Electrical conductivity studies on carbazole thin films

Thin films of carbazole have been prepared using vacuum evaporation technique. The electrical conductivity studies are carried out in both low and high temperature regions and the activation energies have been determined. In the low temperature region the electrical conduction is due to hopping of charge carriers in a coulomb gap. Carbazole thin films have been used to fabricate capacitors and the variation of capacitance, dielectric constant; conductivity and dielectric loss in the frequency range between 100 Hz and 3.16 MHz are investigated. The effect of annealing on the dielectric properties is also investigated. The surface topography of the deposited films is studied using scanning electron microscopy. Film morphologies are found to change by annealing.     

Electrical properties of electron-beam-evaporated indium oxide thin films

Crystalline (b.c.c.) indium oxide (In₂O₃) powder was evaporated using an electron beam and the structure of the deposited films was found to be amorphous. Studies of the a.c. conductance of films of various thicknesses were carried out in the audio frequency range (200 Hz to 30 kHz) at various temperatures. The current-voltage characteristics of the films were also studied. The dielectric breakdown field strength was determined for several film thicknesses and at various temperatures. The activation energies for the a.c. and d.c. conduction processes were estimated and the results are discussed.     

Electrical properties of vanadium tungsten oxide thin films

The vanadium tungsten oxide thin films deposited on Pt/Ti/SiO₂/Si substrates by RF sputtering exhibited good TCR and dielectric properties. The dependence of crystallization and electrical properties are related to the grain size of V_1.85W_0.15O₅ thin films with different annealing temperatures. It was found that the dielectric properties and TCR properties of V_1.85W_0.15O₅ thin films were strongly dependent upon the annealing temperature. The dielectric constants of the V_1.85W_0.15O₅ thin films annealed at 400 °C were 44, with a dielectric loss of 0.83%. The TCR values of the V_1.85W_0.15O₅ thin films annealed at 400 °C were about −3.45%/K.     

Electrical studies on sputtered CuCl thin films

CuCl is a wide-direct band gap semiconductor, lattice matched to Si and it possesses excellent ultra violet (UV) emission properties. It is thus a promising candidate for the next generation Si based UV optoelectronics. CuCl films were deposited using RF magnetron sputtering technique. X-ray diffraction analysis reveals that the grains are strongly <111> oriented. Triangular crystallites of CuCl were observed in the AFM surface topograph. Au–CuCl–Si–Au structures were fabricated and field dependent electrical studies were carried out in the electric field range of 1.25 × 10⁶ to 2.5 × 10⁷ V/m. I–V characteristics show that ohmic conduction prevails in low electric fields up to 2.5 × 10⁶ V/m. In the higher field range, from 2.5 × 10⁶ to 2.5 × 10⁷ V/m, the conduction mechanism was Schottky emission controlled. There was no trap related charge transport observed at higher electric fields. Preliminary electrical studies are reported in this article.     

A.C. electrical breakdown in thin magnesium oxide films

A systematic study of a.c. breakdown in magnesium oxide films of thickness 40–200 Å fabricated into capacitors is reported. It is found that the breakdown strength is a power function of the thickness d, varying as d^?0.23, as predicted by the theory of Forlani and Minnaja based on the ionization avalanche mechanism.     

Dielectric studies on tellurium oxide thin films

Tellurium has been evaporated in an r.f. glow discharge of oxygen onto negatively-biased glass substrates at room temperature. These tellurium oxide thin films have been used as dielectrics in capacitors. The variations of capacitance, C, and dielectric loss, , with frequency in the range of 0.5 to 30 kHz at various temperatures (300 to 443 K) have been studied. The temperature coefficient of capacitance and the dielectric constant for the material have been evaluated. The ' spectrum reveals a loss peak and a loss minimum, both shifting towards higher frequences with increasing temperatures. The maximum in the dissipation factor is explained on the basis of a dipolar relaxation phenomenon. The activation energy for the process has also been evaluated.     

Electrical resistivity studies of thermally evaporated manganese-rhenium thin films

Electrical resistivity studies have been carried out on thermally evaporated Mn_100−xRe_x thin films (with X=0.1-0.5 and 1 at.% Re) over the temperature range from 300 to 1.4 K using the van der Pauw four probe technique. A resistivity minimum a notable characteristic of α-Mn was found in all the specimens with a shift of T_min corresponding to the resistivity minimum to upper values as the concentration of Re increases. The results show a tendency towards saturation of the resistivity as the temperature approaches zero implying a Kondo scattering mechanism in the samples. The shift of T_min and the characteristic Kondo temperature T_K to upper values may be explained in terms of the Kondo scattering.     

