Related papers: Formation of a stable surface oxide in MnBi$_2$Te$…
If metal surfaces are exposed to sufficiently oxygen-rich environments, oxides start to form. Important steps in this process are the dissociative adsorption of oxygen at the surface, the incorporation of O atoms into the surface, the…
The amount of oxygen incorporated into MgB2 thin films upon exposure to atmospheric gasses is found to depend strongly on the material's stoichiometry. Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy was used to monitor changes in oxygen…
Understanding the effects of interfacial modification to the functional properties of magnetic topological insulator thin films is crucial for developing novel technological applications from spintronics to quantum computing. Here, we…
We analyze the influence of the surface passivation produced by oxides on the superconducting properties of $\gamma$-Mo$_2$N ultra-thin films. The superconducting critical temperature of thin films grown directly on Si (100) with those…
The thermal stability of MgB2 has been studied experimentally to determine the role of thermodynamic and kinetic barriers in the decomposition process. The MgB2 decomposition rate approaches one monolayer per second at 650 C and has an…
Post deposition variation in film resistance of Sb2Te3 films deposited on glass substrates at room temperature and an elevated temperature (110oC) are investigated. The resistance of films grown at room temperature shows a non-linear…
The oxidation of the Ni(111) surface is studied experimentally with low energy electron microscopy and theoretically by calculating the electron reflectivity for realistic models of the NiO/Ni(111) surface with an ab-initio scattering…
The structure of thin terminated Bi(1 1 1) films of approximately 1 nm thickness is investigated from first principles. Our density functional theory calculations show that covalent bonds to the surface can change the orientation of the…
We report on the chemical stability of La2/3Ca1/3MnO3 thin films. X-ray absorption spectroscopy at the Mn L-edge and O K-edge makes evident deviations from the nominally expected (2/3-1/3) Mn3+/Mn4+ ratio after the growth of thin films on…
A comprehensive picture of the aging and oxidation of the (0001) surface of Bi2Se3 is critical to understanding the physical origin of changes in its topologically protected surface states. We find that surface aging in ambient conditions…
Degradation of co-evaporated CH3NH3PbI3 thin films was investigated with x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and x-ray diffraction (XRD) as the films were subjected to exposure of oxygen, dry air, ambient, or H2O. The co-evaporated thin…
Na3Bi has attracted significant interest in both bulk form as a three-dimensional topological Dirac semimetal and in ultra-thin form as a wide-bandgap two-dimensional topological insulator. Its extreme air sensitivity has limited…
The ability to control porosity in oxide thin films is one of the key factors that determine their properties. Despite the abundance of dry processes for the synthesis of oxide porous layers, the high porosity range is typically achieved by…
We report on in-situ resistivity measurements on GaMnAs during post-growth annealing in different atmospheres. A drop in the resistivity is observed when the GaMnAs is exposed to oxygen, which indicates that the passivation of Mn…
Although over the past number of years there have been many advances in the materials aspects of topological insulators (TI), one of the ongoing challenges with these materials is the protection of them against aging. In particular, the…
The effect of water exposure on MgB2 is studied by submerging an 800 nm thick MgB2 film into deionized water at room temperature for 1 hour, 4 hours, 10 hours, and 15 hours, and by analyzing the resulting material using scanning electron…
Vanadium dioxide is a complex oxide material, which shows large resistivity and optical reflectance change while transitioning from the insulator to metal phase at ~68 {\deg}C. In this work, we use a modified atmospheric thermal oxidation…
The possible formation of oxides or thin oxide films (surface oxides) on late transition metal surfaces is recently being recognized as an essential ingredient when aiming to understand catalytic oxidation reactions under technologically…
The fabrication, characterisation, and superconductivity of MgB2 thick films grown on stainless steel substrate were studied. XRD, SEM, and magnetic measurements were carried out. It was found that the MgB2 thick films can be fast formed by…
Growing uniform oxides with various thickness on TMDs is one of the biggest challenges to integrate TMDs into complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) logic circuits. Here, we report a layer-by-layer oxidation of atomically thin MoTe2…