Schematic illustration of a patterning of the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) at the interfaces between two oxide insulators, LaAlO3 (LAO) and SrTiO3 (STO)1.
The emergence of oxide electronics: Over the past 40 years, electronics technology based on semiconductor devices such as transistors (the basic building block of computers and smartphones) has sparked discovery of new physics as well as the creation of several major new industries. Recent progress in epitaxial growth of high-quality oxide thin films enables the development of new and improved electronic cornerstones based on functional oxides. However, oxide electronics is still in the early stages with many major challenges remain unresolved.
Our target: In this project, you will contribute to developed a new patterning strategy based on selective wet chemical etching of oxide hard masks defined by electron-beam or conventional lithography. This strategy will open new avenues towards oxide nanoelectronics and/or the discovery of new 2D physics.
The tasks of this Master project:
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To determine the lower limit of the size for oxide microelectronic devices;
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To develop various quantum devices in collaboration with the PhD students in our very active oxide thin film and heterostructures group at DTU Energy2,3.
Our research activities include: (1) Oxide thin film growth and charaterization on unit cell (0.4 nm) scale; (2) Device design and patterning by electron beam lithography; (3) Device uniforminity characterized by transport measurements down to 300 mK in 16 Tesla cryostat.
If you find this interesting and would like to know more, please contact Senior researcher Yunzhong Chen (yunc@dtu.dk) or Prof. Nini Pryds (nipr@dtu.dk).
Illustration of a Hall-bar LAO/STO heterostructure (a). (b) Optical microscopy image and a scanned area by atomic force microscopy (c).
References:
[1] F. Trier et al.Appl. Phys. Lett. 107, 191604 (2015)
[2]Y.Z. Chen et al. Nature Materi 14, 801-806 (2015)
[3] F. Trier et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 096804 (2016)