The electronic structure at interface between two insulators LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 has been investigated by using scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. The atomic-scale interfacial band structure is also demonstrated in the work with the consideration of the tip-induced band bending effect. Experimental results indicate that the magnitude of the built-in field across LaAlO3 is 0.075¡Ó0.005 V/Å. The band bending on SrTiO3 side at the heterointerface is observed. The band downshift of SrTiO3 side at the interface is 0.1 eV with ~1 nm decay length.

Hydrogen exposure of insulating d0-titanates, such as SrTiO3 (STO), has displayed the formation of intriguing conducting states. These conducting states form through the use of forming gas (N2/H2) annealing or hydrogen plasma exposure, where hydrogen gas is exposed to high energy microwaves. The exposure of STO to hydrogen causes metallic conductivity due to the introduction of hydrogen cations on some of the oxygen sites. However, the optical properties of this hydrogen-exposed STO have not been well-studied. Further, Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 (BST), an insulating dielectric, also shows changes in its conductivity upon hydrogen exposure. Unlike STO where the conductivity of the hydrogen-exposed material has been characterized, the optical, electronic, and transport properties of hydrogen exposed BST have not been studied. Thus, by studying hydrogen-exposed BST and STO, our understanding of the effects of hydrogen on insulators can be enhanced. In the first study, the effects of the exposure of insulating dielectric BST thin films to a hydrogen plasma is presented. These BST thin films are deposited on GdScO3 (GSO) substrates via Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD). After deposition, the thin films are exposed to a hydrogen plasma. Just five minutes of hydrogen plasma exposure is enough to induce conductivity in the BST thin film. This conducting state is dominated by the interplay of disorder and strong electron correlations introduced during hydrogen exposure. Further, the optical properties indicate the formation of a transparent conductor, as the introduction of disorder and strong correlations has not changed the optical properties of the BST thin film in the visible spectrum. BST demonstrates an example of a new type of transparent conductor that utilizes large effective mass carriers to generate conductivity. In the second study, the effects of hydrogen doping on the surface of STO is explored. The conducting heterointerface that forms between PLD-deposited thin films of LaAlO3 (LAO) on STO is used as the standard to explore this hydrogen surface doping. The optical, electronic, and transport properties of water-leached and buffered hydrofluoric acid (BHF) etched heterointerfaces are characterized and compared. The recently developed water-leaching method is compared with the well-known BHF etching method, which has been shown to unintentionally dope the STO surface with fluorine and hydrogen. Both methods generate single-terminated atomically flat STO substrate surfaces that are ideal for heterointerface formation. After deposition, the optical, electronic, and transport properties of both the water-leached and BHF-etched heterointerfaces show no meaningful difference, demonstrating that water-leaching may also unintentionally dope the STO substrate surface with hydrogen. However, these results confirm that water-leaching generates a high-quality conducting heterointerface without the safety concerns of BHF.

Dans ce travail, nous avons étudié la relaxation de couches d’hétérostructures InGaN/GaN obtenue par épitaxie en phase vapeur aux organométalliques (EPVOM) et épitaxie aux jets moléculaires (EJM) principalement par microscopie électronique en transmission (MET). Pour ce faire, nous avons fait varier la composition de l'indium de 4.1% au nitrure d'indium pur, ce qui correspond lors de la croissance sur GaN à un décalage paramétrique allant de 1% à 11.3%. Le travail a porté sur des couches dont l’épaisseur allait de 7 nm à 500 nm. A partir d’une composition en indium voisine de 10%, nous mettons en évidence la formation d’un réseau de dislocations vis dont la ligne se promène dans l’interface, avec de très longues sections droites le long des directions <11-20>. Ces dislocations coexistent avec un réseau de dislocations coins qui commence à se former vers 13%, il disparait complétement autour d’une composition en indium de 18%. Le réseau de dislocation vis se densifie de plus en plus au-delà. Outre ces dislocations de décalage paramétrique, d'autres mécanismes qui contribuent à la relaxation de la contrainte dans ces hétérostructures InGaN/GaN ont été mis en évidence. Ainsi, au-dessus d'une composition d'indium supérieure à 25%, de nombreux phénomènes se produisent simultanément. (1) Formation des dislocations de décalage paramétrique à l'hétérointerface; (2) une composition de la couche qui s’enrichit en indium vers la surface; (3) des fortes perturbations de la séquence hexagonale conduisant à un empilement aléatoire; (4) croissance à trois dimensions (3D) pouvant même conduire à des couches poreuses lorsque la composition en indium est comprise entre 40% et 85%. Cependant, on met en évidence qu’il est possible de faire croître de l’InN pur de bonne qualité cristalline s'améliore grâce à la formation systématique d'une couche 3D. / In this work, we have investigated the strain relaxation of InGaN layers grown on GaN templates by MOVPE and PAMBE using TEM. To this end we varied the indium composition from 4.1% to pure indium nitride and the corresponding mismatch was changing from less than 1% to 11.3%, the thickness of the InGaN layers was from 7 nm to 500 nm. When the indium composition is around 10%, one would expect mostly elastically strained layers with no misfit dislocations. However, we found that screw dislocations form systematically at the InGaN/GaN interface. Moreover, below 18% indium composition, screw and edge dislocations coexist, whereas starting at 18%, only edge dislocations were observed in these interfaces. Apart from the edge dislocations (misfit dislocations), other mechanisms have been pointed out for the strain relaxation. It is found that above an indium composition beyond 25%, many phenomena take place simultaneously. (1) Formation of the misfit dislocations at the heterointerface; (2) composition pulling with the surface layer being richer in indium in comparison to the interfacial layer; (3) disruption of the growth sequence through the formation of a random stacking sequence; (4) three dimentional (3D) growth which can even lead to porous layers when the indium composition is between 40% and 85%. However, pure InN is grown, the crystalline quality improves through a systematic formation of a 3D layer.

