The Atomic Structure of Oxide/Oxide Interface

The physical and chemical properties of thin or ultrathin oxide film deposited on another oxide bulk or thin film usually differ strongly from the bulk. The properties of the heterostructures ultimately rely on the structure and the chemistry of the oxide/oxide interface. Data in the literature indicated that atomically abrupt interfaces between oxides show abnormal electronic and magnetic properties. This article reviews the interfacial structures of oxide/oxide interfaces in an atomic scale. The origins of the unique physical and chemical properties at the oxide/oxide interfaces are also discussed.     

The influence of interfacial barrier engineering on the resistance switching of In₂O₃:SnO₂/TiO₂/In₂O₃:SnO₂ device

The I–V characteristics of In2O3:SnO2/TiO2/In2O3:SnO2 junctions with different interfacial barriers are inves- tigated by comparing experiments. A two-step resistance switching process is found for samples with two interfacial barriers produced by specific thermal treatment on the interfaces. The nonsynchronous occurrence of conducting filament formation through the oxide bulk and the reduction in the interfacial barrier due to the migration of oxygen vacancies under the electric field is supposed to explain the two-step resistive switching process. The unique switching properties of the device, based on interfacial barrier engineering, could be exploited for novel applications in nonvolatile memory devices.     

Impact of particle size on conductivity and storage capacity as derived from the core–space charge model

The impact of interfaces on variety of materials properties scales with the density of interfaces within a material. This statement holds true independent of the specific interfacial mechanism, as long as the density of interfaces is rather low. If the spacing between interfaces is being further reduced, interesting non-trivial effects are expected and have also been observed. In this paper, the ionic conductivity in ionic conductors and the storage capacity (non-stoichiometry) of mixed conductors as a function of size are considered. The discussion is based on the core–space charge model in which we assume that only the core of an interface exhibits its own defect energetics, while the energetics of the space charge layers remain unaltered (compared to the bulk). It is shown that in the case of Schottky profiles anomalous conductivity effects are predicted. As regards the non-stoichiometry effects, it is demonstrated that at sizes small compared to the Debye length the difference between a composite consisting of an ionic and an electronic conductor and a «true» mixed conductor becomes blurred. The latter effect has recently been detected in the field of Li-batteries and is here commented on.     

The influence of interfacial barrier engineering on the resistance switching of In2O3：SnO2/TiO2/In2O3：SnO2 device

The I-V characteristics of In2O3：SnO2/TiO2/In2O3：SnO2 junctions with different interracial barriers are inves- tigated by comparing experiments. A two-step resistance switching process is found for samples with two interfacial barriers produced by specific thermal treatment on the interfaces. The nonsynchronous occurrence of conducting filament formation through the oxide bulk and the reduction in the interracial barrier due to the migration of oxygen vacancies under the electric field is supposed to explain the two-step resistive switching process. The unique switching properties of the device, based on interracial barrier engineering, could be exploited for novel applications in nonvolatile memory devices.     

A review of the interfacial properties of 2-D materials for energy storage and sensor applications

The discovery of two-dimensional (2D) materials like graphene inspired the researchers and scientists to develop new 2D materials. The 2D materials create extensive attention due to their novel electronic properties, large surface area, charging capacity, optical, biocompatible, unique physical and chemical properties. Many of these properties are an excellent requirement for an application of electrode for batteries and super-capacitors. The applications of 2D materials are not just confined to Opto and nano-electronics but a strong potential in gas, and biosensing technologies. The 2D materials are stackable through weak Van der Waals, therefore, used in alkali metal ion batteries as electrodes, this causes zero volume and area changes during the intercalation and deintercalation of alkali metal. Also, a large surface of 2D materials provides large storage capacity as compared to the bulk materials. The heterostructures based on 2D materials pay significant attention towards the optoelectronics, nanoelectronics and in alkali metal ion battery applications also. In this paper, we review the importance of heterostructure, stacking technique in interfacial synthesis, address their structural morphologies by the interface of 2D materials and its application for energy storage, gas, and biosensing applications. We will come up with an overview of interfacial characters and highlights about the advantages and individuality of 2D materials.     

