Coupling Multifunctional Oxides to Semiconductors

将多功能氧化物与半导体偶联

• 批准号: 1309868
• 负责人: Charles Ahn
• 金额: $ 39万
• 依托单位: Yale University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-08-15 至 2018-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1309868&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Coupling; Multifunctional; Oxides; Semiconductors

Technical Description: A fundamental approach in materials science involves the fabrication of new materials that couple properties in heterogeneous structures. Transistors for logic devices use the transport of charge in a semiconductor to process information. There are now alternate proposals to use the electron spin to process information, both to reduce power consumption of and add functionality (such as memory) to the transistor. Currently silicon and germanium are widely used as a channel material because they transport charge well, and these semiconductors also transport spin very efficiently. This project focuses on coupling spin from a ferromagnetic oxide to germanium through an insulating oxide barrier. This novel materials system is being developed using atomic layer synthesis by molecular beam epitaxy to manipulate and control spin tunneling into germanium through chemical and structural modifications of the interfaces. Using atomic layer control, key aspects of the interfaces can be manipulated to control spin coupling. These include chemical composition, electric polarization, strain, atomic layer termination, and band offset. Both the physical and electronic structures of each layer are characterized using a combination of in- situ x-ray photoemission spectroscopy, synchrotron x-ray diffraction, x-ray absorption spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The fully epitaxial design enables the understanding of structural properties governing the function of a promising spin-based device platform.Non-technical Description: New materials are required to develop new electronic devices for computing applications. These new materials are designed to either require less power or offer additional function in microprocessors. The strategy of the project is to use the spin of an electron as a bit of information rather than charge, as is currently done. The project synthesizes new materials that manipulate electron spin by stacking thin films together one atomic layer at a time. The positions of the atoms are determined using x-ray facilities at the National Laboratories. As part of this work, students and young technicians will be trained in state of the art semiconductor technology, preparing them for careers in the semiconductor industries.

技术描述：材料科学的一个基本方法涉及到在异质结构中耦合特性的新材料的制造。用于逻辑器件的晶体管利用半导体中的电荷传输来处理信息。现在有一些替代方案，利用电子自旋来处理信息，既可以降低晶体管的功耗，又可以增加晶体管的功能（如内存）。目前硅和锗被广泛用作通道材料，因为它们输运电荷很好，而且这些半导体也非常有效地输运自旋。该项目的重点是通过绝缘氧化物屏障将铁磁氧化物与锗耦合自旋。这种新型材料体系是利用分子束外延的原子层合成技术，通过对界面的化学和结构修饰来操纵和控制自旋隧穿进入锗中的。使用原子层控制，可以操纵接口的关键方面来控制自旋耦合。这些包括化学成分、电极化、应变、原子层终止和带偏移。利用原位x射线光发射光谱、同步加速器x射线衍射、x射线吸收光谱和透射电子显微镜对每一层的物理和电子结构进行了表征。完全外延设计使人们能够理解控制有前途的基于自旋的器件平台功能的结构特性。非技术描述：需要新材料来开发用于计算应用的新电子设备。这些新材料要么需要更少的能量，要么在微处理器中提供额外的功能。该项目的策略是利用电子的自旋作为一点信息，而不是像目前所做的那样利用电荷。该项目通过一次堆叠一个原子层的薄膜来合成操纵电子自旋的新材料。原子的位置是用国家实验室的x射线设备确定的。作为这项工作的一部分，学生和年轻的技术人员将接受最先进的半导体技术培训，为他们在半导体行业的职业生涯做好准备。