The influence of pollution on climate change and health, coupled with the depletion of vital resources for the development of new energy technologies and the fabrication of more energy-efficient devices, demands the identification of novel materials with the necessary structural, optical, and electrical characteristics to tackle these critical issues. The Sr-V-O system is a potential solution with on one side the generation of efficient luminous materials, including Sr 2 V 2 O 7 [1] and Sr 3 V 2 O 8 , and on the other side, SrVO 3 , which possesses remarkable optical and electrical characteristics. Hence, photoluminescence investigations on bulk Sr 2 V 2 O 7 materials synthesized from powders have exhibited an intense white emission within the 400-750 nm spectrum. Concerning cubic SrVO 3 , due to its strongly correlated metallic properties, is considered as a highly attractive candidate for a new generation of transparent conductive oxides (TCO)[2]. Unfortunately, this latter requires to be well crystallized to achieve good optical and electrical properties, complicating its industrial development since the use of pulsed laser technique and/or specific substrates, like SrTiO 3 , LaAlO 3 , and (LaAlO 3 ) 0.3 (Sr 2 TaAlO 6 ) 0.7 (LSAT), can allow to achieve it. This presentation intends to address the fabrication of such materials in thin films configuration using a large-scale deposition technology, specifically magnetron sputtering, on conventional substrates like silicon. Depending on the nature of the layer to produce and therefore the nature of the plasma used, they have been fabricated by classical or reactive magnetron sputtering, thereafter undergoing an annealing process if necessary. The impact of growth parameters on the structural, optical, and electrical properties of nanostructured layers is analyzed. Hence, bright photoluminescence of 30nm thick films as well as low resistive layers have been produced demonstrating the interest of our approach. These unexpected optical and electrical properties achieved with a compatible microelectronic technology pave the way for the development of performant optoelectronic devices. Keywords: Sr-V-O, TCO, Optical Properties, Electrical Properties REFERENCES [1] T. Nakajima, M. Isobe, T. Tsuchiya, Y.Ueda, T.Kumagai, J. Lumin, 129 (2009) 1598-1601 [2] L. Zhang, Y. Zhou, L. Guo, W. Zhao, A. Barnes, H-T. Zhang, C. Eaton, Y. Zheng, M. Brahlek, H.F. Haneef, N.J. Podraza, M.H.W. Chan, V. Gopalan, K.M. Rabe, R. Engel-Herbert, Nat. Mater. 15 (2016) 204-210

