arXiv subjects

Hiromichi Ohta

Publications and source records attributed to Hiromichi Ohta.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Improving 2D-ness to enhance thermopower in oxide superlattices

The transport dynamics of itinerant charge carriers and their interactions with the environment. For two-dimensional oxide thermoelectrics, predominantly represented by doped SrTiO3-based superlattices, reduced spatial dimensions and increased effective mass are known to enhance thermopower (S). However, because of their large effective Bohr radius resulting from their high dielectric constant, SrTiO3-based systems have limitations in exhibiting the 2D characteristic. Here, we focus on EuTiO3 as an alternative perovskite platform in which fractional LaxEu1-xTiO3/EuTiO3 artificial superlattices demonstrate the improvement in 2D nature for the dimensionality-induced improvement of S. We observed a quasi-2D thermopower S2D of -950 uV K-1 and S2D/S3D of ~20 resulting from the improved 2D confinement. Thermopower measurements, combined with hybrid density functional theory calculations, show the enhanced S originates from the confinement of Ti 3dxy-states within the LaxEu1-xTiO3 layers and the associated increase in the 2D density of states. In detail, a smaller effective Bohr radius and modified electronic band structures, in conjunction with the presence of the Eu 4f-states in EuTiO3 which modified the local electronic potential and strengthened the spatial confinement of Ti 3d-states. This approach to improving the dimensional confinement establishes a small effective Bohr radius and Eu 4f-state assisted 2D confinement provides valuable insights into the design of high-performance applications in artificial oxide superlattices.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2025

Indium Hydroxide Ceramic Targets: A Breakthrough in High-Mobility Thin-Film Transistor Technology

Thin-film transistors composed of a hydrogen-containing indium oxide active layer are promising candidates for backplane devices in next-generation flat panel displays, offering higher definition and faster operation. However, the hydrogen incorporation process during film deposition poses challenges for scalable and industrial development due to both safety and controllability issues. Here, we demonstrate that using indium hydroxide ceramic as the target material for film deposition overcomes the difficulties associated with hydrogen gas usage. We sintered commercially available indium hydroxide powder using a conventional ceramic process at 150-250°C in air and utilized it for the deposition of hydrogen-incorporated indium oxide films via pulsed laser deposition. The resulting indium oxide films, after thermal annealing, contained a sufficient concentration of hydrogen and exhibited very high electron mobility due to significantly grown grains. Furthermore, we confirmed that the fabricated thin-film transistors exhibited comparably high performance to those produced using the gas-phase hydrogen incorporation method. This approach offers a practical pathway for hydrogen-containing indium oxide-based thin-film transistors in next-generation flat panel displays.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2025

Thermoelectric Performance Boost by Chemical Order in Epitaxial L2$_1$ (100) and (110) Oriented undoped Fe$_2$VAl Thin Films: An Experimental and Theoretical Study

This study demonstrates the direct correlation between the presence of the L2$_1$ ordered phase and the large enhancement in the thermoelectric performance of Fe$_2$VAl thin films deposited on MgO and Al$_2$O$_3$ substrates at temperatures varying between room temperature and 950$^{\circ}$C. We employ both experimental techniques and computational modeling to analyze the influence of crystallographic orientation and deposition temperature on the thermoelectric properties, including the Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity, and thermal conductivity. Our findings indicate that the presence of the L2$_1$ phase significantly enhances the power factor (PF) and figure of merit (zT), surpassing previously reported values for both bulk and thin film forms of Fe$_2$VAl, achieving a PF of 480 $μ$W/m$\cdot$K$^2$ and a zT of 0.025.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2024

High-performance solid-state electrochemical thermal switches with earth-abundant cerium oxide

