Sr4Al2O7: A New Sacrificial Layer with High Water Dissolution Rate for the Synthesis of Freestanding Oxide Membranes.

Freestanding perovskite oxide membranes have drawn great attention recently since they offer exceptional structural tunability and stacking ability, providing new opportunities in fundamental research and potential device applications in silicon-based semiconductor technology. Among different types of sacrificial layers, the (Ca, Sr, Ba)(3)Al2O6 compounds are most widely used since they can be dissolved in water and prepare high-quality perovskite oxide membranes with clean and sharp surfaces and interfaces; However, the typical transfer process takes a long time (up to hours) in obtaining millimeter-size freestanding membranes, let alone realize wafer-scale samples with high yield. Here, a new member of the SrO-Al2O3 family, Sr4Al2O7 is introduced, and its high dissolution rate, approximate to 10 times higher than that of Sr3Al2O6 is demonstrated. The high-dissolution-rate of Sr4Al2O7 is most likely related to the more discrete Al-O networks and higher concentration of water-soluble Sr-O species in this compound. This work significantly facilitates the preparation of freestanding membranes and sheds light on the integration of multifunctional perovskite oxides in practical electronic devices.