Epitaxial Oxides on Glass: A Platform for Integrated Oxide Devices

The fabrication of epitaxial, ultra-thin SrTiO₃ (STO) on thick SiO₂ without the need for complicated wafer-bonding processes has been demonstrated. The resulting transition metal oxide (TMO)-on-glass layer stack is analogous to traditional silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers,
where the crystalline device silicon layer of SOI has been replaced by a crystalline functional TMO layer. Fabrication starts with ultra-thin body SOI on which crystalline STO is grown epitaxially by molecular beam epitaxy. The device silicon layer is subsequently fully oxidized by
ex situ high-temperature dry O₂ annealing, as confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray reflectivity, and high-resolution electron microscopy. STO maintains its epitaxial registry to the carrier silicon substrate after annealing and no evidence for degradation of the STO
crystalline quality as a result of the TMO-on-glass fabrication process is observed. The ease of fabricating the TMO-on-glass platform without the need for wafer bonding will enable rapid progress in the development of state-of-the-art TMO-based electronic and photonic devices.