Search results for "Surfaces and interfaces"

Molecular dynamics simulations of the nano-scale room-temperature oxidation of aluminum single crystals

2005

The oxidation of aluminum single crystals is studied using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with dynamic charge transfer between atoms. The simulations are performed on three aluminum low-index surfaces ((1 0 0), (1 1 0) and (1 1 1)) at room temperature. The results show that the oxide film growth kinetics is independent of the crystallographic orientation under the present conditions. Beyond a transition regime (100 ps) the growth kinetics follow a direct logarithmic law and present a limiting thickness of 3 nm. The obtained amorphous structure of the oxide film has initially Al excess (compared to the composition of Al2O3) and evolves, during the oxidation process, to an Al percentage …

Low temperature atomic layer deposition of noble metals using ozone and molecular hydrogen as reactants

2013

Abstract Atomic layer deposition (ALD) of noble metals by thermal processes has relied mostly on the use of molecular oxygen as a reactant at temperatures of 200 °C and above. In this study, the concept of using consecutive ozone and molecular hydrogen pulses with noble metal precursors in ALD is introduced for palladium, rhodium, and platinum metals. This approach facilitates the growth of noble metal thin films below 200 °C. Also the ALD of palladium oxide thin films is demonstrated by the ozone-based chemistry. The growth rates, resistivities, crystallinities, surface roughnesses, impurity contents, and adhesion of the films to the underlying Al 2 O 3 starting surface are reported and th…

Effect of ozone concentration on silicon surface passivation by atomic layer deposited Al2O3

2015

Abstract We study the impact of ozone-based Al2O3 Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) on the surface passivation quality of crystalline silicon. We show that the passivation quality strongly depends on the ozone concentration: the higher ozone concentration results in lower interface defect density and thereby improved passivation. In contrast to previous studies, our results reveal that too high interface hydrogen content can be detrimental to the passivation. The interface hydrogen concentration can be optimized by the ozone-based process; however, the use of pure ozone increases the harmful carbon concentration in the film. Here we demonstrate that low carbon and optimal hydrogen concentration…

Surface investigation of plasma HMDSO membranes post-treated by CF4/Ar plasma

2002

Fluorination treatment has been performed on polysiloxane membranes using a plasma glow discharge of a gases mixture CF4 and argon (plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition). Atomic force microscopy, XPS analyses and contact angle measurements have been undertaken to explain the surface transformation and behavior, which strongly depend on the morphology, the composition and the hydrophilic/hydrophobic character of the plasma-polymerized initial membranes. Main result is that fluorination, which leads to hydrophobic membranes, has a more relevant effect on amorphous silica-like membranes than on polymer-like ones, according to their chemical composition whereas the plasma surface reaction …

Surface passivation of gallium selenide by nitrogen implantation

2002

In this paper we report on the characterization of nitrogen-implanted single-crystal GaSe samples. Nitrogen atoms were implanted at 80 keV, with doses ranging from 4 × 10 13 to 10 15 N + ions cm -2 . Next, samples were aged in open air and characterized by small-area XPS, together with an unimplanted clean surface, in order to quantify the effects of the nitrogen implantation. In general, we found that the oxidation was fully prevented in N + -implanted samples.

Probing ultrafast changes of spin and charge density profiles with resonant XUV magnetic reflectivity at the free-electron laser FERMI

2017

We report the results of resonant magnetic XUV reflectivity experiments performed at the XUV free-electron laser FERMI. Circularly polarized XUV light with the photon energy tuned to the Fe M2,3 edge is used to measure resonant magnetic reflectivities and the corresponding Q-resolved asymmetry of a Permalloy/Ta/Permalloy trilayer film. The asymmetry exhibits ultrafast changes on 240 fs time scales upon pumping with ultrashort IR laser pulses. Depending on the value of the wavevector transfer Qz, we observe both decreasing and increasing values of the asymmetry parameter, which is attributed to ultrafast changes in the vertical spin and charge density profiles of the trilayer film.

Self-assembled monolayers on a ferromagnetic permalloy surface.

2015

Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) are nowadays broadly used as surface protectors or modifiers and play a key role in many technological applications. This has motivated the study of their formation in all kind of materials; however, and despite the current interest in molecular spintronics, the study of SAMs on ferromagnetic surfaces remains almost unexplored. In this paper, we report for the first time a methodology for the formation of SAMs of n-alkylphosphonic acids on permalloy in ambient conditions. The formed monolayers have been fully characterized by means of contact angle measurements, atomic force microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, matrix assisted laser desorption ioniz…

Stroboscopic XMCD–PEEM imaging of standing and propagating spinwave modes in permalloy thin-film structures

2007

Abstract Using synchrotron-based stroboscopic photoemission electron microscopy with X-ray circular dichroism as contrast method, we have investigated the high-frequency response of permalloy thin-film structures. Standing precessional modes have been studied in rectangular elements (16 × 32 μm 2 , 10 nm thick) with a high time resolution of about 15 ps in the low- α mode of BESSY. With increasing amplitude of the applied magnetic AC field the particle is driven from an initial symmetric Landau flux-closure state into an asymmetric state and finally into a single-domain state magnetized perpendicular to the applied field H AC . The electromagnetic microwave field thus can induces a net magn…

Modeling of the Salt Permeability in Fixed Charge Multilayer Membranes

2000

Structural and in depth characterization of newly designed conducting/insulating TiN O /TiO2 multilayers obtained by one step LP-MOCVD growth

2001

Abstract TiNxOy/TiO2 multilayers have been grown by LP-MOCVD using titanium isopropoxide (TIP) precursor during the whole growth, but with an ammonia flow interrupted for the TiO2 layers. The one step growth process used to grow these structures allowed to stack the conducting and insulating layers without any growth breakdown. SIMS and TEM analyses showed the presence of an alternated insulating/conducting layers structure. Moreover, electrical measurements allowed to measure the dielectric part of insulating TiO2 stacked in these structures, whose permittivity was found to be about 80 for a MOS structure. Thus, such multilayers may lead to very promising applications in the microelectroni…