| Polar oxide interfaces are formed when two polar oxide surfaces join. The apparent presence of an electric dipole moment in the repeat unit parallel to the surface/interface closely relate the polar oxide interfaces instability to that of the of polar oxide surfaces. In this thesis, we combined Electron Microscopy and Density Functional Theory to study how the interface polarity affects the atomic and electronic structure of polar oxide interfaces, by using Fe3O4(111)/MgO(111) as a model system. The formation of Fe nanoinclusions found at the interface and within the polar Fe3 O4(111) film is proposed to be new stabilization mechanism for the magnetite film. High-resolution electron microscopy imaging of the interface together with first principle calculations suggest an atomically abrupt substrate-film interface determined with Fe monolayer in octahedral position (FeB). This interface stacking (O/Mg/O/3FeB/O) provides lowest total interface (system) energy and the most effectively screening of the MgO(111) substrate surface polarity. The results of our study suggest that surface polarity could be used as an additional growth parameter in creating novel material structures, such as metals in oxide matrices. |
