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This paper presents the experimental evidence of reversible insulator–metal transition (IMT) in thin-film amorphous molybdenum trioxide (MoO3) induced by electric fields of just a few volts. The presence of oxygen vacancies in MoO3 is considered to play a significant role in the reported reversible IMT. The oxygen vacancies not only impact MoO3 stoichiometry but also the optical bandgap. The subthreshold slope for IMT in 10 nm-thick MoO3-based devices is 48.3 mV/decade, which represents a transition from an insulator to a metallic state, and the electric field threshold for such a transition was found to be equal to 0.034 V/Å. Following the IMT in MoO3, there are six orders of magnitude differences between the resistivity of the insulator state (27.5 M Ω at −9 V) and the metallic state (80 Ω between +5 and +9 V). In addition, we reported stabilization of a nanocrystalline hexagonal MoO3 (h-MoO3) phase in thicker MoO3 (150 nm-thick) in the presence of oxygen vacancies that behave as a wide bandgap (3.1 eV) ferroelectric semiconductor with a coercive field of about 50 kV/cm, a saturation polarization of about 30 μC/cm2, and a remanent polarization of about 10 μC/cm2. This ferroelectricity in nanocrystalline h-MoO3 (150 nm-thick) remains stable even after 8 months of storage of the sample in ambient conditions, with remanent polarization increasing up to 20 μC/cm2. These are unexpected results from MoO3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several aspects such as the growth relation between the layers of the GaN/AlN/SiC heterostructure, the consistency of the interfaces, and elemental diffusion are achieved by High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HR-TEM). In addition, the dislocation densities together with the defect correlation lengths are investigated via High-Resolution X-ray Diffraction (HR-XRD) and the characteristic positron diffusion length is achieved by Doppler Broadening Spectroscopy (DBS). Moreover, a comparative analysis with our previous work (i.e., GaN/AlN/Si and GaN/AlN/Al2O3) has been carried out. Within the epitaxial GaN layer defined by the relationship F 4 ¯ 3 m (111) 3C-SiC || P 63 m c (0002) AlN || P 63 m c (0002) GaN, the total dislocation density has been assessed as being 1.47 × 1010 cm−2. Compared with previously investigated heterostructures (on Si and Al2O3 substrates), the obtained dislocation correlation lengths (Le = 171 nm and Ls =288 nm) and the mean distance between two dislocations (rd = 82 nm) are higher. This reveals an improved crystal quality of the GaN with SiC as a growth template. In addition, the DBS measurements upheld the aforementioned results with a higher effective positron diffusion length L eff GaN 2 = 75 ± 20 nm for the GaN layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assesses the characteristics (edge and screw dislocation density) of a commercially available GaN/AlN/Al 2 O 3 wafer. The heterostructure was evaluated by means of high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HR-XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), and Doppler-Broadening Spectroscopy (DBS). The results were mathematically modeled to extract defect densities and defect correlation lengths in the GaN film. The structure of the GaN film, AlN buffer, Al 2 O 3 substrate and their growth relationships were determined through HR-TEM. DBS studies were used to determine the effective positron diffusion length of the GaN film. Within the epitaxial layers, defined by a [GaN P 63 m c (0 0 0 2) || P 63 m c AlN (0 0 0 2) || (0 0 0 2) R 3 ¯ c Al 2 O 3 ] relationship, regarding the GaN film, a strong correlation between defect densities, defect correlation lengths, and positron diffusion length was assessed. The defect densities ρ d e = 6.13 × 10 10 cm -2 , ρ d s = 1.36 × 10 10 cm -2 , along with the defect correlation lengths L e = 155 nm and L s = 229 nm found in the 289 nm layer of GaN, account for the effective positron diffusion length L eff ~60 nm.