Thermal switches, which electrically turn heat flow on and off, have attracted attention as thermal management devices. Electrochemical reduction/oxidation switches the thermal conductivity (\k{appa}\) of active metal oxide films. The performance of the previously proposed electrochemical thermal switches is low; on/off \k{appa}\-ratio is mostly less than 5 and \k{appa}\-switching width is less than 5 W/mK. We used CeO2 thin film as the active layer deposited on a solid electrolyte YSZ substrate. When the CeO2 thin film was reduced once (off-state) and then oxidized (on-state), \k{appa}\ was about 2.2 W/mK in the most reduced state, and \k{appa}\ increased with oxidation to 12.5 W/mK (on-state). This reduction (off-state)/oxidation (on-state) cycle was repeated 100 times and the average value of \k{appa}\ was 2.2 W/mK after reduction (off-state) and 12.5 W/mK after oxidation (on-state). The on/off \k{appa}\-ratio was 5.8 and \k{appa}\-switching width was 10.3 W/mK. The CeO2-based solid-state electrochemical thermal switches would be potential devices for thermal shutters and thermal displays.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2024

Solid-State Electrochemical Thermal Transistors with Large Thermal Conductivity Switching Widths

Thermal transistors that switch the thermal conductivity (\k{appa}) of the active layers are attracting increasing attention as thermal management devices. For electrochemical thermal transistors, several transition metal oxides (TMOs) have been proposed as active layers. After electrochemical redox treatment, the crystal structure of the TMO is modulated, which results in the \k{appa} switching. However, the \k{appa} switching width is still small (< 4 W/mK). In this study, we demonstrate that LaNiOx-based solid-state electrochemical thermal transistors have a \k{appa} switching width of 4.3 W/mK. Fully oxidised LaNiO3 (on state) has a \k{appa} of 6.0 W/mK due to the large contribution of electron thermal conductivity (\k{appa}ele, 3.1 W/mK). In contrast, reduced LaNiO2.72 (off state) has a \k{appa} of 1.7 W/mK because the phonons are scattered by the oxygen vacancies. The LaNiOx-based electrochemical thermal transistor exhibits excellent cyclability of \k{appa} and the crystalline lattice of LaNiOx. This electrochemical thermal transistor may be a promising platform for next-generation devices such as thermal displays.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2024

Reliable operation in high-mobility indium oxide thin film transistors

Transparent oxide semiconductors (TOSs) based thin-film transistors (TFTs) that exhibit higher field effect mobility (uFE) are highly required toward the realization of next-generation displays. Among numerous types of TOS-TFTs, In2O3-based TFTs are the front-running candidate because they exhibit the highest uFE ~100 cm2/Vs. However, the device operation of In2O3 TFTs is unreliable; a large voltage shift occurs especially when negative gate bias is applied due to adsorption/desorption of gas molecules. Although passivation of the TFTs is used to overcome such instability, previously proposed passivation materials did not improve the reliability. Here, we show that the In2O3 TFTs passivated with Y2O3 and Er2O3 films are highly reliable and do not show threshold voltage shifts when applying gate bias. We applied positive and negative gate bias to the In2O3 TFTs passivated with various insulating oxides and found that only the In2O3 TFTs passivated with Y2O3 and Er2O3 films did not exhibit threshold voltage shifts. We observed that only the Y2O3 grew heteroepitaxially on the In2O3 crystal. This would be the origin of the high reliability of the In2O3 TFTs passivated with Y2O3 and Er2O3 films. This finding accelerates the development of next-generation displays using high-mobility In2O3 TFTs.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2021

Anisotropic heat conduction of coherently transported phonons in InGaO3(ZnO)m single crystal films with superlattice structures

Superlattices provide a great platform for studying coherent transportation of low-frequency phonons, which are the main issues in mastering the manipulation of heat conduction. Studies have shown that the dominating characteristics in the thermal conductivity of superlattice can be adjusted between wave-like and particle-like phonon properties depending on the superlattice period. However, the phonon coherence length and the phonon mean free path from Umklapp processes have not been defined in one superlattice system, and the transition from wave-like and particle-like behavior is not clear to date despite the extensive research efforts. In this study, we use InGaO3(ZnO)m (m = integer) single crystal films with superlattice structure to experimentally characterize the phonon coherence length as well as the Umklapp mean free path in one system. According to the results, the nature of heat conduction in superlattice can change in three different ways depending on the ratio between the phonon coherence length and the superlattice period. We also discuss the role of the phonon characteristic lengths in the heat conduction of superlattices and its anisotropy.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2020

