Atomic ironing for conformal interfaces in freestanding oxide nanomembranes
Abstract
Atomically well-defined interfaces are essential for realizing functional interlayer coupling in stacked and twisted oxide heterostructures, yet transferred freestanding oxides can develop structural inhomogeneities, including local curvatures, interfacial voids, and incomplete contacts with substrates. Here, we demonstrate that these transfer-induced structural disorders and imperfections evolve substantially and can be suppressed by post-transfer thermal treatments, yielding bulk-like crystalline freestanding oxide nanomembranes. Using freestanding SrTiO3 membranes as a model system, we report a systematic understanding of the role of "atomic ironing" and the associated evolution of lattice mosaicity, interfacial roughness, and optical bandgap. We further demonstrate atomically bonded conformal interfaces in twisted SrTiO3 heterostructures, highlighting the importance of post-transfer thermal processes. These results establish a synthetic strategy to restore the structural integrity and intrinsic bulk-like functionality of freestanding oxide nanomembranes, enabling stacked, twisted, and heterogeneously integrated oxide architectures with atomically well-defined interfaces for emerging quantum functionalities.
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BibTeX
@misc{song2026atomic,
title = {{Atomic ironing for conformal interfaces in freestanding oxide nanomembranes}},
author = {Jeongkeun Song and Keaghan Knight and Keun-Yeol Park and Young-Hoon Kim and Tyler J. Sachs and Hu Miao and Jiaqiang Yan and Celesta S. Chang and Ambrose Seo and Ho Nyung Lee},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.19275},
eprint = {2610.19275},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.19275},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Atomic ironing for conformal interfaces in freestanding oxide nanomembranes
AU - Jeongkeun Song
AU - Keaghan Knight
AU - Keun-Yeol Park
AU - Young-Hoon Kim
AU - Tyler J. Sachs
AU - Hu Miao
AU - Jiaqiang Yan
AU - Celesta S. Chang
AU - Ambrose Seo
AU - Ho Nyung Lee
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/13
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.19275
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.19275
AB - Atomically well-defined interfaces are essential for realizing functional interlayer coupling in stacked and twisted oxide heterostructures, yet transferred freestanding oxides can develop structural inhomogeneities, including local curvatures, interfacial voids, and incomplete contacts with substrates. Here, we demonstrate that these transfer-induced structural disorders and imperfections evolve substantially and can be suppressed by post-transfer thermal treatments, yielding bulk-like crystalline freestanding oxide nanomembranes. Using freestanding SrTiO3 membranes as a model system, we report a systematic understanding of the role of "atomic ironing" and the associated evolution of lattice mosaicity, interfacial roughness, and optical bandgap. We further demonstrate atomically bonded conformal interfaces in twisted SrTiO3 heterostructures, highlighting the importance of post-transfer thermal processes. These results establish a synthetic strategy to restore the structural integrity and intrinsic bulk-like functionality of freestanding oxide nanomembranes, enabling stacked, twisted, and heterogeneously integrated oxide architectures with atomically well-defined interfaces for emerging quantum functionalities.
ER -