Metal oxides possess many properties that make them unique and potentially important for a range of technologies. No other class of materials exhibits such a wide range of behavior: band gaps spanning the visible and UV; electronic properties ranging from superconducting to metallic to semiconducting to insulating; magnetic properties ranging from ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic; and dielectric properties ranging from low-k to ferroelectric and piezoelectric. The next century will require new materials systems encompassing these properties, often in artificially-structured combinations, and fabricated with a high degree of control. For example, it is clear that UV-based optoelectronics, magnetic tunnel junction and ferroelectric nonvolatile memory, spin quantum devices, and highly effective photocatalytic materials will be of great importance in information, medical, and environmental applications. Metal oxides and their associated surfaces will play important roles in many of these functions. The rich chemical, electronic, optical, and magnetic behavior of metal oxides, along with superior thermal stability, uniquely suit these materials for a number of applications. The richness in properties of metal oxides is derived from the inherent chemical and physical complexities of these materials. These complexities include multiple valences, complex phase diagrams, and vastly different properties among isostructural oxides.
Revised: February 8, 2003 |
Published: July 2, 2001
Citation
Chambers S.A. 2001.Structure of thin epitaxial oxide films and their surfaces. In The Chemical Physics of Solid Surfaces, edited by D.P. Woodruff. 301-323. New York, New York:Elsevier.PNNL-SA-33772.