Highly integrated metal–insulator–metal (MIM) capacitors are key building blocks in advanced silicon technologies, particularly for applications requiring high capacitance density, low energy losses, and long-term reliability. As passive die architectures evolve toward three-dimensional (3D) integration with increasingly complex dielectric stacks, understanding dielectric behavior at the nanometer scale becomes essential. Conventional wafer-level electrical measurements provide averaged responses over large areas of the device and often fail to capture local inhomogeneities, interface effects, and early-stage degradation mechanisms that critically influence device performance and lifetime. In this context, nanoscale electrical characterization techniques such as Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy (C-AFM) provide unique capabilities to probe local electrical properties with high spatial resolution and high sensitivity. In this work, a highly integrated silicon-based 3D capacitor die composed of three vertically stacked MIM structures is analyzed combining local nanoscale electrical properties acquired with the classical C-AFM mode and the hyper-spectral data cube mode with macroscopic electrical characterization. To probe the local properties, particular attention is given to sample preparation strategies, to the influence of substrate conductivity and local electrical AFM-sample nano-contact control. The sample preparation is investigated by optimized mechanical and ionic polishing protocols for obtaining reproducible topography with roughness less of 1 nm on the silicon surface. C-AFM current mappings are performed using a doped diamond-coated conductive probe over scan areas of 1.5 µm × 1.5 µm. These measurements enable the extraction of direct insight into dielectric conformality and effective thickness variations at the nanoscale and also provide local leakage current corresponding of each metal electrode. The granular structure of the doped polysilicon material used as metal electrodes is shown to significantly influence local dielectric conformality, leading to localized thickness variations within the MIM stacks. These results demonstrate that nanoscale electrical mapping based on AFM is a sensitive probe of process-induced variability to further investigate dielectric conduction mechanisms and local electrical stability, local current-voltage (I-V) spectroscopy combined with the mapping mode is operated using the hyper-spectral C-AFM data cube mode. In this approach, at each pixel, the AFM tip approaches the sample in a spectroscopic mode, while a full electrical measurement is performed locally. In the present case, the DC bias voltage (V DC ) applied to the sample is swept, generating spatially resolved I–V curves across the different MIM layers, at each pixel. This methodology provides access to layer-resolved conduction behavior while preserving nanoscale spatial information. Data cube measurements analysis reveal that layers exhibit similar electrical trend under both positive and negative bias polarities, indicating symmetric conduction mechanisms similar to an ohmic-behavior, within the investigated voltage range. However, clear differences are observed in the threshold voltages associated with conduction properties for each similar-metallic layer of the MIM structure, reflecting variations in total dielectric thickness and interface quality within the stacked architecture. For the quantitative part, the absolute current levels measured for a given bias voltage are found to depend strongly on the underlying device design beneath the AFM tip. From these measurements, the current conduction paths between the AFM tip and the chuck back contact can be determined: the measured electrical response follows a current path extending from the conductive substrate, through the dielectric stack, and toward the AFM tip. As conclusion, the local electrical signal is not solely determined by the probed layer, but is strongly affected by the electrical properties of the substrate and the overall MIM architecture. These observations highlight the importance of considering the complete device stack for the C-AFM analysis, when interpreting nanoscale I–V measurements in complex 3D systems. Macroscopic electrical measurements are performed at the wafer level to extract the capacitance density and breakdown voltage of each individual MIM stack. In particular, variations in capacitance density and breakdown voltage between the three MIM stacks are consistent with the effective dielectric thickness and conformality variations observed at the nanoscale, providing direct validation of the C-AFM-based characterization approach. Overall, this study demonstrates that combining classical C-AFM current mapping but also multispectral AFM data cube-based I–V investigations and stack-resolved macroscopic electrical measurements provides a powerful and comprehensive framework for investigating nanoscale dielectric behavior in advanced 3D MIM capacitor architectures. By enabling detailed analysis of leakage current, dielectric conformality, conduction mechanisms, and breakdown behavior at the nanometer scale, this approach supports improved understanding of reliability-limiting phenomena and contributes to the development of more energy-efficient and sustainable integrated microelectronic die. Figure 1

The transparent conductor SrVO3 was shown to be insulating in its amorphous state, which is a serious limitation for its potential application in devices being sensible to the high temperature...

Electronic correlations and chemical disorder play a pivotal role in the emerging class of perovskite transparent conducting oxides (TCOs). These materials exhibit charge carrier densities typical of metals, yet achieve optical transparency through the enhanced effective mass, which shifts the plasma frequency beyond the visible range. In this study, we systematically tune the electronic and structural disorder of epitaxial thin films on (001) substrates by annealing treatments. The controlled variations modulate the electronic correlations, leading to gradual changes in optical transparency and electrical resistivity. By analyzing these modifications of the functional properties, we elucidate the role of electronic correlations and disorder in , and propose the design strategies for optimizing the TCO performance of the perovskite oxides.

Indium-tin oxide (ITO) is the most commonly used transparent conducting oxide (TCO) but suffers from resource depletion. Among all the alternatives to replace it, SrVO3 is a promising candidate that has been highly studied in recent years. In this study, structural, electrical, and optical properties of 30 nm thick films grown on low-cost substrates by reactive sputtering of a SrVO3 target are presented. The structural, electrical, and optical properties of the obtained films have been compared to those of our previous study in which thin films were grown using a Sr2V2O7 target, illustrating that the use of an SrVO3 target allows us to obtain layers with lower roughness and better opto-electronic properties. Moreover, it was observed that the layers are non-stoichiometric compared to SrVO3, which can explain their semiconducting properties instead of the expected metallic behavior.