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Reducing supply voltage is a promising way to address the power dissipation in nano-electronic circuits. However, the fundamental lower limit of subthreshold slope (SS) within metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) is a major obstacle to further scaling the operation voltage without degrading ON/OFF-ratio in today's integrated circuits. Tunnel field-effect transistors (TFETs) benefit from steep switching characteristics due to the quantum-mechanical tunneling injection of carriers from source to channel, rather than by conventional thermionic emission in MOSFETs. TFETs based on group III-V compound semiconductor and Ge heterostructures further improve the ON-state current and reduce SS due to the low bandgap energies and smaller carrier tunneling mass. The mixed arsenide/antimonide (As/Sb) InxGa1-xAs/GaAsySb1-y and Ge/InxGa1-xAs heterostructures allow a wide range of bandgap energies and various band alignments depending on the alloy compositions in the source and channel materials. Band alignments at source/channel heterointerface can be well modulated by carefully controlling the compositions of the InxGa1-xAs or GaAsySb1-y. In particular, this research systematically investigate the development and optimization of low-power TFETs using mixed As/Sb and Ge/InxGa1-xAs based heterostructures including: basic working principles, design considerations, material growth, interface engineering, material characterization, band alignment determination, device fabrication, device performance investigation, and high-temperature reliability. A comprehensive study of TFETs using mixed As/Sb and Ge/InxGa1-xAs based heterostructures shows superior structural properties and distinguished device performances, both of which indicate the mixed As/Sb and Ge/InxGa1-xAs based TFET as a promising option for high performance, low standby power and energy efficient logic circuit application. / Ph. D.

Two dimensional (2D) systems with low carrier density is an outstanding platform for studying a wide spectrum of physics. These include both classical and quantum effects, arising from disorder, Coulomb interactions and even non-trivial topological properties of band-structure. In this thesis, we have explored the physics at low carrier number density in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure and bilayer graphene, by investigating in a larger phase space using a variety of electrical measurement tools. A two-dimensional electron system (2DES) formed in a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure offers an avenue to build a variety of mesoscopic devices, primarily because its surface gates can very effectively control its carrier density profile. In the first half of the thesis, we study the relevance of disorder in two kinds of devices made in a 2DES. A very strong negative gate voltage not only reduces the carrier density of the 2DES, but also drives it to a disordered state. In this state, we explore a new direction in parameter space by increasing in-plane electric field and investigating its magneto-resistance (MR). At sufficiently strong gate voltage and source-drain bias, we discover a remarkably linear MR. Its enormous magnitude and weak temperature dependence indicate that this is a classical effect of disorder. In another study, we examine a specially designed dual-gated device that can induce low number density in a periodic pattern. By applying appropriate gate voltages, we demonstrate the formation of an electrostatically tunable quantum dot lattice and study the impact of disorder on it. This work is important in paving way for solid state based platform for experimental simulations of artificial solids. The most striking property of bilayer graphene is the ability to open its band gap by a perpendicular electric field, giving the prospects of enabling a large set of de-vice applications. However, despite a band gap, a number of transport mechanisms are still active at very low densities that range from hopping transport through bulk to topologically protected 1D transport at the edges or along 1D crystal dislocations. In the second half of the thesis, we have used higher order statistical moment of resistance/conductance fluctuations, namely the variance of the fluctuations, to complement averaged resistance/conductance, and study and infer the dominant transport mechanism at low densities in a gapped bilayer graphene. Our results show possible evidence of percolative transport and topologically protected edge transport at different ranges of low number densities. We also explore the same phase space by studying its mesoscopic conductance fluctuations at very low temperatures. This is the first of its kind systematic experiment in a dual-gated bilayer graphene device. Its conductance fluctuations have several anomalous features suggesting non-universal behaviour which is at odds with conventional disordered systems.