy

The noise characteristics of gas cascade amplified electron signals in low vacuum scanning electron microscopy (LVSEM) are described and analyzed. We derive expressions for each component contributing to the total noise culminating in a predictive, quantitative model that can be used for optimization of LVSEM operating parameters. Signal and noise behavior is characterized experimentally and used to validate the model. Under most operating conditions, the noise is dominated by the excess noise generated in the gas amplification cascade. At high gains, the excess noise increases proportionally with gain such that the signal-to-noise ratio is constant. The effects of several instrument operating parameters, including working distance, gas pressure, beam current, and detector bias, are condensed and presented in the form of a master curve. © 2009 American Institute of Physics