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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.

Correction for ‘Integration of BiFeO3/La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 heterostructures with III–V semiconductors for low-power non-volatile memory and multiferroic field effect transistors’ by Md. Shafiqur Rahman et al., J. Mater. Chem. C, 2016, 4, 10386–10394.

The growth of high quality epitaxial beta-gallium oxide (β-Ga2O3) using a compound source by molecular beam epitaxy has been demonstrated on c-plane sapphire (Al2O3) substrates. The compound source provides oxidized gallium molecules in addition to oxygen when heated from an iridium crucible in a high temperature effusion cell enabling a lower heat of formation for the growth of Ga2O3, resulting in a more efficient growth process. This source also enabled the growth of crystalline β-Ga2O3 without the need for additional oxygen. The influence of the substrate temperatures on the crystal structure and quality, chemical bonding, surface morphology, and optical properties has been systematically evaluated by x-ray diffraction, scanning transmission electron microscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, spectroscopic ellipsometry, and UV-vis spectroscopy. Under optimized growth conditions, all films exhibited pure 2¯01 oriented β-Ga2O3 thin films with six-fold rotational symmetry when grown on a sapphire substrate. The thin films demonstrated significant absorption in the deep-ultraviolet (UV) region with an optical bandgap around 5.0 eV and a refractive index of 1.9. A deep-UV photodetector fabricated on the high quality β-Ga2O3 thin film exhibits high resistance and small dark current (4.25 nA) with expected photoresponse for 254 nm UV light irradiation suggesting that the material grown using the compound source is a potential candidate for deep-ultraviolet photodetectors.

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.

Epitaxial beta-gallium oxide (β-Ga2O3) has been deposited on c-plane sapphire by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy technique using two methods. One method relied on a compound Ga2O3 source with oxygen plasma while the second used elemental Ga source with oxygen plasma. A side-by-side comparison of the growth parameters between these two methods has been demonstrated. With various substrate temperatures, pure phase (2¯01) oriented β-Ga2O3 thin films were obtained using both sources. Reflection high energy electron diffraction patterns displayed a threefold reconstruction during the growth. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis showed a shift in the binding energy of the Ga 2p peaks consistent with a Ga being in a +3 oxidation state. For transparent oxide like β-Ga2O3, it is important to determine the index of refraction (n) and its functional dependence on the wavelength. The Cauchy dispersion relation was employed to evaluate the refractive index, film thickness, roughness values, and extinction ...