Honggyu Kim

High-mobility BaSnO3 grown by oxide molecular beam epitaxy

High-mobility perovskite BaSnO3 films are of significant interest as new wide bandgap semiconductors for power electronics, transparent conductors, and as high mobility channels for epitaxial integration with functional perovskites. Despite promising results for single crystals, high-mobility BaSnO3 films have been challenging to grow. Here, we demonstrate a modified oxide molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) approach, which supplies pre-oxidized SnOx. This technique addresses issues in the MBE of ternary stannates related to volatile SnO formation and enables growth of epitaxial, stoichiometric BaSnO3. We demonstrate room temperature electron mobilities of 150 cm2 V−1 s−1 in films grown on PrScO3. The results open up a wide range of opportunities for future electronic devices.

Observation of the Quantum Hall Effect in Confined Films of the Three-Dimensional Dirac Semimetal Cd3As2

The magnetotransport properties of epitaxial films of Cd_{3}As_{2}, a paradigm three-dimensional Dirac semimetal, are investigated. We show that an energy gap opens in the bulk electronic states of sufficiently thin films and, at low temperatures, carriers residing in surface states dominate the electrical transport. The carriers in these states are sufficiently mobile to give rise to a quantized Hall effect. The sharp quantization demonstrates surface transport that is virtually free of parasitic bulk conduction and paves the way for novel quantum transport studies in this class of topological materials. Our results also demonstrate that heterostructuring approaches can be used to study and engineer quantum states in topological semimetals.

Structure and optical band gaps of (Ba,Sr)SnO3 films grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Epitaxial growth of (BaxSr1−x)SnO3 films with 0u2009≤u2009xu2009≤u20091 using molecular beam epitaxy is reported. It is shown that SrSnO3 films can be grown coherently strained on closely lattice and symmetry matched PrScO3 substrates. The evolution of the optical band gap as a function of composition is determined by spectroscopic ellipsometry. The direct band gap monotonously decreases with x from to 4.46u2009eV (xu2009=u20090) to 3.36u2009eV (xu2009=u20091). A large Burnstein-Moss shift is observed with La-doping of BaSnO3 films. The shift corresponds approximately to the increase in Fermi level and is consistent with the low conduction band mass.

Key role of lattice symmetry in the metal-insulator transition of NdNiO3 films.

Bulk NdNiO3 exhibits a metal-to-insulator transition (MIT) as the temperature is lowered that is also seen in tensile strained films. In contrast, films that are under a large compressive strain typically remain metallic at all temperatures. To clarify the microscopic origins of this behavior, we use position averaged convergent beam electron diffraction in scanning transmission electron microscopy to characterize strained NdNiO3 films both above and below the MIT temperature. We show that a symmetry lowering structural change takes place in case of the tensile strained film, which undergoes an MIT, but is absent in the compressively strained film. Using space group symmetry arguments, we show that these results support the bond length disproportionation model of the MIT in the rare-earth nickelates. Furthermore, the results provide insights into the non-Fermi liquid phase that is observed in films for which the MIT is absent.

Molecular beam epitaxy of Cd3As2 on a III-V substrate

Epitaxial, strain-engineered Dirac semimetal heterostructures promise tuning of the unique properties of these materials. In this study, we investigate the growth of thin films of the recently discovered Dirac semimetal Cd3As2 by molecular beam epitaxy. We show that epitaxial Cd3As2 layers can be grown at low temperatures (110 °C–220 °C), in situ, on (111) GaSb buffer layers deposited on (111) GaAs substrates. The orientation relationship is described by ( 112 ) Cd 3 As 2 || (111) GaSb and [ 1 1 ¯ 0 ] Cd 3 As 2 || [ 1 ¯ 01 ] GaSb . The films are shown to grow in the low-temperature, vacancy ordered, tetragonal Dirac semimetal phase. They exhibit high room temperature mobilities of up to 19300 cm2/Vs, despite a three-dimensional surface morphology indicative of island growth and the presence of twin variants. The results indicate that epitaxial growth on more closely lattice matched buffer layers, such as InGaSb or InAlSb, which allow for imposing different degrees of epitaxial coherency strains, should be...

