Epitaxial growth of high-κ oxides on silicon

The growth of epitaxial high-κ oxides on silicon has recently become a field of intense researches, due to the potential applications of these heterostructures in Complementary-Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) systems, but also for the integration of functional oxides or III–V semiconductors on Si. Some of the key advances in epitaxy of SrTiO3, γ-Al2O3 and Gd2O3 epitaxial films on Si(001) and Si(111) substrates are reviewed. It is shown that MBE affords unique advantages in interface engineering by controlling growth parameters. The conformation of the O sublattice of the oxide is shown to play a predominant role on the crystallographic orientations of the oxide layers with respect to the substrate.