In the growing field of low-cost electronics, the epitaxy of complex oxide thin films on a Si substrate requires significant technical means. Therefore, a large attention is paid to the release of a freestanding oxide of interest from its deposition support which is then placed onto a low-cost substrate, via the etching of an intermediate sacrificial layer. The use of a sacrificial layer offers several advantages since the flexible polymer exploited for the transfer can also be fully utilized to design a flexible heterostructure. For green technology, more and more research investigations are being undertaken on these sacrificial layers etched by water. While Sr3Al2O6 and SrVO3 are archetypical examples, the need to find new materials with different lattice parameters and symmetry is critical to reach the epitaxy of numerous materials of interest. In this study, the possibilities of an A-site cationic variation in AVO3 with A = Sr and/or Ca thin films are highlighted to expand the water-soluble material's family reaching the smallest lattice parameter ever presented up to now. In addition to bring various compounds with different ageing properties to the literature, optical spectrophotometry operando characterizations to follow the chemical etching of the sacrificial layers in real-time are exploited.

We report the impact of capping layers on vanadate based transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) to prolong the thermal stability with a minimal loss of electrical conductivity during heat treatment in ambient environment. In the present study, various capping layers (amorphous Al2O3, LaAlO3 (LAO), TiO2 grown at base pressure and TiO2 deposited under oxygen partial pressure) are grown in situ on polycrystalline perovskite SrVO3 (SVO) thin films using Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD). The results show that amorphous LaAlO3 is the most promising capping layer among the oxide layers, to preserve both electrical and optical properties of perovskite SVO films from natural as well as artificial aging. Our present approach for a capping layer on SVO may address the long-term stability issues of correlated TCOs and would open an opportunity for the future oxide electronics applications.

Nanosheets (NS) provide an innovative method for growing perovskite thin films on diverse substrates like glass and silicon, serving as germination seeds and offering a cost-effective alternative to expensive monocrystalline substrates. According to the NS transfer process onto the substrate, more than 85-90 % of the substrate is covered. However, a small fraction of the perovskite film grows directly on the substrate. This raises several questions: Is the perovskite film grown on glass conductive? How does the NS network influence electrical properties at macroscopic and submicron scales? To address these questions, we investigated the impact of thickness on the transport properties of transparent conductive SrVO3 vanadate deposited on glass coated with [Ca2Nb3O10]- nanosheets (CNO NS). Macroscopic measurements revealed significant degradation of transport properties at thicknesses below 15 nm. In-plane local electrical properties were examined using Scanning Spreading Resistance Microscopy. Our findings indicate that local transport remains nearly constant when SrVO3 is grown on NS, while a strong thickness dependence is observed when SrVO3 is directly deposited on glass. These results contribute to a better understanding of the growth process, the integration of functional oxides on NS and open new perspectives for tuning the properties of vanadate films as transparent electrodes.

The integration of perovskite oxides onto flexible substrates has witnessed significant advancements owing to the development of an epitaxial lift-off technique utilizing a Sr3Al2O6 sacrificial layer. However, Sr3Al2O6 is susceptible to instability in both air and high-temperature oxygen atmospheres, potentially leading to degradation during the growth of the functional oxide layer. In this study, we investigate the use of an oxygen-deficient La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 as capping layer, and demonstrate its ability to stabilize Sr3Al2O6 films in ambient air. We successfully synthesized freestanding La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 membranes by etching this sacrificial layer and transferring them onto flexible polymer substrates. Importantly, the magnetic properties of the La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 films are preserved in these membranes. Our results underline that employing a thin manganite capping layer ensures both high structural quality and the preservation of functional properties in the resulting membranes.

Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) is a thin film deposition technique especially well adapted to binary or ternary oxides. Classically, PLD deposition was limited to small sample sizes (about 10 x 10 mm(2)) due to the small spatial extension of the plume. Being a hindrance for the application of PLD grown thin films in industrial applications, PLD machines allowing for larger deposition areas have been developed, by scanning the laser on a larger target and rotating the sample above the ablated area. This set-up adds other parameters, as for example the laser scan speed and the rotation speed to the typical deposition parameters, and we have used the new transparent conductor SrVO3 as a prototypical system to control the homogeneity of monocrystalline and polycrystalline thin films on a 4-inch area.

