Annealing temperature-dependent structural and electrical properties of (Ta2O5)1-x - (TiO2)x thin films,x ≤ 0.11

(Ta₂O₅)_1-x- (TiO₂)_x (TTO_x) thin films, with x = 0, 0.03, 0.06, 0.08, and 0.11, were deposited using magnetron direct current (DC) sputtering method onto the P/boron-silicon (1 0 0) substrates by varying areas of Tantalum and Titanium metallic targets, in oxygen environment at ambient temperature. The as-deposited thin films were annealed at temperatures ranging from 500 to 800 °C. Generally, the formation of the Ta₂O₅ structure was observed from the X-ray diffraction measurements of the annealed films. The capacitance of prepared metal– oxide– semiconductor (MOS) structures of Ag/TTO_x/p-Si was measured at 1 MHz. The dielectric constant of the deposited films was observed altering with varying composition and annealing temperature, showing the highest value 71, at 1 MHz, for the TTO_x films, x = 0.06, annealed at 700 °C. With increasing annealing temperature, from 700 to 800 °C, the leakage current density was observed, generally decreasing, from 10^?5 to 10^?8 A cm^?2, for the prepared compositions. Among the prepared compositions, films with x = 0.06, annealed at 800 °C, having the observed value of dielectric constant 48, at 1 MHz; and the leakage current density 2.7 × 10^?8 A cm^?2, at the electric field of 3.5 × 10⁵ V cm^?1, show preferred potential as a dielectric for high-density silicon memory devices.     

Effect of annealing atmosphere on the structure and dielectric properties of unfilled tungsten bronze ceramics Ba4PrFe0.5Nb9.5O30

Unfilled tungsten bronze ceramics with the nominal formula Ba₄PrFe_0.5Nb_9.5O₃₀ were synthesized via the standard solid-state sintering route, and the effects of oxygen vacancies on the dielectric and electrical properties were investigated in addition to the structure. Room-temperature X-ray diffraction showed that the N₂-annealed sample had the largest cell volume. Low-temperature spectrum showed that N₂ annealing rendered the dielectric constant and dielectric loss more frequency dispersive, whereas O₂ annealing inhibited the frequency dispersion. The dc conductivity of all the samples originated from the electrons produced in the second ionization of oxygen vacancies and was most likely controlled by a mixed conduction mechanism of the electron and oxygen-vacancy ions. The N₂-annealed sample has the highest dc conductivity owing to its high concentration of oxygen vacancies. The broadening of the Raman lines and the decrease of Raman intensity for the N₂-annealed sample originated from a significant structural disorder. X-ray photoelectron spectra demonstrated that the increased oxygen vacancies caused by the change of valences of Fe and Pr ions contributed to the structural disorder.     

Transformation of sputtered calcium copper titanate thin film into nanorods by sequential annealing

Rapid synthesis of long calcium copper titanate (CCTO) nanorods was carried out by sequential annealing. CCTO thin films have been deposited on p-Si substrate by RF sputtering technique and afterwards, the samples were thermally treated using a preheated furnace by varying the annealing temperature from 850 °C to 1100 °C. CCTO nanorods of 12 µm lengths and 400–600 nm diameters were synthesized at 1100 °C. Based on the FESEM observations, a plausible growth mechanism has been proposed to explain the formation of nanorods. The (220) XRD peak of the CCTO film became prominent for the annealing temperature of 950 °C. The presence of nanoscale crystals in amorphous matrix has been observed by HRTEM studies. The elemental mapping of CCTO nanorod has shown a spatial variation of elements throughout the nanorod. The oxide and interface charge density was found to be increased with the rise in annealing temperature.     

Growth and characterization of Ag–Al2O3 composites thin films for thermoelectric power generation applications

Thin films of Ag–Al₂O₃ composites were successfully grown on Si substrate by thermal evaporation method and their thermoelectric performance was modulated using post growth annealing technique. Pellet of Ag and Al mixture having 1:4 ratio was evaporated on Si substrate using the vacuum tube furnace. As grown sample was cut into pieces and post-growth annealing was performed at different temperatures using muffle furnace. XRD results suggested that as-deposited sample has amorphous nature, but crystallinity of the samples increase as an annealing temperature increase from 600 to 900^oC. This structural behavior of annealed samples was further verified by Raman spectroscopy measurements. We have reported an optimal annealing temperature (800 ⁰C) for the best thermoelectric performance of investigated composites. At this specific annealing temperature, charge carriers are highly mobile which resulted in the enhancement of thermoelectric power generation performance of Ag–Al₂O₃ composite. The value of power factor (1.38x10^?2 W/m-K^?2) reported in the current study is the highest value for Ag–Al₂O₃ composites so for reported in the literature according to the best of our knowledge.     

Effects of annealing on bandgap and surface plasmon resonance enhancement in Au/SnO2 quantum dots

Au/SnO₂ quantum dots (AuSQDs) were synthesized, and the effects of annealing on their structural and optical properties were examined. Significant changes were observed in the bandgap and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of the AuSQDs after thermal treatment at different temperatures (400, 500, and 600 °C). The properties of the as-prepared and annealed samples were characterized via X-ray diffraction analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. Annealing reduced the bandgap from 3.03 to 2.33 eV and increased the crystallinity while maintaining an average crystallite size below 10 nm. XPS valence band (VB) profiles provided information regarding the VB edge potentials, which helped to determine the conduction band edge potentials. An enhancement in the SPR of the Au nanoparticles was observed for AuSQD-500, which had the smallest bandgap among the samples investigated.     