Perspectives of cross-sectional scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy for complex oxide physics

Complex oxide heterostructure interfaces have shown novel physical phenomena which do not exist in bulk materials. These heterostructures can be used in the potential applications in the next generation devices and served as the playgrounds for the fundamental physics research. The direct measurements of the interfaces with excellent spatial resolution and physical property information is rather difficult to achieve with the existing tools. Recently developed cross-sectional scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (XSTM/S) for complex oxide interfaces have proven to be capable of providing local electronic density of states (LDOS) information at the interface with spatial resolution down to nanometer scale. In this perspective, we will briefly introduce the basic idea and some recent achievements in using XSTM/S to study complex oxide interfaces. We will also discuss the future of this technique and the field of the interfacial physics.     

Small,but Perfectly Formed: The Microstructure of Nanocrystalline Oxides

There is considerable interest in nanocrystalline materials due to their unusual properties that offer the possibility of exciting technological applications. This paper concentrates on the microstructure of nanocrystalline binary oxides as revealed by X-ray absorption studies. It will be shown that these experiments yield a picture of the materials in which, even when the particles are only a few nanometres in size, the crystallites are highly ordered and the interfaces are similar to grain boundaries in normal bulk solids. This is in conflict with earlier ideas where it was often assumed the surfaces of nanocrystals and the interfaces between them were very disordered.     

Numerical simulation of micro-scratch tests for coating/substrate composites

In this paper the micro-scratch test is simulated by ANSYS finite element code for thin hard coating on substrate composite material system. Coulomb friction between indenter and material surface is considered. The material elastic-plastic properties are taken into account. Contact elements are used to simulate the frictional contact between indenter and material surfaces, as well as the frictional contact after the detachment of coating/substrate interfaces has taken place. In the case of coating/substrate interfaces being perfectly bonded, the distributions of interfacial normal stress and shear stress are obtained for the material system subjected to normal and tangential loading. In the case of considering the detachment of interfaces, the length of interfacial detachment and the redistribution of stresses because of interfacial detachments are obtained. The influences of different frictional coefficients and different indenter moving distances on the distributions of stresses and displacements are studied. In the simulation, the interfacial adhesion shear strength is considered as a main adhesion parameter of coating/substrate interfaces. The critical normal loading from scratch tests are directly related to interfacial adhesion shear strengths. Using the critical normal loading known from experiments, the interfacial adhesion shear strength is obtained from the calculation. When the interfacial adhesion shear strength is known, the critical normal loading is obtained for different coating thicknesses. The numerical results are compared with the experimental values for composite materials of thin TiN coating on stainless steel substrate.     

Role of surface and interface science in chemical vapor deposition diamond technology

Diamond is well known as the hardest material in nature. It also has other unique bulk physical and mechanical properties, such as very high thermal conductivity and broad optical transparency, which enable a number of new applications now that large areas of diamond can be fabricated by the new diamond plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technologies. However, some of the most interesting properties of diamond, including the ability to be grown over large areas by CVD processes, result not from its bulk properties but from its special and unique surface chemistry. The surface chemistry derived properties are as remarkable as the bulk properties, and in the end may enable the development of new applications, technologies, and industries which are at least as important as those based on the bulk properties. Some of these surface properties are extreme chemical inertness, low surface energy, low friction coefficients, negative electron affinity, biological inertness, and high over-voltage electrode behavior. The surface science and some of the interesting ongoing research in these areas are explored and illustrated, and unresolved questions are highlighted.     

