New projects & Milestones

Our unit produces films by means of pulsed laser deposition and metal organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) techniques and works in close collaboration with many ICN2 research groups, as well as with external teams. A recently developed two-laser PLD setup allows co-ablation of two targets for deposition of films with composition gradient, as well as new mixed composition materials. Our unit carries out advanced structural characterisation of thin films, primarily by X-ray diffraction (XRD) as well as working on the development of advanced methods for the characterisation by XRD of epitaxial thin films. These include in-plane diffraction, Grazing Incidence XRD (GIXRD) analysis, as well as 3D reciprocal space mapping. This microstructure research is complemented with High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM) characterisation.

We are particularly interested in surface and interfacial phenomena, such as oxygen exchange kinetics. For this purpose we have developed a time-resolved XRD technique that monitors the subtle chemical expansion produced in transition metal oxide thin films when changing their oxygen stoichiometry. We aim to perform in-situ and in-operando characterisation by XRD in different solid state electrochemical devices. These studies have also been extended to in-situ structural analysis of ferroelectric materials, and materials showing resistive switching, as well as of photostrictive materials.

We have also continued working on the development of a thin film MOCVD process for the growth of high-quality ultrathin transition metal dichalcogenides, starting with MoS2, in collaboration with the ICN2 group led by Prof. José A. Garrido.

In 2020, we started working in collaboration of Prof. Gustau Catalan’s group on the fabrication of single-crystal free-standing membranes of perovskite oxides by using water-soluble sacrificial epitaxial layers in an attempt to implement functional oxides in a new generation of electronic devices.