Electrical and optical studies of Ga-doped ZnO thin films

Nanostructure Ga-doped zinc oxide (GZO) thin films with highly (0 0 2) preferred orientation were fabricated on glass substrates, using radio frequency magnetron sputtering with an GZO ceramic target (The Ga₂O₃ contents was about 3 wt%) and different deposition conditions. The structural features, surface morphology and electrical and optical properties of the GZO thin films were studied, in terms of the deposition parameters. A Grey-based Taguchi method was used to determine the optimal deposition parameters for GZO thin films by considering multiple performance characteristics. The response graph and table for each level of the deposition parameters forms the Grey relational grade and the optimal levels of the deposition parameters were chosen. The experimental results show that the process pressure and the thickness make the most significant contribution to the overall performance. In the confirmation runs, Grey relational analysis showed that the improvement in deposition rate is 14.2 %, the improvement in electrical resistivity 38.1 % and the improvement in optical transmittance is 1.2 %. Annealing in a vacuum further improved the crystalline quality and optoelectronic performances of the GZO thin films.     

Electrical and optical properties of nanocrystalline yttrium-doped hafnium oxide thin films

Yttrium-doped hafnium oxide (YDH) films have been produced by sputter-deposition by varying the growth temperature (T_s) from room-temperature (RT) to 400 °C. The electrical and optical properties of YDH films have been investigated. Structural studies indicate that YDH films grown at T_s = RT − 200 °C were amorphous and those grown at 300-400 °C are nanocrystalline. The crystalline YDH films exhibit the high temperature cubic phase of HfO₂. Spectrophotometry analysis indicates that all the YDH films are transparent. The band gap of YDH films was found to be in the range of 6.20-6.28 eV. Frequency variation of frequency dependent resistivity indicates the hopping conduction mechanism operative in YDH films. While the electrical resistivity (ρ_ac) is ~ 1 Ω-m at low frequencies (100 Hz), ρ_ac decreases to ~ 10^− 4 Ω-cm at higher frequencies (1 MHz).     

Photoelectrochemical solar cell studies on electroplated cuprous oxide thin films

Cuprous oxide (Cu₂O) is an interesting p-type semiconductor with a band gap of 2 eV suitable for solar cell applications. Deposition of Cu₂O thin films by electrodeposition from aqueous solutions is a low temperature and inexpensive technique. in the present work, Cu₂O thin films were cathodically deposited on Cu and tin oxide coated glass substrates by the cathodic reduction of copper (II) lactate solution. The optimized deposition conditions to synthesize cuprous oxide thin films were experimentally identified as; Deposition potential: −0.555 V versus SCE, pH: 9.0 ± 0.1, Bath temperature: 70^∘C. X-ray diffraction studies revealed the formation of single phase cubic Cu₂O films. The effect of annealing on the structure and morphology of Cu₂O thin films are studied. The dielectric susceptibility, optical conductivity and packing density are evaluated. Photoelectrochemical solar cells based on p-Cu₂O films are constructed. Spectral response studies indicate a peak in photo current density around 600 nm corresponding to the band gap of Cu₂O thin films. The effects of annealing, chemical etching and photo etching on the solar cell parameters are studied.     

Thickness dependence of breakdown field in thin films

Studies of the thickness dependence of dielectric breakdown in thin films are of fundamental importance for the development of devices. Here a systematic study of the d.c. breakdown in “built-up” ionic films of barium stearate is reported in the thickness range (25–2000 Å). These films are ideally suited for such studies because of their perfect reproducibility and control of their thicknesses which are uniform and very accurately known. The breakdown strength is found to be a power dependent function of thickness as predicted by Forlani and Minnaja's theory based on an electron ionization avalanche mechanism. The films studied have recently been found to be promising for making devices.     

Electrical conductivity in thin and very thin platinum films

The two-photon transition probability between electron energy bands in a semiconductor film is discussed, taking quantum size effects into account. An expression for the absorption rate of one of the two photons is given as a function of the frequency corresponding to all the types of critical points. The anisotropy of non-cubic materials is taken into account. The numerical calculation of the absorption coefficient is performed for the case of ZnS near the extremal point.     

Electrical breakdown in amorphous As2S3 films

We investigated the electrical breakdown under d.c. electric fields of amorphous As₂S₃ films about 100–1000 Å thick sandwiched between two aluminium electrodes. It was found that the breakdown field decreased with increases in either the temperature or the thickness of the sample. Attempts were made to fit the observed electrical breakdown voltages with several previously proposed theories of thermal and electrical breakdown. It was found that a satisfactory fit could only be obtained by a modification of Klein's theory provided that the current was observed to depend on the voltage in an exponential manner in accordance with the Poole mechanism in which the carriers are released from high density localized states within the forbidden energy region. According to this modification, the breakdown field should depend inversely on the temperature and this agrees well with the experiment. The formation of localized conducting channels within the sample because of breakdown was verified by taking a scanning electron micrograph of the junction area of the broken film.