The electronic structure of the interface between thin conjugated oligomer films and inorganic substrates with different work function

In this work, a comparison of the interfacial electronic properties between a semiconducting oligomer and a variety of substrates with different properties—metal, semiconductor and oxide layers—is reported. The interface formation was studied by X-ray and Ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopies (XPS, UPS). High purity oligomer films with thickness up to 10 nm were prepared by stepwise evaporation on the clean substrates under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions. Analysis of the oligomer and substrate related XPS spectra clarified the interfacial chemistry and band bending in the semiconducting materials. The valence band structure and the interfacial dipoles were determined by UPS. The barriers for hole injection were measured at the interfaces of the organic film with all substrates. The interfacial energy band diagrams were deduced in all cases from the combination of XPS and UPS results. Emphasis was given on the influence of the substrate work function (eΦ) on the electronic properties of these interfaces.     

纳米金属粒子光吸收理论研究进展

纳米金属粒子具有不同于块体材料的独特的光学性质,因而它在光化学、纳米含能材料及药物等许多领域有着广泛且重要的应用.本文系统的总结了分散在介质中的纳米金属粒子的光吸收理论公式及其适用范围,介绍了各种因素如尺寸、形状以及尺寸和形状分布对光吸收性质影响的计算方法.指出了当前纳米金属粒子光吸收性质方面的研究热点.     

The net charge at interfaces between insulators

The issue of the net charge at insulating oxide interfaces is briefly reviewed with the ambition of dispelling myths of such charges being affected by covalency and related charge density effects. For electrostatic analysis purposes, the net charge at such interfaces is defined by the counting of discrete electrons and core ion charges, and by the definition of the reference polarization of the separate, unperturbed bulk materials. The arguments are illustrated for the case of a thin film of LaAlO(3) over SrTiO(3) in the absence of free carriers, for which the net charge is exactly 0.5e per interface formula unit, if the polarization response in both materials is referred to zero bulk values. Further consequences of the argument are extracted for structural and chemical alterations of such interfaces, in which internal rearrangements are distinguished from extrinsic alterations (changes of stoichiometry, redox processes), only the latter affecting the interfacial net charge. The arguments are reviewed alongside the proposal of Stengel and Vanderbilt (2009 Phys. Rev. B 80 241103) of using formal polarization values instead of net interfacial charges, based on the interface theorem of Vanderbilt and King-Smith (1993 Phys. Rev. B 48 4442-55). Implications for non-centrosymmetric materials are discussed, as well as for interfaces for which the charge mismatch is an integer number of polarization quanta.     

A fixture for interfacial dilatational rheometry using a rotational rheometer

In characterizing complex fluid-fluid interfaces, interfacial rheometry has become an important tool to indirectly probe the interfacial microstructure and molecular interactions. It can also be useful to obtain the constitutive properties of an interface for calculating the interfacial flows of complex fluid-fluid interfaces. A number of devices for measuring interfacial shear rheology have been designed and have been thoroughly validated. However, although a range of devices for measuring interfacial dilatational rheology exist, they do not always allow for a proper separation of the effects of dynamic surface tension, curvature elasticity, Marangoni stresses, bulk flow effects and the desired dilatational rheological material functions. In the present work it is investigated if a fixture for a standard rotational rheometer can be designed which probes the dilatational viscoelastic properties of a planar complex fluid-fluid interface. A modification of the double wall ring geometry for shear rheometry is proposed, which creates a mixed but analyzable flow field. The use of a mixed flow field inherently limits the sensitivity for the dilatational properties, but some advantages over existing techniques are presented, in particular for insoluble monolayers. More importantly, the analysis illustrate some generic aspects on the use of mixed interfacial flow fields for measuring the surface rheological properties.     

Noncapillary-wave structure at the water-alkane interface

Synchrotron x-ray reflectivity is used to study the interface between bulk water and bulk n-alkanes with carbon numbers 6 through 10, 12, 16, and 22. For all interfaces, except the water-hexane interface, the interfacial width disagrees with the prediction from capillary-wave theory. The variation of interfacial width with carbon number can be described by combining the capillary-wave prediction for the width with a contribution from intrinsic structure. This intrinsic structure is determined by the gyration radius for the shorter alkanes and by the bulk correlation length for the longer alkanes.     