Growth of strontium ruthenate films by hybrid molecular beam epitaxy

We report on the growth of epitaxial Sr2RuO4 films using a hybrid molecular beam epitaxy approach in which a volatile precursor containing RuO4 is used to supply ruthenium and oxygen. The use of the precursor overcomes a number of issues encountered in traditional MBE that uses elemental metal sources. Phase-pure, epitaxial thin films of Sr2RuO4 are obtained. At high substrate temperatures, growth proceeds in a layer-by-layer mode with intensity oscillations observed in reflection high-energy electron diffraction. Films are of high structural quality, as documented by x-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The method should be suitable for the growth of other complex oxides containing ruthenium, opening up opportunities to investigate thin films that host rich exotic ground states.

Spontaneous Hall effects in the electron system at the SmTiO3/EuTiO3 interface

Magnetotransport and magnetism of epitaxial SmTiO3/EuTiO3 heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy are investigated. It is shown that the polar discontinuity at the interface introduces ~ 3.9x10^14 cm^-2 carriers into the EuTiO3. The itinerant carriers exhibit two distinct contributions to the spontaneous Hall effect. The anomalous Hall effect appears despite a very small magnetization, indicating a non-collinear spin structure and the second contribution resembles a topological Hall effect. Qualitative differences exist in the temperature dependence of both Hall effects when compared to uniformly doped EuTiO3. In particular, the topological Hall effect contribution appears at higher temperatures and the anomalous Hall effect shows a sign change with temperature. The results suggest that interfaces can be used to tune topological phenomena in itinerant magnetic systems.

Electron nematic fluid in a strained Sr3Ru2O7 film

Sr3Ru2O7 belongs to the family of layered strontium ruthenates and exhibits a range of unusual emergent properties, such as electron nematic behavior and metamagnetism. Here, we show that epitaxial film strain significantly modifies these phenomena. In particular, we observe enhanced magnetic interactions and an electron nematic phase that extends to much higher temperatures and over a larger magnetic field range than in bulk single crystals. Furthermore, the films show an unusual anisotropic non-Fermi liquid behavior that is controlled by the direction of the applied magnetic field. At high magnetic fields the metamagnetic transition to a ferromagnetic phase recovers isotropic Fermi-liquid behavior. The results support the interpretation that these phenomena are linked to the special features of the Fermi surface, which can be tuned by both film strain and an applied magnetic field.

Two-dimensional Dirac fermions in thin films of Cd3As2

Author(s): Galletti, Luca; Schumann, Timo; Shoron, Omor F; Goyal, Manik; Kealhofer, David A; Kim, Honggyu; Stemmer, Susanne

Disorder versus two transport lifetimes in a strongly correlated electron liquid

We report on angle-dependent measurements of the sheet resistances and Hall coefficients of electron liquids in SmTiO3/SrTiO3/SmTiO3 quantum well structures, which were grown by molecular beam epitaxy on (001) DyScO3. We compare their transport properties with those of similar structures grown on LSAT [(La0.3Sr0.7)(Al0.65Ta0.35)O3]. On DyScO3, planar defects normal to the quantum wells lead to a strong in-plane anisotropy in the transport properties. This allows for quantifying the role of defects in transport. In particular, we investigate differences in the longitudinal and Hall scattering rates, which is a non-Fermi liquid phenomenon known as lifetime separation. The residuals in both the longitudinal resistance and Hall angle were found to depend on the relative orientations of the transport direction to the planar defects. The Hall angle exhibited a robust T2 temperature dependence along all directions, whereas no simple power law could describe the temperature dependence of the longitudinal resistances. Remarkably, the degree of the carrier lifetime separation, as manifested in the distinctly different temperature dependences and diverging residuals near a critical quantum well thickness, was completely insensitive to disorder. The results allow for a clear distinction between disorder-induced contributions to the transport and intrinsic, non-Fermi liquid phenomena, which includes the lifetime separation.