Search results for " interfaces"
showing 10 items of 1158 documents
One-step formation of nanostructures on silicon surfaces using pure hydrogen-radical-initiated reactions
2013
One-step formation of silicon nanowires, sheets, and texture surface on a silicon substrate has been achieved using hydrogen-radical etching reactions. Metallic tungsten and for comparison purposes a tungsten hot wire, were used as catalysts for the hydrogen-molecular cracking. It was shown that a variety of surface structures on silicon such as inverted pyramid texture, V-groove texture, dense silicon nanowire growth over texture, and nanosheet structure can be obtained by controlling the process conditions. The obtained results suggested that the formation of nanotungsten silicide particle is an essential prerequisite to obtain these structures. The particles work as an etching mask again…
Kinetics of Bulk Lifetime Degradation in Float‐Zone (FZ) Silico n : Fast Activation and Annihilation of Grown‐In Defects and the Role of Hydrogen vs …
2020
Float-zone (FZ) silicon often has grown-in defects that are thermally activated in a broad temperature window (≈300–800 °C). These defects cause efficient electron-hole pair recombination, which deteriorates the bulk minority carrier lifetime and thereby possible photovoltaic conversion efficiencies. Little is known so far about these defects which are possibly Si-vacancy/nitrogen-related (VxNy). Herein, it is shown that the defect activation takes place on sub-second timescales, as does the destruction of the defects at higher temperatures. Complete defect annihilation, however, is not achieved until nitrogen impurities are effused from the wafer, as confirmed by secondary ion mass spectro…
Stabilisation of tetragonal zirconia in oxidised ZrSiN nanocomposite coatings
2004
Abstract ZrSiN coatings were deposited on steel and silicon substrates by reactive sputtering of a composite ZrSi target. The coatings were oxidised in air in the 600–750 °C temperature range. As-deposited and oxidised films were characterised by X-ray diffraction, micro-Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoemission spectroscopy and glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy. The oxidation behaviour of ZrSiN coatings was compared to that of ZrN ones. It was demonstrated that addition of silicon in the 3–5 at.% range into ZrN-based coatings promotes the onset of oxidation by nearly 100 °C. The structure of the oxide layer was strongly dependent on the film’s silicon content: monoclinic zirc…
Development of dark Ti(C,O,N) coatings prepared by reactive sputtering
2008
Accepted manuscript
Effect of germanium addition on the properties of reactively sputtered ZrN films
2005
For the first time, Zr-Ge-N films were deposited on silicon and steel substrates by sputtering a Zr-Ge composite target in reactive Ar-N2 mixture. The films were characterised by electron probe microanalysis, X-ray diffraction, micro-Raman spectroscopy and depth-sensing indentation. The effects of the Ge content and substrate bias voltage on the films' structure, internal stress, hardness and oxidation resistance were investigated. Substrate bias strongly influenced the chemical composition of the films being observed by means of a steep decrease in the Ge content for negative bias voltages higher than -80 V. In these cases, a significant hardness improvement was registered. For -100 V bias…
Fabrication of superconducting tantalum nitride thin films using infra-red pulsed laser deposition
2013
We report the successful fabrication of superconducting tantalum nitride (TaN) thin films using a pulsed laser deposition technique with 1064 nm radiation. Films with thickness $ \sim $ 100 nm deposited on MgO (100) single crystals and on oxidized silicon (SiO$_{2} $) substrates exhibited a superconducting transition temperature of $\sim $ 8 K and 6 K, respectively. The topography of these films were investigated using atomic force and scanning electron microscopy, revealing fairly large area particulate free and smooth surfaces, while the structure of the films were investigated using standard $ \theta -2 \theta $ and glancing angle X-ray diffraction techniques. For films grown on MgO a fa…
In situ measurement of the kinetic friction of ZnO nanowires inside a scanning electron microscope
2012
Abstract A novel method for measuring the kinetic friction force in situ was developed for zinc oxide nanowires on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite and oxidised silicon wafers. The experiments were performed inside a scanning electron microscope and used a nanomanipulation device as an actuator, which also had an atomic force microscope tip attached to it as a probe. A simple model based on the Timoshenko elastic beam theory was applied to interpret the elastic deformation of a sliding nanowire (NW) and to determine the distributed kinetic friction force.
Correlation Between the Electrical Properties and the Morphology of Low-Pressure MOCVD Titanium Oxynitride Thin Films Grown at Various Temperatures
2000
Titanium oxynitride (TiN x O y ) thin films were deposited by low-pressure metal-organic CVD (LP-MOCVD) on (100) silicon, sapphire, and polycrystalline alumina substrates. Titanium isopropoxide (TIP) and ammonia were used as precursors. The influence of the growth temperature, ranking from 450°C to 750°C, was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and electrical DC measurements. Rutherford back-scattering (RBS) measurements were used to determine the N/O ratio in the films. The surface observations of the deposited films showed two morphological transitions. The resistivity decreased with the growth temperature, while the nitrogen content increased. Moreover, for the highest de…
Surface morphology and grain analysis of successively industrially grown amorphous hydrogenated carbon films (a-C:H) on silicon
2015
Abstract Silicon (1 0 0) has been gradually covered by amorphous hydrogenated carbon (a-C:H) films via an industrial process. Two types of these diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings, one more flexible (f-DLC) and one more robust (r-DLC), have been investigated. Both types have been grown by a radio frequency plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (RF-PECVD) technique with acetylene plasma. Surface morphologies have been studied in detail by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Raman spectroscopy has been used to investigate the DLC structure. Both types appeared to have very similar morphology and sp 2 carbon arrangement. The average height and area for single grains have been analyzed for al…
Nanostructural depth-profile and field-effect properties of poly(alkoxyphenylene-thienylene) Langmuir-Schäfer thin-films
2008
The correlations between morphological features and field-effect properties of poly(alkoxyphenylene-thiophene) thin Langmuir–Schafer film deposited on differently terminated gate dielectric surfaces, namely bare and methyl functionalized thermal silicon dioxide (t-SiO2), have been systematically studied. The film morphology has been investigated at different film thickness by Scanning Force Microscopy. Films thicker than a few layers show comparable morphology on both dielectric surfaces while differences are seen for the ultra-thin polymer deposit in close proximity to the substrate. Such deposit is notably more heterogeneous on bare t-SiO2, while a more compact and uniform nanogranular st…