Sb2Te3 and Its Superlattices: Optimization by Statistical Design

Jitendra K. Behera*, Xilin Zhou, Alok Ranjan, Robert E. Simpson

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The objective of this work is to demonstrate the usefulness of fractional factorial design for optimizing the crystal quality of chalcogenide van der Waals (vdW) crystals. We statistically analyze the growth parameters of highly c axis oriented Sb2Te3 crystals and Sb2Te3-GeTe phase change vdW heterostructured superlattices. The statistical significance of the growth parameters of temperature, pressure, power, buffer materials, and buffer layer thickness was found by fractional factorial design and response surface analysis. Temperature, pressure, power, and their second-order interactions are the major factors that significantly influence the quality of the crystals. Additionally, using tungsten rather than molybdenum as a buffer layer significantly enhances the crystal quality. Fractional factorial design minimizes the number of experiments that are necessary to find the optimal growth conditions, resulting in an order of magnitude improvement in the crystal quality. We highlight that statistical design of experiment methods, which is more commonly used in product design, should be considered more broadly by those designing and optimizing materials.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)15040-15050
Number of pages11
JournalACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Volume10
Issue number17
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 May 2018

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The research was performed under auspices of the SUTD-MIT international design center (IDC). The project was in part funded by the A-STAR Singapore−China joint research program (grant #142020046) and in part funded by the Ministry of Education (MOE) Tier 2 grant MOE2017-T2-1-161 “Electric field induced transition in chalcogenide monolayers and superlattices”. J.K.B. is grateful for his Ph.D. presidential graduate fellowship and acknowledges support from MOE, Singapore.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 American Chemical Society.

Keywords

  • Box-Behnken design
  • crystal texture
  • design of experiments
  • fractional factorial design
  • phase change material
  • superlattice
  • van der Waals epitaxy

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Materials Science

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