| With this proposal I like to study the relation between growth, chemical bonding, and electronic structure of interfaces in epitaxial heterostructures of complex oxides. In devices based on such heterostructures, the functionality is heavily influenced by the properties of the interfaces. For many of these devices, such as magnetic and superconducting tunnel junctions, one could say: ?the interfaces are the device?. Although many devices based on interface properties have been made and studied, intensive study of the relation between growth and interface properties has not been performed, yet. Nevertheless, understanding of the growth/chemical bonding/electronic structure relation is a prerequisite to control and modify interface properties in heterostructures. This understanding will give an important impulse to the application of such heteroepitaxial oxide devices in (nano)electronic applications. I will concentrate on interfaces realized by stacking thin films of perovskite oxides. The isostructural nature of this class of materials allows creating epitaxial interfaces between different perovskites, which are in principle ideal in terms of structural quality; thereby, the physical properties of such interfaces are only determined by the coupling between the properties of the single components at nanoscale level. Control of the structure and properties of the interfaces at the nanoscale is, therefore, essential and will the key issue in the project. In summary, in the proposed work I will focus on: - Understanding the nature of chemical bonding at oxide interfaces. - Understanding of physical properties of complex oxide (ferroelectric and ferromagnetic) compounds and interfaces. - Engineering of oxide based interfaces with new physical properties for applications in electronics. - Further development of novel advanced techniques for materials deposition and characterization. I expect important progress in the mentioned topics and with this knowledge, novel devices based on complex oxides will become feasible by using the unique properties of their interfaces. |