Electric field thermopower modulation analyses of the operation mechanism of transparent amorphous SnO$_2$ thin-film transistor

Transparent amorphous oxide semiconductors (TAOSs) based transparent thin-film transistors (TTFTs) with high field effect mobility are essential for developing advanced flat panel displays. Among TAOSs, amorphous (a-) SnO$_2$ has several advantages against current a-InGaZnO4 such as higher field effect mobility and being indium free. Although a-SnO$_2$ TTFT has been demonstrated several times, the operation mechanism has not been clarified thus far due to the strong gas sensing characteristics of SnO$_2$. Here we clarify the operation mechanism of a-SnO$_2$ TTFT by electric field thermopower modulation analyses. We prepared a bottom-gate top-contact type TTFT using 4.2-nm-thick a-SnO$_2$ as the channel without any surface passivation. The effective thickness of the conducting channel was ~1.7 + - 0.4 nm in air and in vacuum, but a large threshold gate voltage shift occurred in different atmospheres; this is attributed to carrier depletion near at the top surface (~2.5 nm) of the a-SnO$_2$ due to its interaction with the gas molecules and the resulting shift in the Fermi energy. The present results would provide a fundamental design concept to develop a-SnO$_2$ TTFT.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2020

Effect of lattice distortions on the electron and thermal transport properties of transparent oxide semiconductor Ba1-xSrxSnO3 solid solution films

La-doped ASnO3 (A = Ba, Sr) have great potential as advanced transparent oxide semiconductors due to their large optical bandgap and relatively high electron mobility. The bandgap of Ba1-xSrxSnO3 solid solution increases from 3.2 eV (BaSnO3) to 4.6 eV (SrSnO3) with x. However, the increase in the bandgap is accompanied by reductions in the electrical conductivity. The versatility in the changes in the electrical properties are not trivial, and the property optimization has been challenging. Here we propose a simple metric for quantifying the transport properties of ASnO3. We investigated the electron/thermal transport properties of Ba1-xSrxSnO3 solid solution films and their relationship with the lattice distortion. The results suggest that the all transport properties of Ba1-xSrxSnO3 are dominated by the lattice distortion. This phenomenon is attributed to the distortions in the SnO6 octahedron, which consists the conduction band.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Phase Instability amid Dimensional Crossover in Artificial Oxide Crystal

Artificial crystals synthesized by atomic-scale epitaxy provides the ability to control the dimensions of the quantum phases and associated phase transitions via precise thickness modulation. In particular, reduction in dimensionality via quantized control of atomic layers is a powerful approach to revealing hidden electronic and magnetic phases. Here, we demonstrate a dimensionality-controlled and induced metal-insulator transition (MIT) in atomically designed superlattices by synthesizing a genuine two dimensional (2D) SrRuO3 crystal with highly suppressed charge transfer. The tendency to ferromagnetically align the spins in SrRuO3 layer diminishes in 2D as the interlayer exchange interaction vanishes, accompanying the 2D localization of electrons. Furthermore, electronic and magnetic instabilities in the two SrRuO3 unit cell layers induce a thermally-driven MIT along with a metamagnetic transition.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

High electrical conducting deep-ultraviolet-transparent oxide semiconductor La-doped SrSnO3 exceeding ~3000 S cm-1

La-doped SrSnO3 (LSSO) is known as one of deep-ultraviolet (DUV)-transparent conducting oxides with an energy bandgap of ~4.6 eV. Since LSSO can be grown heteroepitaxially on more wide bandgap substrates such as MgO (Eg ~7.8 eV), LSSO is considered to be a good candidate as a DUV-transparent electrode. However, the electrical conductivity of LSSO films are below 1000 S cm^-1, most likely due to the low solubility of La ion in the LSSO lattice. Here we report that high electrically conducting (>3000 S cm^-1) LSSO thin films with an energy bandgap of ~4.6 eV can be fabricated by pulsed laser deposition on MgO substrate followed by a simple annealing in vacuum. From the X-ray diffraction and the scanning transmission electron microscopy analyses, we found that lateral grain growth occurred during the annealing, which improved the activation rate of La ion, leading to a significant improvement of carrier concentration (3.26 x 10^20 cm^-3) and Hall mobility (55.8 cm^2 V^-1 s^-1). The present DUV-transparent oxide semiconductor would be useful as a transparent electrode for developing optoelectronic devices, which transmit and/or emit DUV-light.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Macroscopic visualization of fast electrochemical reaction of SrCoOx oxygen sponge

