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            Free, publicly-accessible full text available May 1, 2026
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            Free, publicly-accessible full text available January 5, 2026
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            Abstract Ferroelectric hafnium zirconium oxide (HZO) holds promise for nextgeneration memory and transistors due to its superior scalability and seamless integration with complementary metal‐oxide‐semiconductor processing. A major challenge in developing this emerging ferroelectric material is the metastable nature of the non‐centrosymmetric polar phase responsible for ferroelectricity, resulting in a coexistence of both polar and non‐polar phases with uneven grain sizes and random orientations. Due to the structural similarity between the multiple phases and the nanoscale dimensions of the thin film devices, accurate measurement of phase‐specific information remains challenging. Here, the application of 4D scanning transmission electron microscopy is demonstrated with automated electron diffraction pattern indexing to analyze multiphase polycrystalline HZO thin films, enabling the characterization of crystallographic phase and orientation across large working areas on the order of hundreds of nanometers. This approach offers a powerful characterization framework to produce a quantitative and statistically robust analysis of the intricate structure of HZO films by uncovering phase composition, polarization axis alignment, and unique phase distribution within the HZO film. This study introduces a novel approach for analyzing ferroelectric HZO, facilitating reliable characterization of process‐structure‐property relationships imperative to accelerating the growth optimization, performance, and successful implementation of ferroelectric HZO in devices.more » « less
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            The effect of oxygen reduction on the magnetic properties of LaFeO3−δ (LFO) thin films was studied to better understand the viability of LFO as a candidate for magnetoionic memory. Differences in the amount of oxygen lost by LFO and its magnetic behavior were observed in nominally identical LFO films grown on substrates prepared using different common methods. In an LFO film grown on as-received SrTiO3 (STO) substrate, the original perovskite film structure was preserved following reduction, and remnant magnetization was only seen at low temperatures. In a LFO film grown on annealed STO, the LFO lost significantly more oxygen and the microstructure decomposed into La- and Fe-rich regions with remnant magnetization that persisted up to room temperature. These results demonstrate an ability to access multiple, distinct magnetic states via oxygen reduction in the same starting material and suggest LFO may be a suitable materials platform for nonvolatile multistate memory.more » « less
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            There is increasing interest in the alpha polytype of Ga2O3 because of its even larger bandgap than the more studied beta polytype, but in common with the latter, there is no viable p-type doping technology. One option is to use p-type oxides to realize heterojunctions and NiO is one of the candidate oxides. The band alignment of sputtered NiO on α-Ga2O3 remains type II, staggered gap for annealing temperatures up to 600 °C, showing that this is a viable approach for hole injection in power electronic devices based on the alpha polytype of Ga2O3. The magnitude of both the conduction and valence band offsets increases with temperature up to 500 °C, but then is stable to 600 °C. For the as-deposited NiO/α-Ga2O3 heterojunction, ΔEV = −2.8 and ΔEC = 1.6 eV, while after 600 °C annealing the corresponding values are ΔEV = −4.4 and ΔEC = 3.02 eV. These values are 1−2 eV larger than for the NiO/β-Ga2O3 heterojunction.more » « less
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