Phys.org March 1, 2022
An international team of researchers (USA – PNNL, UT Arlington) tested germanium in combination with a specialized thin crystalline film of lanthanum-strontium-zirconium-titanium-oxide (LSZTO) using hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy which can penetrate the material and generate information at the atomic level. They found that the oxygen atoms near the interface donate electrons to the LSZTO film, creating holes in the germanium within a few atomic layers of the interface. These specialized holes resulted in behavior that totally eclipsed the semiconducting properties of both n- and p-type germanium in the different samples they prepared. According to the researchers the challenge is to learn how to control the fascinating and potentially useful electric fields that forms at these interfaces by modifying the electric field at the surface. The new scientific knowledge will help materials scientists and physicists better understand how to design new semiconductor material systems with useful properties…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Fit of the Ge 3d spectrum for the heavily doped p -Ge(001) crystal to a sum over layers within the probe depth…Credit: Phys. Rev. Materials 6, 015002, 21 January 2022