Thin-film transistors made of solution-processed metal oxide semiconductors hold great promise for application in the emerging sector of large-area electronics. However, further advancement of the technology is hindered by limitations associated with the extrinsic electron transport properties of the often defect-prone oxides. We overcome this limitation by replacing the single-layer semiconductor channel with a low-dimensional, solution-grown In₂O₃/ZnO heterojunction. We find that In₂O₃/ZnO transistors exhibit band-like electron transport, with mobility values significantly higher than single-layer In₂O₃ and ZnO devices by a factor of 2 to 100. This marked improvement is shown to originate from the presence of free electrons confined on the plane of the atomically sharp heterointerface induced by the large conduction band offset between In₂O₃ and ZnO. Our finding underscores engineering of solution-grown metal oxide heterointerfaces as an alternative strategy to thin-film transistor development and has the potential for widespread technological applications.

GaN nanowires have been grown by molecular beam epitaxy either catalyst-free or catalyst-induced by means of Ni seeds. Under identical growth conditions of temperature and V/III ratio, both types of GaN nanowires are of wurtzite structure elongated in the Ga-polar direction and are constricted by M-plane facets. However, the catalyst-induced nanowires contain many more basal-plane stacking faults and their photoluminescence is weaker. These differences can be explained as effects of the catalyst Ni seeds. Open image in new window

On Si(1 1 1) and Si(0 0 1), GaN nanowires (NWs) form in a self-induced way without the need for any external material. On sapphire, NW growth is induced by Ni collectors. Both types of NWs exhibit the wurtzite crystal structure and grow in the Ga-polar C-direction perpendicular to the substrate. The NW sidewalls are M-plane facets, although on the Ni-induced NWs also A-plane segments form, if the growth temperature is low. Both self-induced and collector-induced NWs are free of strain and epitaxially aligned to the substrate, but in particular the former show a significant spread in tilt and twist caused by a mostly amorphous interfacial layer of Si-N. The self-induced NWs are virtually free of extended defects, but the collector-induced NWs contain many stacking faults. The photoluminescence of the former is significantly brighter and sharper. The spectra of single, dispersed, self-induced NWs contain extremely sharp excitonic lines. Significant emission is caused by excitons bound to donors close to the surface whose binding energy is reduced compared to the bulk value. In comparison, both the microstructure and optical properties of the self-induced NWs are superior. The limited material quality of the collector-induced NWs can be explained by detrimental effects of the collector.

The thermodynamic aspects of indium-face InN growth by radio frequency plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy (rf-MBE) and the nucleation of InN on gallium-face GaN (0001) surface were investigated. The rates of InN decomposition and indium desorption from the surface were measured in situ using reflected high-energy electron diffraction and the rf-MBE “growth window” of In-face InN (0001) was identified. It is shown that sustainable growth can be achieved only when the arrival rate of active nitrogen species on the surface is higher than the arrival rate of indium atoms. The maximum substrate temperature permitting InN growth as a function of the active nitrogen flux was determined. The growth mode of InN on Ga-face GaN (0001) surface was investigated by reflected high-energy electron diffraction and atomic force microscopy. It was found to be of the Volmer–Weber-type for substrate temperatures less than $350°\mathrm{C}$ and of the Stranski–Krastanov for substrate temperatures between 350 and $520°\mathrm{C}$ . The number of monolayers of initial two-dimensional growth, in the case of Stranski–Krastanov mode, varies monotonically with substrate temperature, from 2 ML at $400°\mathrm{C}$ to about 12 ML at $500°\mathrm{C}$ . The evolution and coalescence of nucleated islands were also investigated as a function of substrate temperature. It was found that at higher temperature their coalescence is inhibited leading to porous-columnar InN thin films, which exhibit growth rates higher than the nominal value. Therefore, in order to achieve continuous InN layers on GaN (0001) a two-step growth approach is introduced. In that approach, InN is nucleated at low temperatures on GaN and the growth continues until full coalescence of the nucleated islands. Subsequently, this nucleation layer is overgrown at higher substrate temperature in order to achieve high-quality continuous films. The InN films grown by the two-step method were investigated by x-ray diffraction, Hall-effect measurements, and transmission electron microscopy. It was found that the lattice mismatch between InN and GaN is almost completely accommodated by the development of a misfit dislocation network at the interface. Optimum group-III to active nitrogen flux ratios and substrate temperature conditions were identified for the two-step growth process. Films, grown under those conditions, exhibited full width at half maximum of x-ray rocking curves at (0004) and $\left(10\overline{1}5\right)$ diffractions equal to 360 and $435\mathrm{arc}\sec$ , respectively. Room-temperature Hall mobility was found to depend sensitively on the group-III to active nitrogen flux ratio during growth of the main step and to be independent of the structural properties of the films. Mobilities up to $860{\mathrm{cm}}^2∕\mathrm{V}\mathrm{s}$ at carrier concentration of $1.6\times {10}^{19}{\mathrm{cm}}^{-3}$ were measured.

We present a study of fully epitaxial Fe/Pt bilayers by means of ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) techniques. The dependence of the resonance field $H_{\mathrm{FMR}}$, the Gilbert damping parameter $\alpha$, and the FMR linewidth on the Pt thickness is presented and compared with reference layers. Since spin pumping is extremely sensitive to the interface properties, a corresponding study is of large importance. By studying fully epitaxial systems, the existence of an almost perfectly single-crystalline ordered interface is ensured. The measured effects, such as the dependence of the resonant field $H_{\mathrm{FMR}}$ on Pt thickness, are thus related to the physics of spin pumping and not to interface disorder effects. The damping parameter $\alpha$ has been extracted from the slope of the linewidth dependence on the FMR frequency. By measuring the enhancement of $\alpha$ with Pt a value for the effective spin mixing conductance of $g_{\mathrm{eff}}^{\uparrow \downarrow }=(4.9\pm 0.5)\times {10}^{19}{\mathrm{m}}^{-2}$ is obtained. We observe an opposite behavior in the dependence of $H_{\mathrm{FMR}}$ when compared with reports on YIG/Pt. In addition, the critical role of the proper choice of a reference layer for the estimation of this value is discussed.