Outlook

Abstract

A need for future research on ultrathin oxide layers that transcends many topics brought up in the outlook sections at the end of the individual chapters is a deeper understanding of the fundamental physical and chemical processes that occur within and at the interfaces of oxide layers. Improved knowledge of these processes is expected to be essential for guiding the design and selection of ultrathin oxides for both existing commercial technologies and novel applications. In this final chapter, major challenges for achieving these goals are outlined within the framework of modeling and experimental advances that are anticipated to be necessary to overcome them. First, challenges and opportunities related to modeling ultrathin oxides are discussed, followed by descriptions of emerging new spectroscopic techniques that are particularly well suited to probing buried oxide/semiconductor or oxide/metal interfaces. Lastly, this chapter highlights the importance of advancing experimental techniques capable of uncovering the dynamics of interfacial phenomena at ultrathin oxide layers that occur at timescales spanning many orders of magnitude.