Related papers: Ultrathin oxides: bulk-oxide-like model surfaces o…
Hydrocarbon films confined between smooth mica surfaces have long provided an experimental playground for model studies of structure and dynamics of confined liquids. However fundamental questions regarding the phase behavior and shear…
Surface and ferroelectric properties of PbTiO$_3$ thin films are investigated using an interatomic potential approach with parameters computed from first-principles calculations. We show that a model developed for the bulk describes…
We have studied zirconia films on a Rh(111) substrate with thicknesses in the range of 2-10 monolayers (ML) using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and low-energy electron diffraction (LEED). Zirconia was deposited using a UHV-compatible…
A detailed spectroscopic and structural characterization of ultrathin cobalt oxide films grown by O-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on a-Al2O3(0001) single crystals is reported. The experimental results show that the cobalt oxide films…
Epitaxial growth of single crystalline noble metals on dielectric substrates has received tremendous attention recently due to their technological potentials as low loss plasmonic materials. Currently there are two different growth…
Superconducting properties of thin films can be vastly different from those of bulk materials. Seminal work has shown the critical temperature Tc of elemental superconductors decreases with decreasing film thickness when the normal-state…
The size of the band gap and the energy position of the band edges make several oxynitride semiconductors promising candidates for efficient hydrogen and oxygen production under solar light illumination. The intense research efforts…
Thin layers of orthorhombic uranium ({\alpha}-U) have been grown onto buffered sapphire substrates by d.c. magnetron sputtering, resulting in the discovery of new epitaxial matches to Ti(00.1) and Zr(00.1) surfaces. These systems have been…
Layered nanolaminate ternary carbides, nitrides and carbonitrides with general formula Mn+1AXn or MAX (n = 1, 2, or 3, M is an early transition metal, A is mostly group 13 or 14 element, and X is C and/or N) has revolutionized the world of…
The presence of 2D electron gases at surfaces or interfaces in oxide thin films remains a hot topic in condensed matter physics. In particular, BaBiO3 appears as a very interesting system as it was theoretically proposed that its (001)…
In binary mixtures, the lifetimes of surface bubbles can be five orders of magnitude longer than those in pure liquids because of slightly different compositions of the bulk and the surfaces, leading to a thickness-dependent surface tension…
The rich electronic and band structures of monolayered crystals distinguished from their layered bulk counterparts offer versatile physical/chemical properties and applications.1-5 Their fabrications, particularly the top-down…
Ultrathin iron oxide films epitaxially grown on the (111)- and (0001)-oriented metal single crystal supports exhibit unique electronic, catalytic and magnetic properties not observed for the corresponding bulk oxides. These properties…
Tellurium (Te) films with monolayer and few-layer thickness are obtained by molecular beam epitaxy on a graphene/6H-SiC(0001) substrate and investigated by in situ scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM/STS). We reveal that the…
While pyrochlore iridate thin films are theoretically predicted to possess a variety of emergent topological properties, experimental verification of these predictions can be obstructed by the challenge in thin film growth. Here we report…
Finite-thickness effects are analyzed theoretically for the plasma frequency and associated dielectric response function of plasmonic films formed by periodically aligned, infinitely thin, identical metallic cylinders. The plasma frequency…
Structural and magnetic properties of Mn5(SixGe1-x)3 thin films were investigated. Ferromagnetic Mn5Ge3 and anti-ferromagnetic Mn5Si3 thin films have been synthesized and characterized as these compounds exhibit interesting features for the…
We present an efficient and general method to identify promising candidate configurations for thin-film oxides and to determine structural characteristics of (metastable) thin-film structures using ab initio calculations. At the heart of…
Poly- and single-crystal thin films of U-Mo alloys have been grown both on glass and sapphire substrates by UHV magnetron sputtering. X-ray and Electron Backscatter Diffraction data indicate that for single-crystal U1-xMox alloys, the pure…
Oxide electronics relies on the availability of epitaxial oxide thin films. The extreme flexibility of the chemical composition of ABO3 perovskites and the broad spectrum of properties they cover, inspire the creativity of scientists and…