Ionic transport in Samarium doped Ceria free-standing single crystal membrane

We present the realization of Samarium Doped Ceria (SDC) free-standing membranes and their structural and ionic transport properties. An epitaxial layer of water-soluble Sr3Al2O6 (SAO) sacrificial layer was deposited onto SrTiO3 (100) oriented single crystal substrate, followed by the deposition of the SDC layer. The free-standing SDC membrane was produced by etching the SAO layer in water. The creation of a 2D free-standing membrane allowed us to determine its transport and structural properties without any possible contribution of the substrate. Moreover, the availability of a thin SDC single crystal free-standing membrane offers the opportunity to tune the electrical properties by applying, for instance, compressive or tensile strain much larger than any substrates can induce by the lattice mismatch. Furthermore, this procedure allows the transfer of the film onto any kind of substrate and complex integrated circuit, i.e. those based on silicon technologies, giving the possibility to realize a new class of complex devices based on oxide ultra-thin films.