Epitaxial formation of ultrathin HfO2 on graphene by sequential oxidation

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Liu, Zhenjing, Mao, Qian, Kamboj, Varun, Kothari, Rishabh, Miller, Paul, Reidy, Kate, van Duin, Adri C. T., Jaramillo, R., Ross, Frances M.
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Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Liu, Zhenjing
Mao, Qian
Kamboj, Varun
Kothari, Rishabh
Miller, Paul
Reidy, Kate
van Duin, Adri C. T.
Jaramillo, R.
Ross, Frances M.
author_facet Liu, Zhenjing
Mao, Qian
Kamboj, Varun
Kothari, Rishabh
Miller, Paul
Reidy, Kate
van Duin, Adri C. T.
Jaramillo, R.
Ross, Frances M.
contents We demonstrate the formation of epitaxial, ultrathin hafnia (HfO2) on graphene. Monoclinic hafnia (m-HfO2) forms as the end of a series of sequential oxidation reactions. Starting from Hf metal grown epitaxially on graphene, oxidation leads first to an amorphous suboxide (a-HfOx), then to a crystalline, hexagonal suboxide (h-HfOx) in epitaxial relationship with the substrate, and finally to m-HfO2 that is also epitaxial. We use scanning transmission electron microscopy to characterize the epitaxial relationships and to investigate the structure of h-HfOx. We propose a series of displacive transformations that relate the different crystalline phases and are consistent with the observed epitaxial relationships with the graphene substrate. ReaxFF based reactive molecular dynamics simulations confirm our model of the oxide phase sequencing, and illustrate the role of graphene in promoting oxide crystallization. Our results suggest a way to achieve heteroepitaxial integration of high-performance, crystalline dielectrics with two dimensional (2D) semiconductors with an atomically sharp interface, which is also relevant to hafnia phase engineering.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_11693
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Epitaxial formation of ultrathin HfO2 on graphene by sequential oxidation
Liu, Zhenjing
Mao, Qian
Kamboj, Varun
Kothari, Rishabh
Miller, Paul
Reidy, Kate
van Duin, Adri C. T.
Jaramillo, R.
Ross, Frances M.
Materials Science
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
We demonstrate the formation of epitaxial, ultrathin hafnia (HfO2) on graphene. Monoclinic hafnia (m-HfO2) forms as the end of a series of sequential oxidation reactions. Starting from Hf metal grown epitaxially on graphene, oxidation leads first to an amorphous suboxide (a-HfOx), then to a crystalline, hexagonal suboxide (h-HfOx) in epitaxial relationship with the substrate, and finally to m-HfO2 that is also epitaxial. We use scanning transmission electron microscopy to characterize the epitaxial relationships and to investigate the structure of h-HfOx. We propose a series of displacive transformations that relate the different crystalline phases and are consistent with the observed epitaxial relationships with the graphene substrate. ReaxFF based reactive molecular dynamics simulations confirm our model of the oxide phase sequencing, and illustrate the role of graphene in promoting oxide crystallization. Our results suggest a way to achieve heteroepitaxial integration of high-performance, crystalline dielectrics with two dimensional (2D) semiconductors with an atomically sharp interface, which is also relevant to hafnia phase engineering.
title Epitaxial formation of ultrathin HfO2 on graphene by sequential oxidation
topic Materials Science
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.11693