Reactive blending for improving interfacial behavior

Multicomponent polymer blends, for improving both process and product related properties, often require the optimization of interfaces/ interphases. This is particularly true in the case of blends based on recycled polymers. Besides a review of existing approaches, two examples are presented in more detail. The former is related to the toughening of recycled PET (poly(ethylene terephthalate)) by reactive ethylene-ethyl acrylate^_glycidyl methacrylate elastomers. The effect of catalysts of the reaction between elastomer epoxide functions and PET carboxyl and hydroxyl end-groups and of impurities introduced during recycling has been assessed. Variations of rheological behavior, morphology of chips and molded parts, and mechanical properties have been examined and related to interfacial chemistry. The formulation with glass fibers has also been experimented with, gaining interesting information on the compromise between resilience and rigidity. The second example is related to the so called 'light fraction' of recycled polymers, concerning mainly polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP). Mixing has been performed in various relative amounts, as such and in the presence of initiators inducing both bulk and interfacial radical reactions. Effects on rheology, morphology and mechanical properties have been assessed, observing that the initiation of reactions is an important tool for improving the interfacial behavior.     

Thermodynamics and structural aspects of grain boundary segregation

Physical and chemical properties of solid materials are strongly. influenced by the chemical composition of internal interfaces, One of the crucial parameters affecting interfacial chemistry is the atomic structure of the interface. Due to its importance. a considerable amount of work was done to elucidate the relationship between structure and chemical composition of interfaces. This article reviews the present understanding of an important and fundamental part of this relationship, namely, the structural aspects of grain boundary segregation. After a brief outline of grain boundary structure and geometry. thermodynamic approaches to describe grain boundary segregation are summarized and their application to materials is discussed. covering particular sites at a single grain boundary as well as the role of interfaces in polycrystals. Both the experimental evidence of grain boundary segregation anisotropy and the theoretical results of computer simulations of grain boundary segregation are summarized. Useful methods of predicting grain boundary segregation are presented. Finally, segregation behavior of solutes at grain boundaries is compared with that at free surfaces, and examples of chemical composition of intexphase boundaries are given.     

Thermomagnetic history effects across the first order magneto-structural transition in the giant magnetocaloric Fe-Rh alloy

We investigate the electronic structure of Sr₂FeMoO₆/SrTiO₃ (SFMO/STO) multilayers using the ab initio Full Potential Linearized Augmented Plane Wave method in order to study their properties within the GGA and GGA+U methods. We examin more especially the role of the interface on the magnetic and transport properties of these multilayers taking into account a possible Fe deficiency at the interface and we show that bulk behaviour is rapidly recovered due to the strong localization of the interfacial perturbation. For perfect interfaces, the whole structure is found half-metallic within the GGA+U method; the situation being ambiguous within the GGA method where SFMO is at the limit of being half-metallic depending on the structural deformation induced by the STO layer. This leads us to the conclusion that such a system could be used as injection electrode and tunnel barrier in magnetic tunnel junctions with a fully spin polarized injected current. For Fe deficient interfaces, we show that the interfacial densities of states are nearly unpolarized showing that this kind of imperfection has potentially a strong impact on the properties of the multilayers.     

Magnetism of nanocrystalline materials

Nanocrystalline solids are materials consisting of small crystallites (typically 1–10 nanometers). These materials have a high proportion of atoms located in the interfacial regions between the crystallites. Therefore their magnetic properties are strongly determined by the interfaces. In this work we present Mössbauer studies carried out on various nanocrystalline materials. Beneath the normal crystalline component the Mössbauer spectra clearly indicate the existence of an component with modified magnetic properties which corresponds to the interfaces in this type of material. For nanocrystalline α-Fe an enhancement of the hyperfine field was observed in the interfacial component at low temperatures, whereas a decrease was found for nanocrystalline Ni.     

Properties of the electrode material LixCoO2

This paper overviews the present state of understanding on properties of the electrode material LiCoO₂ as well as the impact of these properties on the electrode performance in lithium batteries. The properties that are important for applications, such as structure, non-stoichiometry, defect chemistry and related electrical properties are considered.