Cation non-stoichiometry in Fe:SrTiO thin films and its effect on the electrical conductivity.

The interplay of structure, composition and electrical conductivity was investigated for Fe-doped SrTiO thin films prepared by pulsed laser deposition. Structural information was obtained by reciprocal space mapping while solution-based inductively-coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy and positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy were employed to reveal the cation composition and the predominant point defects of the thin films, respectively. A severe cation non-stoichiometry with Sr vacancies was found in films deposited from stoichiometric targets.

Online-LASIL: Laser Ablation of Solid Samples in Liquid with online-coupled ICP-OES detection for direct determination of the stoichiometry of complex metal oxide thin layers.

Advanced materials such as complex metal oxides are used in a wide range of applications and have further promising perspectives in the form of thin films. The exact chemical composition essentially influences the electronic properties of these materials which makes correct assessment of their composition necessary. However, due to high chemical resistance and in the case of thin films low absolute analyte amounts, this procedure is in most cases not straightforward and extremely time-demanding.

Fast Li-Ion-Conducting Garnet-Related Li Fe LaZrO with Uncommon 4̅3 Structure.

Fast Li-ion-conducting Li oxide garnets receive a great deal of attention as they are suitable candidates for solid-state Li electrolytes. It was recently shown that Ga-stabilized LiLaZrO crystallizes in the acentric cubic space group 4̅3. This structure can be derived by a symmetry reduction of the garnet-type 3̅ structure, which is the most commonly found space group of Li oxide garnets and garnets in general.