Correlated transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) have gained great attention, because of their unique combination of transparency and metallic character. SrVO3 (SVO) was identified as a high-performance TCO in the visible range. Few studies have investigated band structure engineering through chemical doping to enhance the optical properties of SVO. Here, we use two different strategies by exploiting the band-filling and width of the bands derived from Vanadium to tune the screened plasma frequency omega(p)* and the interband transition Ep-d energy, corresponding to the optical transparency window edges. For control of the band-filling strategy, it is found that Titanium doped SVO has a wide transparency window, but such a composition does not maintain the high electrical conductivity required for TCO applications. Concerning the bandwidth strategy, the doping of SrVO3 by Calcium shows that omega(p)* remains located in the IR range (1.12 eV), while Ep-d is blue-shifted into the UV region (3.43 eV) due to reinforced electronic correlations. By an appropriate choice of dopant, we successfully increased the size of the transparency window by around 11% from 1.94 eV (SVO) to 2.30 eV (Calcium-doped SVO), while retaining high conductivity of around 2.30 x 10(4) (Scm(-1)) and high charge carrier density of 2.93 x 10(22) cm(-3).

SrVO3 is a strongly correlated metal which has been highly studied in recent years due to its optical and electrical properties, which makes it a promising transparent conducting oxide (TCO). By investigating and optimizing these interesting properties, SrVO3 might be able to replace in the future indium-tin oxide, which is the most commonly used TCO at the current time but suffers from resource depletion. In this study, films of about 30 nm were grown by reactive sputtering of Sr2V2O7 target onto Si substrates, both with and without a TiO2 buffer layer, at different temperatures, and using different ratios between H-2 and Ar during the growth. The structural, electrical, and optical properties of these films were analyzed, illustrating the importance of the TiO2 buffer layer as well as the growth parameters in obtaining conductive and transparent thin films. Moreover, the measurements of electrical and optical properties revealed that actually, these films do not have a correlated metal behavior but are more a semiconductor one, most probably due to a no-stoichiometry in comparison to SrVO3. However, the high electrical conductivity of the obtained films is higher than one of the undoped transparent semiconductors such as ZnO or SnO2 currently used in the field of microelectronics. These results pave the way of using such a material in devices requiring TCO properties in a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor compatible approach.

LaVO3 (LVO) is particularly interesting due to its optical band gap of around 1.1 eV, which is close to the one of silicon (1.12 eV) and can be an interesting light-absorbing material for photovoltaic and photocatalytic devices. In this context, we investigated the optical and transport properties of LaVO3 grown on SrTiO3 (STO) heterostructures under various growth conditions. The study of the optical properties shows significant variation in optical absorption with oxygen partial pressure during the deposition. Moreover, from the electrical point of view, the LaVO3/SrTiO3 deposited at low oxygen pressure reveals a metallic behavior with high mobility conduction. However, those grown at high oxygen pressure turn into an insulator showing a metal–insulator transition. Interestingly, the optical measurements combined with electrical sheet resistance confirm that the metallic behavior originates from the diffusion of oxygen vacancies within the SrTiO3 substrate during the deposition process of LaVO3 layers. These results open fascinating prospects to use LaVO3 as an efficient optical absorber for solar irradiance, whereas, the SrTiO3 substrate could be integrated as a bottom electrode to facilitate the collection of charge carriers. As a result, LaVO3/SrTiO3 system shows promising properties and might be potentially interesting for future integration in photovoltaic and photocatalytic applications.

Due to the expansion of defects like single Shockley-type Stacking Faults inside the SiC epitaxial drift layer, during high current stress, classical SiC MOSFETs can be victims of the degradation of their electrical characteristics. The introduction of an epitaxial SiC buffer layer between the substrate and the n- drift epilayer, called recombination-enhancing buffer layer, was shown to avoid this degradation. In this paper, TCAD simulations of the electrical behavior of such a commercial SiC MOSFET device with varying buffer layer thickness are studied, indicating only small modifications of the electrical characteristics. These simulations are combined with the characterization of the local electrical properties using an AFM-sMIM technique, allowing to determine the real thickness of the different layers of the device. These measurements highlight an inhomogeneous conductivity in the SiC substrate, being probably compensated by the introduction of the SiC buffer layer.

