Search

We present, in this paper, a non-conservative approach for building reliable magnetic field sensors based on the resistive and magnetoresistive responses of a varistor diode. These sensors can be built on a ceramic platform of a material which is a solid solution of the ilmenite–hematite consisting of 55 moles% ilmenite, FeTiO3, and 45 mole% of hematite, Fe2O3. This material is abbreviated as IHC 45. These sensors would be suitable for many applications in which a semiconductor Hall effect sensor is currently used. In addition, our ceramic sensors would be suitable for applications in high temperature, energy exploration and well logging, and radiation-dominant environments. The resistive mode sensor is expected to operate reliably and efficiently over the range of 0 $\text{m}\Omega $ /Oe at 0.5 mA which drops to a value of 24.2 $\text{m}\Omega $ /Oe at 2 mA. In the magnetoresistive mode, the sensor has the sensitivity of $142.6~\Omega $ /ln(Oe) and it is 15.6 $\text{m}\Omega $ /Oe at 2 mA. The magnetoresistive mode device also exhibits at room temperature a relatively large magnetoresistive ratio (MR%) of 57% at the modest field of just 4000 Oe making it potentially an attractive candidate for applications in spintronics and magneto-electronics.

The variation of the chemical composition and properties of PZT films as a function of oxygen pressure and laser fluence during pulsed laser deposition is used to tune the electrical properties of the PZT thin films. It is found that the deposition using a 248 nm laser fluence of 1.7 J/cm 2 and an oxygen pressure of 400 mtorr results the PZT films very similar to that of target material. Changing the laser fluences or oxygen pressure, affects the lead content of the deposited film. In the range of oxygen pressure 50–200 mtorr, the Zr/Zr+Ti and Ti/Zr+Ti ratio varies with oxygen pressure while the Pb/Zr+Ti ratio is almost uniform. Using oxygen pressure as a control parameter to tune the chemical compound and electrical properties of the deposited PZT films, the remnant polarization of the PZT films is tuned in the range of 6.6–42.2 µC/cm 2 , the dielectric constant is controlled in the range of 29–130, and the piezoelectric constant d 33 is controlled in the range of 3.82–4.96 pm/V for a 40 nm thick PZT film.

We report on the use of SrTiO3 films on GaAs(001) substrates grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) as intermediate buffer layers for the heteroepitaxial growth of ferromagnetic La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 (LSMO) and room temperature multiferroic (ferroelectric/antiferromagnetic) BiFeO3 (BFO) thin films using the pulsed laser deposition technique. The exchange bias coupling effect in the BFO/LSMO heterostructure has been investigated. The magnetization measurements with field cooling exhibit a surprising increment in the magnetic moment with enhanced magnetic hysteresis squareness. This we believe is the consequence of exchange interactions between the antiferromagnetic BFO and the ferromagnetic LSMO at the interface. The integration of BFO materials with LSMO on GaAs substrates facilitated the demonstration of resistive switching based non-volatile memory (NVM) devices which can be faster with lower energy consumption compared to present commercial technologies. Ferroelectric switching observations using piezoresponse force microscopy show polarization switching demonstrating its potential for read–write operation in NVM devices. The ferroelectric and electrical characterization exhibits strong resistive switching with low set/reset voltages. Furthermore, we demonstrate a prototypical epitaxial field effect transistor based on multiferroic BFO as the gate dielectric and ferromagnetic LSMO as the conducting channel. The device exhibits a modulation in channel conductance with a high ON/OFF ratio. This work also demonstrates the first step towards the development of magneto-electronic devices integrated with a compound semiconductor.

This paper describes the properties and potential applications of a hybrid device consisting of a varistor diode and its embedded transistor whose origin lies in a magnetically tuned varistor diode. It is shown how the output current (or voltage) of a varistor based on a magnetic oxide semiconductor can be manipulated by the application of a magnetic field to produce an embedded device with characteristics similar to that of a conventional transistor. Following the tradition of microelectronics, we name it the HFET transistor where H stands for a magnetic field. Two types of embedded HFET devices are described here; one with the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics and the other with voltage-current (V-I) characteristics. Both I-V and V-I devices exhibit high degree of nonlinearly but only in the V-I mode of the HFET device well-developed saturation regions of output signals are found. The room temperature HFET in its V-I mode appears to be also a good electronic switch with well-defined “off” and “on” states. Saturated regions of output signals and electronic switching are the signature property of these HFET transistors along with the capacity of providing a good level of signal amplification. When cooled to 100 K the HFET V-I device appears to lose partially the electronic switching property but gain in signal amplifying potential. The HFET device in I-V mode does not display the defining properties of electronic switching but can amplify signals by almost 400%.

