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A new class of ceramics, called entropy stabilized oxides, High Entropy Oxides (HEOs), multicomponent oxides, compositionally complex oxides, or polycation oxides, has generated considerable research interest since the first report in 2015. This multicomponent approach has created new opportunities for materials design and discovery. This Perspective will highlight some current research developments and possible applications while also providing an overview of the many successfully synthesized HEO systems to date. The polycation approach to composition development will be discussed along with a few case studies, challenges, and future possibilities afforded by this novel class of materials.

In this work, we demonstrate that the optical bandgap of WO3 films can be continuously controlled through uniaxial strain induced by low-energy helium implantation. The insertion of He into epitaxially grown and coherently strained WO3 films can be used to induce single axis out-of-plane lattice expansion of up to 2%. Ellipsometric spectroscopy reveals that the optical bandgap is reduced by about 0.18 eV per percent expansion of the out-of-plane unit cell length. Density functional theory calculations show that this response is a direct result of changes in orbital degeneracy driven by changes in the octahedral rotations and tilts.

Ionic liquid electrolytes are gaining widespread application as a gate dielectric used to control ion transport in functional materials. This letter systematically examines the important influence that device geometry in standard “side gate” 3-terminal geometries plays in device performance of a well-known oxygen ion conductor. We show that the most influential component of device design is the ratio between the area of the gate electrode and the active channel, while the spacing between these components and their individual shapes has a negligible contribution. These findings provide much needed guidance in device design intended for ionotronic gating with ionic liquids.

To have precise atomic layer control over interfaces, we examine the growth of complex oxides through the sequential deposition from binary targets by pulsed laser deposition. In situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) is used to control the growth and achieve films with excellent structural quality. The growth from binary oxide targets is fundamentally different from single target growth modes and shows more similarities to shuttered growth by molecular beam epitaxy. The RHEED intensity oscillations of non-stoichiometric growth are consistent with a model of island growth and accumulation of excess material on the surface that can be utilized to determine the correct stoichiometry for growth. Correct monolayer doses can be determined through an envelope frequency in the RHEED intensity oscillations. In order to demonstrate the ability of this growth technique to create complex heterostructures, the artificial n = 2 and 3 Srn+1TinO3n+1 Ruddlesden-Popper phases are grown with good long-ran...

Synchrotron and lab-scale x-ray diffraction shows that tetragonal-like T'-BiFeO3 films on miscut LaAlO3 substrates (miscut < 5 deg) exhibit (00l)-planes tilted away from those of the substrate as predicted by the "Nagai model" (except for miscut, 10 pages, 6 figures

Large scale phase separation between ferromagnetic metallic and charge-ordered insulating states in La1−x−yPryCaxMnO3 (LPCMO) crystals and thin films is very sensitive to structural and magnetic changes and is responsible for the enhanced magnetoresistance in LPCMO compared to its parent compounds. By epitaxially growing LPCMO thin films on different substrates, the strain on the LPCMO thin films can be changed, thereby controlling the energy balance between the two phases. LPCMO films of several different thicknesses have been grown on NdGaO3 (NGO), SrTiO3 (STO), SrLaGaO4 (SLGO), and LaAlO3 (LAO) substrates. The compressive strain from the LAO and SLGO substrates suppresses the long-range charge ordering in these samples and enhances magnetoresistance and magnetic hystereses. Conversely, the tensile strain from the STO and NGO substrates enhances the long-range charge ordering and reduces the magnetoresistance and magnetic hystereses.