Abstract

Controlling oxygen content in perovskite oxides with ABO3 structure is one of most critical steps for tuning their functionality. Notably, there have been tremendous efforts to understand the effect of changes in oxygen content on the properties of perovskite thin films that are not composed of cations with multiple valance states. Here, we study the effect of oxygen vacancies on structural and electrical properties in epitaxial thin films of SrFeO3−δ (SFO), where SFO is a compound with multiple valance states at the B site. Various annealing treatments are used to produce different oxygen contents in the films, which has resulted in significant structural changes in the fully strained SFO films. The out-of-plane lattice parameter and tetragonality increase with decreasing oxygen concentration, indicating the crystal structure is closely related to the oxygen content. Importantly, variation of the oxygen content in the films significantly affects the dielectric properties, leakage conduction mechanisms, and the resistive hysteresis of the materials. These results establish the relationship between oxygen content and structural and functional properties for a range of multivalent transition metal oxides.

Highlights

  • The functionality for a range of complex metal oxides is controlled by the interplay between lattice, spin, charge, and orbital degrees of freedom

  • Altering the valence state of cations without cation non-stoichiometry usually occurs in compounds with multiple valance states, where oxygen vacancies are often charge-compensated by the change of cation valence state[24]

  • The effect of oxygen vacancies on structural and electrical properties in epitaxial thin films of SrFeO3−δ (SFO) is studied, where SFO is a compound with multiple valance states at the B site

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Summary

Introduction

The functionality for a range of complex metal oxides is controlled by the interplay between lattice, spin, charge, and orbital degrees of freedom. There have been tremendous efforts to understand the effect of changes in oxygen content on the properties of perovskite thin films that are not composed of cations with multiple valance states. While oxygen vacancies have been recently been reported to act as desired defects[9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17], the oxygen content effect in perovskite compounds with multiple valance states at the B site can provide a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanics of the functional properties observed in these materials[18]. Studying the effect of oxygen vacancies in compounds with multiple valance states such as SFO provides an avenue to better understand the relationship between lattice, charge and structure. We propose that the metastable oxygen deficient states of SFO thin films offer an opportunity to accomplish highly tunable electronic properties applicable to a wide range of technological applications that leverage the variability in structural, magnetic and electrical properties of SFO

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