Final Report Summary - NANOXIDE (Novel Nanoscale Devices based on functional Oxide Interfaces) Interfaces and surfaces play an important role in the application of advanced materials, as well as for fundamental research in solid state physics. The comprehension and the exploitation of physical properties of conventional semiconductors near interfaces are at the basis of present electronics. In particular, the quality step in this field occurred thanks to the engineering of physical phenomena at interfaces between semiconductors with different doping level or band structure. The atomic scale control of interface structure and properties led to the realisation of several milestone devices starting form p-n junctions to Field-effect transistor (FET) and more recently to quantum devices. These results triggered intensive researches in the field of material preparation and characterisation as well as of lithographic techniques allowing the well-known high-level integration of such devices of the present days. Silicon technology is approaching now its physical limit for scale reduction, due to two main aspects: first the limited dielectric properties of the amorphous SiO2 barrier that also prevents the possibility of vertically stacking multiple devices and the 'large' characteristic lengths (diffusion length, screening length) that limit the size to tens of nanometres. On the other hand, a large scientific and technological interest aroused recently on oxide materials, and especially on transition metal oxides, for their rich spectrum of physical properties, and for the extreme sensitivity to external parameters such as electric and magnetic fields, internal or external pressure and so on. The NANOXIDE project aimed to foster the understanding of structural, chemical and physical properties of selected interfaces between oxide materials and, by controlling and modifying such properties, to engineer new materials and heterostructures for future applications in nano-electronics or photonics. The final goal of the project was the realisation of new nano-scale devices based on oxides showing new functionalities or improved performances with respect to conventional electronic devices. Important outcomes of the project was the progress made in understanding complex physical properties of oxide compounds, engineering of oxide based interfaces with new functional properties for applications in electronics and optoelectronics and the development of novel advanced techniques for materials deposition, characterisation and nano-patterning. Documenti correlati Final Report - NANOXIDE (Novel Nanoscale Devices based on functional Oxide Interfaces)
