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The integration of complex oxides on silicon presents opportunities to extend and enhance silicon technology with novel electronic, magnetic, and photonic properties. Among these materials, barium titanate (BaTiO3) is a particularly strong ferroelectric perovskite oxide with attractive dielectric and electro-optic properties. Here we demonstrate nanophotonic circuits incorporating ferroelectric BaTiO3 thin films on the ubiquitous silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. We grow epitaxial, single-crystalline BaTiO3 directly on SOI and engineer integrated waveguide structures that simultaneously confine light and an RF electric field in the BaTiO3 layer. Using on-chip photonic interferometers, we extract a large effective Pockels coefficient of 213 ± 49 pm/V, a value more than six times larger than found in commercial optical modulators based on lithium niobate. The monolithically integrated BaTiO3 optical modulators show modulation bandwidth in the gigahertz regime, which is promising for broadband applications.

Transition metal oxides exhibit a range of correlated phenomena with applications to novel electronic devices that possess remarkable functionalities. This article reviews recent progress in elucidating both mechanisms that govern correlated behavior in transition metal oxides and advancements in device fabrication that have enabled strong correlations to be controlled through applied electric fields. Advancements in the growth of transition-metal-oxide films and artificial heterostructures have enabled superconductivity, magnetism, and metal-insulator transitions to be controlled in cuprates, manganites, and vanadates by using the electric field effect. In addition, interfaces between transition metal oxides have recently emerged as a setting in which strong correlations can be manipulated in two dimensions to realize unusual quantum-ordered phases. Finally, key relationships between structure and transport in ultrathin films of transition metal oxides have been elucidated. Coupling the structural degrees of freedom in oxides to applied electric fields thus opens new pathways to control correlated behavior in devices.

Metallic electronic transport in nickelate heterostructures can be induced and confined to two dimensions (2D) by controlling the structural parameters of the nickel-oxygen planes.

Functional oxides are an untapped resource for futuristic devices and functionalities. These functionalities can range from high temperature superconductivity to multiferroicity and novel catalytic schemes. The most prominent route for transforming these ideas from a single device in the lab to practical technologies is by integration with semiconductors. Moreover, coupling oxides with semiconductors can herald new and unexpected functionalities that exist in neither of the individual materials. Therefore, oxide epitaxy on semiconductors provides a materials platform for novel device technologies. As oxides and semiconductors exhibit properties that are complementary to one another, epitaxial heterostructures comprised of the two are uniquely poised to deliver rich functionalities. This review discusses recent advancements in the growth of epitaxial oxides on semiconductors, and the electronic and physical structure of their interfaces. Leaning on these fundamentals and practicalities, the material behavior and functionality of semiconductor-oxide heterostructures is discussed, and their potential as device building blocks is highlighted. The culmination of this discussion is a review of recent advances in the development of prototype devices based on semiconductor-oxide heterostructures, in areas ranging from silicon photonics to photocatalysis. This overview is intended to stimulate ideas for new concepts of functional devices and lay the groundwork for their realization.

Scanning SQUID susceptometry images the local magnetization and susceptibility of a sample. By accurately modeling the SQUID signal we can determine physical properties such as the penetration depth and permeability of superconducting samples. We calculate the scanning SQUID susceptometry signal for a superconducting slab of arbitrary thickness with isotropic London penetration depth λ, on a non-superconducting substrate, where both slab and substrate can have a paramagnetic response that is linear in the applied field. We derive analytical approximations to our general expression in a number of limits. Using our results, we fit experimental susceptibility data as a function of the sample-sensor spacing for three samples: 1) δ-doped SrTiO3, which has a predominantly diamagnetic response, 2) a thin film of LaNiO3, which has a predominantly paramagnetic response, and 3) the two-dimensional electron layer (2-DEL) at a SrTiO3/LaAlO3 interface, which exhibits both types of response. These formulas will allow the determination of the concentrations of paramagnetic spins and superconducting carriers from fits to scanning SQUID susceptibility measurements.

The complex phase diagrams of strongly correlated oxides arise from the coupling between physical and electronic structure. This can lead to a renormalization of the phase boundaries when considering thin films rather than bulk crystals due to reduced dimensionality and epitaxial strain. The well-established bulk RNiO3 phase diagram shows a systematic dependence between the metal-insulator transition and the perovskite A-site rare-earth ion, R. Here, we explore the equivalent phase diagram for nickelate thin films under compressive epitaxial strain. We determine the metal-insulator phase diagram for the solid solution of Nd1-yLayNiO3 thin films within the range 0 ≤ y ≤ 1. We find qualitative similarity between the films and their bulk analogs, but with an overall renormalization in the metal-insulator transition to lower temperature. A combination of x-ray diffraction measurements and soft x-ray absorption spectroscopy indicates that the renormalization is due to increased Ni–O bond hybridization for coherently strained thin films.

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