Three-dimensional quantitative chemical roughness of buried ZrO_2/ln_2O_3 interfaces via energy-filtered electron tomography

摘要

The protocol to calculate the chemical roughness from three-dimensional (3-D) data cube acquired by energy-filtered electron tomography has been developed and applied to analyze the 3-D Zr distribution at the arbitrarily shaped interfaces in the ZrO_2/In_2O_3 multilayer films. The calculated root-mean-square roughness quantitatively revealed the chemical roughness at the buried ZrO_2/In_2O_3 interfaces, which is the deviation of Zr distribution from the ideal flat interface. Knowledge of the chemistry and structure of oxide interfaces in 3-D provides information useful for understanding changes in the behavior of a model ZrO_2/In_2O_3 heterostructure that has potential to exhibit mixed conduction behavior.