Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) is one of the key techniques for synthesizing epitaxial thin films and heterostructures. In the lecture, I will describe how, at the Jožef Stefan Institute, we used PLD to develop a process for growing functional oxides on semiconductor platforms with atomic-level control. In the case of silicon substrates, the two key steps of epitaxial integration are strontium passivation with an appropriate reconstruction of the silicon surface and the kinetically controlled sequential deposition of an oxide layer. As an alternative to direct epitaxy, we developed a graphene-mediated van der Waals epitaxy process, thereby reducing both the strain-matching requirements for oxides on silicon and their mutual reactivity. Using as-prepared pseudo-substrates, we further investigated green hydrogen production as well as the magnetic, ferroelectric, and piezoelectric properties of heterostructures, and we deliberately tuned their functionalities by engineering epitaxial and thermal strain within the oxide layers.
Pulsed laser deposition at the Jožef Stefan Institute