The paper describes the properties and potential applications of a novel hybrid varistor device originating from biased voltage induced modified nonlinear current-voltage (I-V) characteristics. Single crystal of an oxide semiconductor in the family of iron-titanates with the chemical formula of Fe2TiO5 (pseudobrookite) has been used as substrate for the varistor. The modifications of the varistor characteristics are achieved by superimposition of a bias voltage in the current path of the varistor. These altered I-V characteristics, when analyzed, reveal the existence of embedded transistors coexisting with the varistor. These transistors exhibit mutual conductance, signal amplification and electronic switching which are the defining signatures of a typical transistor. The tuned varistors also acquire the properties of signal amplification and mutual conductance which expand the range of applications for a varistor beyond its traditional use as circuit protector. Both tuned varistors and the embedded transistors have attributes which make them suitable for many applications in electronics including at high temperatures and for radiation dominated environments such as space.

In this paper, we explore the possibility of finding practical applications when the nonlinear current–voltage (I–V) characteristics of a varistor are modified by the application of external magnetic fields. With this goal in mind, varistors based on a pseudobrookite oxide semiconductor have been studied. Pseudobrookite (PsB) is a wide bandgap n-type semiconductor with the bandgap of 2.77 eV. It is also weakly ferromagnetic. The “voltage-dependent resistor” (VDR) mode of the magnetically-tuned pseudobrookite varistors offers an opportunity to advance magnetic sensor technology. The resistive and magnetoresistive parameters of PsB VDRs exhibit good responses to applied magnetic fields and they can therefore be the basis for the fabrication of simple yet practical magnetic sensors. These sensors can cover the range of magnetic fields between 0 and 4500 Oe with good accuracy, and could possibly be considered as a substitute for Hall Effect-based sensors for many applications. Also, due to their simple structure, they would be rugged and not susceptible to abuses. They may also be suitable for applications in hazardous environments such as high temperatures and atmospheres having the presence of radiation, such as neutrons, protons, etc. It is also possible that these novel sensors could be suitable for geological applications such as in well logging in search of energy sources.

The role of ferroelectric LiNbO3 (LNB) in altering the frequency dependence of the capacitance of CaCu3Ti4O12 (CCTO) thin films has been investigated. A cost effective spin coating deposition process was used to integrate the oxide heterostructures onto silicon substrates. This study showed that the frequency stability of the CCTO/LNB structure was much improved when the crystallization conditions and physical dimension of each layer were optimized. To integrate this structure with current silicon technology, heterostructures of CCTO and LNB thin films were fabricated on HF terminated Si using chemical solution deposition. It was found that the order of deposition of the two layers was important for the structural quality of the heterostructures with the CCTO layer followed by the LNB layer being the preferred structure. In addition to improvement of the capacitance variation with frequency, the heterostructures also provide a path to tuning the frequency of operation.

The paper deals with the integration of well-known bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) multiferroic oxide with GaAs semiconductor. First 5 nm ultrathin SrTiO3 films were grown on GaAs (001) substrates as an intermediate buffer layer by molecular beam epitaxy. Then, room temperature multiferroic BiFeO3 (BFO) thin films were deposited by pulsed laser deposition. X-ray diffraction measurement showed high quality epitaxial BFO films with pure (00l) orientation. The dielectric loss has been effectively suppressed and the saturated polarization–voltage (P–V) hysteresis loops were obtained. The ferroelectric domains switching was affirmed by piezo-response force microscopic studies. A large remnant polarization P r (~80 μC cm−2) combined with the enhanced magnetization (72 emu cm–3) at 300 K was achieved for the optimal growth conditions. The optical properties were measured using the ellipsometry technique for the BFO thin films. The thickness and optical constants of the BFO films were obtained by taking into consideration the dielectric parameters as described by the Tauc-Lorentz model. Finally, direct bandgap was estimated at 2.70 eV which is highly comparable to BFO films grown on different substrates.