Atomic interface structure-property investigations

Our current understanding of the relationship between interfacial structure and the resulting properties remains very rudimentary. This is a concern for many fields and applications, including metal/semiconductor contacts, insulator/semiconductor field effect junctions, magnetic multilayers, ferroelectric thin films, and semiconductor heterostructures. The situation is slightly improved in the case of epitaxial growth where a deposited layer follows the structure of the underlying substrate. However, even with these systems the interfacial properties are difficult to predict accurately, even when impurities and defects can be ignored. This paper highlights a number of recent examples of interface structure-property investigations that have attempted to understand how the interface formation determines the relevant film or interface property.