Thermal annealing characteristics of solar selective absorber coatings based on nano-multilayered MoOx films

Designing double metal-dielectric (cermet) solar selective absorber coatings (SSACs) often requires complex co-sputtering techniques with multiple targets. This inevitably limits the simple and low-cost industrial fabrication. Here, we develop novel nano-multilayered MoO_x-based SSACs by simple and stable one-step reactive magnetron sputtering process using single molybdenum target. The proposed multilayer SSACs exhibit good solar absorptance of 0.93 and low thermal emittance of 0.06. Owing to the temperature-induced oxygen diffusion and oxidation phenomenon the as-sputtered SSACs have a poor thermal tolerance under air atmosphere, and after annealing at 200 °C for 150 h, the resulting absorptance is diminished from 0.93 to 0.90. However, the optical performance of the annealed SSAC is relatively stable in high-vacuum environment, even after annealing at 450 °C for 200 h, it still displays an ideal spectral selectivity of 0.92/0.07. With above properties, the resulting MoO_x-based SSAC is a promising absorber for enduring thermal harvesting in solar vacuum collectors.     

Effect of thickness on structural,optical, electrical and morphological properties of nanocrystalline CdSe thin films for optoelectronic applications

This paper presents effect of thickness on the physical properties of thermally evaporated cadmium selenide thin films. The films of thickness 445 nm, 631 nm and 810 nm were deposited employing thermal evaporation technique on glass and ITO coated glass substrates followed by thermal annealing in air atmosphere at temperature 300 °C. The as-deposited and annealed films were subjected to the XRD, UV–Vis spectrophotometer, source meter, SEM and EDS to find the structural, optical, electrical, morphological and compositional analysis respectively. The structural analysis shows that the films have cubic phase with preferred orientation (1 1 1) and nanocrystalline nature. The structural parameters like inter-planner spacing, lattice constant, grain size, number of crystallites per unit area, internal strain, dislocation density and texture coefficient are calculated. The optical band gap is found in the range 1.69–1.84 eV and observed to decrease with thickness. The electrical resistivity is found to increase with thickness for as-deposited films and decrease for annealed films. The morphological studies show that the as-deposited and annealed films are homogeneous, smooth, fully covered and free from crystal defects like pin holes and voids. The grains in the as-deposited films are densely packed, well defined and found to be increased with thickness.     

Annealing and doping-dependent magnetoresistance in single layer poly(3-hexyl-thiophene) organic semiconductor device

We compare the current density–voltage (J–V) and magnetoconductance (MC) response of a poly(3-hexyl-thiophene) (P3HT) device (Au/P3HT(350 nm)/Al) before and after annealing above the glass transition temperature of 150 °C under vacuum. There is a decrease of more than 3 orders of magnitude in current density due to an increase of the charge injection barriers after de-doping through annealing. An increase, approaching 1 order of magnitude, in the negative MC response after annealing can be explained by a shift in the Fermi level due to de-doping, according to the bipolaron mechanism. We successfully tune the charge injection barrier through re-doping by photo-oxidation. This leads to the charge injection and transport transitioning from unipolar to ambipolar, as the bias increases, and we model the MC response using a combination of bipolaron and triplet-polaron interaction mechanisms.     

Microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of a β-solidifying γ-TiAl alloy densified by spark plasma sintering

This study deals with the densification of a pre-alloyed Ti–44Al–6Nb–1Mo–0.2Y–0.1B (at.%) powder by spark plasma sintering (SPS). The powder was produced by a plasma rotating electrode process (PREP), and then SPS densified at temperatures between 1200 and 1320 °C. At SPS temperatures below 1240 °C, the α₂-dominated dendritic structure in the PREP powder particles disappeared and the fully dense microstructure mainly consisting of γ and B2 grains formed during SPS, but several original powder particle boundaries (OPBs) still remained. While sintered above 1240 °C, OPBs vanished entirely and an uniform duplex microstructure emerged. Furthermore, fully-lamellar (FL) microstructure with mean colony size smaller than 20 μm was produced via β-homogenization annealing. This FL microstructure renders a good tensile elongation of 1.25% and yield strength of 665 MPa at room temperature. However, instability of α₂/γ lamellar structures was induced by final stabilization annealing, resulting in sharp reduction of both room-temperature ductility and high-temperature strength.     

Disappearance and recovery of colossal permittivity in (Nb+Mn) co-doped TiO2

We investigate the effects of doping and annealing on the dielectric properties of metal ions doped TiO₂ ceramics. Colossal permittivity (CP) above 10⁴ was observed in single Nb ion doped TiO₂, which was dominated by electron transport related interfacial polarization. Moreover, the CP can be dropped to 120 when simultaneously introducing Mn ion into the sample. The disappearance of CP behaviors maybe due to the multivalence of Mn which would inhibit the reduction of Ti⁴⁺ to Ti³⁺, and thus reduce delocalized electrons. Interestingly, the CP was recovered for the (Nb+Mn) co-doped TiO₂ after post-sintering heat treatment in N₂ atmosphere. The recovery of CP in the sample after annealing can be ascribed to the semiconducting grain and the insulating grain boundary, according to impedance spectroscopy. We therefore believe that this work can help us understand the mechanism of CP from a new perspective.