Strontium cobaltite (SrCoOx) is known as a material showing fast topotactic electrochemical Redox reaction so-called oxygen sponge. Although atomic scale phenomenon of the oxidation of SrCoO2.5 into SrCoO3 is known, the macroscopic phenomenon has not been clarified yet thus far. Here, we visualize the electrochemical oxidation of SrCoOx macroscopically. SrCoOx epitaxial films with various oxidation states were prepared by the electrochemical oxidation of SrCoO2.5 film into SrCoO3-d film. Steep decrease of both resistivity and the absolute value of thermopower of electrochemically oxidized SrCoOx epitaxial films indicated the columnar oxidation firstly occurred along with the surface normal and then spread in the perpendicular to the normal. Further, we directly visualized the phenomena using the conductive AFM. This macroscopic image of the electrochemical oxidation would be useful to develop a functional device utilizing the electrochemical redox reaction of SrCoOx.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Room Temperature Ferroelectric Ferromagnet in 1D Tetrahedral Chain Network

Ferroelectricity occurs in crystals with broken spatial inversion symmetry. In conventional perovskite oxides, concerted ionic displacements within a three-dimensional network of transition metal-oxygen polyhedra (MOx) manifest spontaneous polarization. Meanwhile, some two-dimensional networks of MOx can foster geometric ferroelectricity with magnetism, owing to the distortion of the polyhedra. Because of the fundamentally different mechanism of ferroelectricity in a two-dimensional network, one can further challenge an uncharted mechanism of ferroelectricity in a one-dimensional channel of MOx and estimate its feasibility. This communication presents ferroelectricity and coupled ferromagnetism in a one-dimensional FeO4 tetrahedral chain network of a brownmillerite SrFeO2.5 epitaxial thin film. The result provides a new paradigm for designing low-dimensional MOx networks, which is expected to benefit the realization of macroscopic ferro-ordering materials including ferroelectric ferromagnets.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

Oxygen vacancy driven mobility enhancement in epitaxial La-doped BaSnO3 from vacuum annealing

Wide bandgap (~3.1 eV) La-doped BaSnO3 (LBSO) has attracted increasing attention as one of the transparent oxide semiconductors since its bulk single crystal shows a high carrier mobility (~320 cm2 V-1 s-1) with a high carrier concentration (~10^20 cm-3). For this reason, many researchers have fabricated LBSO epitaxial films thus far, but the obtainable carrier mobility is substantially low compared to that of single crystals due to the formation of the lattice/structural defects. Here we report that the mobility suppression in LBSO films can be lifted by a simple vacuum annealing process. The vacuum annealing of the LBSO films on MgO substrate increased the carrier concentrations due to the oxygen vacancy formation, which leads to simultaneous lateral grain growth. As a result, the carrier mobility was greatly improved by the vacuum annealing, which does not occur after heat treatment in air. These results expand our current knowledge on the point defect formation in epitaxial LBSO films and show that vacuum annealing is a powerful tool for enhancing the mobility values of LBSO films.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

Buffer layer-less fabrication of high-mobility transparent oxide semiconductor, La-doped BaSnO3