Metallic ferromagnetic transition metal dichalcogenides have emerged as important building blocks for scalable magnetic and memory applications. Downscaling such systems to the ultrathin limit is critical to integrate them into technology. Here, we achieved layer-by-layer control over the transition metal dichalcogenide Cr1.6Te2 by using pulsed laser deposition, and we uncovered the minimum critical thickness above which room-temperature magnetic order is maintained. The electronic and magnetic structures are explored experimentally and theoretically, and it is shown that the films exhibit strong in-plane magnetic anisotropy as a consequence of large spin-orbit effects. Our study elucidates both magnetic and electronic properties of Cr1.6Te2 and corroborates the importance of intercalation to tune the magnetic properties of nanoscale materials' architectures.

Although vanadium compounds are well recognized for their ability to change from insulator to metal, they may also be used therapeutically to address significant medical issues. In this study, we used vanadium oxide thin films synthesized by the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique to examine human stem cells generated from bone marrow. According to x-ray reflectivity (XRR) measurements, the films’ thickness ranged from 6 to 26 nm. The water contact angle method has been employed to probe the surface energy and wettability of the films, which influence the cell behavior significantly. We also used a variety of techniques, such as differentiation staining, phase contrast microscopy, and real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), to examine the growth, adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBMMSCs) on these oxide films over time. Our results indicated that vanadium oxide films alter hBMMSCs adhesion and growth and affect their differentiation. The application of VOx films in biological and medical materials, as well as future research on cells, is all made possible by these findings, which also improve our understanding of the biological actions of vanadium compounds.

In the search of low cost and more efficient electronic devices, here the properties of SrVO3 transparent conductor oxide (TCO) thin film are investigated, both visible-range optically transparent and highly conductive, it stands as a promising candidate to substitute the standard indium-tin-oxide (ITO) in applications. Its surface stability under water (both liquid and vapor) and other gaseous atmospheres is especially addressed. Through the use of spectroscopy characterizations, X-ray photoemission and operando X-ray absorption measurements, the formation of a thin Sr-rich V5+ layer located at the surface of the polycrystalline SrVO3 film with aging is observed, and for the first time how it can be removed from the surface by solvating in water atmosphere. The surface recovery is associated to an etching process, here spectroscopically characterized in operando conditions, allowing to follow the stoichiometric modification under reaction. Once exposed in oxygen atmosphere, the Sr-rich V5+ layer forms again. The findings improve the understanding of aging effects in perovskite oxides, allowing for the development of functionalized films in which it is possible to control or to avoid an insulating surface layer. This constitutes an important step towards the large-scale use of V-based TCOs, with possible implementations in oxide-based electronics.

For device qualification in harsh environments (space, avionic and nuclear), radiation testing identifies the sensitivity of the devices and technologies and allows to predict their degradation in these environments. In this paper, the analysis of the electrical characteristics and of the failure of a commercial SiC MOSFET after a Single Event Burnout (SEB) induced by proton irradiation are presented. The goal is to highlight the SEB degradation mechanism at the device and die levels. For failed devices, the current as a function of the drain-source bias (VDS) in off-state (VGS=0V) confirms the gate rupture. For the die analysis, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) investigations with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analysis reveals the trace of the micro-explosion related to the catastrophic SEB inside the SiC die. With a fire examination, similar to a blast, the SEM analysis discloses damages due to the large local increase of the temperature during the SEB thermal runaway, leading to the thermal decomposition of a part of the SiC MOSFET and the combustion with gaseous emissions in the device structure.

SrVO3 (SVO) is a prospective candidate to replace the conventional indium tin oxide (ITO) among the new generation of transparent conducting oxide (TCO) materials. In this study, the structural, electrical, and optical properties of SVO thin films, both epitaxial and polycrystalline, are determined during and after heat treatments in the 150-250 °C range and under ambient environment in order to explore the chemical stability of this material. The use of these relatively low temperatures speeds up the natural aging of the films and allows following the evolution of their related properties. The combination of techniques rather sensitive to the film surface and of techniques sampling the film volume will emphasize the presence of a surface oxidation evolving in time at low annealing temperatures, whereas the perovskite phase is destroyed throughout the film for treatments above 200 °C. The present study is designed to understand the thermal degradation and long-term stability issues of vanadate-based TCOs and to identify technologically viable solutions for the application of this group as new TCOs.