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Toward a Low-Temperature Route for Epitaxial Integration of BiFeO3 on Si
Journal article

Toward a Low-Temperature Route for Epitaxial Integration of BiFeO3 on Si

Aleksandr V. Plokhikh, Igor A. Karateev, Matthias Falmbigl, Alexander L. Vasiliev, Jason Lapano, Roman Engel-Herbert and Jonathan E. Spanier
Journal of physical chemistry. C, v 123(19), pp 12203-12210
16 May 2019

Abstract

Chemistry Chemistry, Physical Materials Science Materials Science, Multidisciplinary Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Physical Sciences Science & Technology Science & Technology - Other Topics Technology
Epitaxial thin-film growth enables novel functionalities, particularly if significant barriers to integration with existing technologies, scalability and excessive temperature of films, can be addressed. Here, we demonstrate a step toward addressing both challenges by combining hybrid molecular beam epitaxy and atomic layer deposition to epitaxially integrate BiFeO3 on Si wafers via a SrTiO3 metamorphic buffer layer. The solid-solid transformation of atomic-layer-deposited amorphous Bi-Fe-O films into epitaxial BiFeO3 thin films is investigated by in situ annealing utilizing transmission electron microscopy. The amorphous Bi-Fe-O layer undergoes a very complex crystallization process, encompassing phenomena such as reorientation, recrystallization, and grain growth. Our in situ transmission electron microscopy study revealed that a growth front of epitaxial crystallites emerged from the interface with the (001)-oriented SrTiO3 as temperature increased, whereas randomly oriented BiFeO3 crystallites formed simultaneously away from the interface. Structural rearrangement and recrystallization of crystallites took place at temperatures below 400 degrees C. At the final stage, above 400 degrees C, epitaxial crystallites larger than 60 nm merged into a single crystalline film. Our results demonstrate that this approach permits high-quality epitaxial integration of BiFeO3 thin films at back-end-of-line-compatible temperatures below 500 degrees C on metamorphic SrTiO3 buffer layers on Si.

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Chemistry, Physical
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
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