Transparent oxide semiconductors (TOSs) showing both high visible transparency and high electron mobility have attracted great attention towards the realization of advanced optoelectronic devices. La-doped BaSnO3 (LBSO) is one of the most promising TOSs because its single crystal exhibits a high electron mobility. However, in the LBSO films, it is very hard to obtain high mobility due to the threading dislocations, which are originated from the lattice mismatch between the film and the substrate. Therefore, many researchers have tried to improve the mobility by inserting a buffer layer. While the buffer layers increased the electron mobilities, this approach leaves much to be desired since it involves a two-step film fabrication process and the enhanced mobility values are still significantly lower than single crystal values. We show herein that the electron mobility of LBSO films can be improved without inserting any buffer layers if the films are grown under highly oxidative ozone (O3) atmospheres. The O3 environments relaxed the LBSO lattice and reduced the formation of Sn2+ states, which are known to suppress the electron mobility in LBSO. The resultant O3-LBSO films showed improved mobility values up to 115 cm2 V-1 s-1, which is among the highest in LBSO films on SrTiO3 substrates and comparable to LBSO films with buffer layers.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

Large thickness dependence of the carrier mobility in a transparent oxide semiconductor, La-doped BaSnO3

We report herein that the carrier mobility of the 2%-La-doped BaSnO3 (LBSO) films on (001) SrTiO3 and (001) MgO substrates strongly depends on the thickness whereas it is unrelated to the lattice mismatch (+5.4% for SrTiO3, -2.3% for MgO). Although we observed large differences in the lattice parameters, the lateral grain size (~85 nm for SrTiO3, ~20 nm for MgO), the surface morphology and the density of misfit dislocations, the mobility increased almost simultaneously with the thickness in both cases and saturated at ~100 cm2 V-1 s-1, together with the approaching to the nominal carrier concentration (=[2% La3+]), clearly indicating that the behavior of mobility depends on the film thickness. The present results would be beneficial to understand the behavior of mobility and fruitful to further enhance the mobility of LBSO films.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2017

Gate tunable spin-orbit coupling and weak antilocalization effect in an epitaxial La$_{2/3}$Sr$_{1/3}$MnO$_3$ thin film

Epitaxial La$_{2/3}$Sr$_{1/3}$MnO$_3$ (LSMO) films have been grown on SrTiO$_3$ (001) substrates via pulsed laser deposition. In a 22-nm thick LSMO film with a low residual resistivity of $ρ_0$ = 59 $μΩ$ cm, we found a zero-field dip in the magnetoresistance (MR) below 10 K, manifesting the weak antilocalization (WAL) effect due to strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC). We have analyzed the MR data by including the D'yakonov-Perel' spin-relaxation mechanism in the WAL theory. We explain that the delocalized spin-down electron subband states play a crucial role for facilitating marked SOC in clean LSMO. Moreover, we find that the SOC strength and gate voltage tunability is similar to that in the 2DEG at LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ interface, indicating the presence of an internal electric field near the LSMO/SrTiO$_3$ interface. In a control measurement on a 5-nm thick high resistivity ($ρ_0$ = 280 $μΩ$ cm) LSMO film, we observe only a small zero-field peak in MR from weak localization effect, indicating negligible SOC.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Leakage-free electrolytes with different conductivity for non-volatile memory device utilizing insulator/metal ferromagnet transition of SrCoOx

The electrochemical switching of SrCoOx-based non-volatile memory with thin-film-transistor structure was examined by using liquid-leakage-free electrolytes with different conductivity (s) as the gate insulator. We first examined leakage-free water, which is incorporated in the amorphous (a-) 12CaO 7Al2O3 film with nanoporous structure (CAN), but the electrochemical oxidation/reduction of SrCoOx layer required the application of high gate voltage (Vg) up to 20 V for a very long retention-time (t) 40 minutes, primarily due to the low s (2.0 x 10-8 S cm-1 at RT) of leakage-free water.We then controlled the s of leakage-free electrolyte, infiltrated in the a-NaxTaO3 film with nanopillar array structure, from 8.0 x 10-8 S cm-1 to 2.5 x 10-6 S cm-1 at RT by changing the x = 0.01-1.0. As the result, the t, required for the metallization of SrCoOx layer under small Vg = -3 V, becomes two orders of magnitude shorter with increase of the s of the a-NaxTaO3 leakage-free electrolyte. These results indicate that the ion migration in the leakage-free electrolyte is the rate-determining step for the electrochemical switching, compared to the other electrochemical process, and the high s of the leakage-free electrolyte is the key factor for the development of the non-volatile SrCoOx-based electro-magnetic phase switching device.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