Relaxation of defects in amorphous barium titanate thin films

Relaxation of electrical defects in amorphous barium titanate thin films was studied by the thermally stimulated current (TSC) technique. We were able to detect at least three relaxation peaks in the TSC spectra. One is associated with activation energy of 0.65 eV and is possibly related to electronic trap levels below the conduction band. Another one is associated with activation energy close to 1 eV corresponding to the migration of positively charged oxygen vacancies within the films.     

High-Performance barium titanate capacitors with double layer structure

High-performance barium titanate (B_aTiO₃) capacitors with excellent electrical and dielectric properties have been made by a two step deposition scheme using reactive rf magnetron sputtering. A novel double layer structure has been developed to reduce the pinholes and improve the electrical properties, such as higher dielectric constant, lower dissipation factor, higher breakdown fields and low leakage currents. Films deposited on a cooled substrate are amorphous whereas those deposited on a heated substrate are poly crystalline. Both polycrystalline and amorphous natures are verified by x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. Amorphous films have a low leakage current, a high breakdown voltage up to 2.5 x 10⁶ V/cm, and a dielectric constant less than 20. Polycrystalline films yield a high dielectric constant of 330. However, these films also have large leakage currents. The capacitors with the two layer structures,i.e. amorphous layer on top of polycrystal layer, have been shown to be much superior to those prepared by either polycrystal or amorphous layer alone for practical applications. The dielectric constant and breakdown voltage of capacitors with a double layer are found to be as high as 220 and 1.2 x 10⁶ V/cm, respectively. The leakage current is reduced to the same order as the amorphous films alone.     

Influence of mechanical bending and temperature on the threshold voltage instability of a-Si:H thin-film transistors under electrical stress

This paper studies the electrical characteristics of hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin-film transistors (a-Si:H TFTs) under flat and bending situations after AC/DC stress at different temperatures. Stress temperature was varied from 77 K to 400 K, and threshold voltage shifts were extracted to analyze degradation mechanisms. It was found that high temperature and mechanical bending played important roles under AC stress, with an enhanced stress effect resulting in a more serious degradation. This study also discusses the dependence between the accumulated sum of bias rising and falling time and the threshold voltage shifts under AC stress.     

Barium Titanate Inverted Opals—Synthesis,Characterization, and Optical Properties

Barium titanate inverted opals with powder and film morphologies were synthesized from barium ethoxide and titanium isopropoxide in the interstitial spaces of a polystyrene opal. This procedure involves infiltration of precursors into the interstices of the polystyrene opal template followed by hydrolytic polycondensation of the precursors to amorphous barium titanate and removal of the polystyrene opal by solvent extraction or calcination. In‐situ variable temperature powder X‐ray diffraction and micro‐Raman spectroscopy allow one to observe the thermally induced transformation of the as‐synthesized amorphous barium titanate inverted opal to the nanocrystalline form. In this way, a nanocrystalline barium titanate inverted opal can be engineered as either the cubic or tetragonal polymorph. Control of this process is key to the practical realization of a room‐temperature stable ferroelectric barium titanate inverted opal that can be thermally tuned through the ferroelectric–paraelectric transition around the Curie temperature. Optical characterization demonstrated photonic crystal behavior of the inverted barium titanate opals and results were in good agreement with photonic band structure calculations. The synthesis of optical quality ferroelectric barium titanate inverted opals provides an opportunity to electrically and optically engineer the photonic band structure and the possibility of developing tunable three‐dimensional photonic crystal devices.     

Nanostructured CuO: Facile synthesis,optical absorption and defect dependent electrical conductivity

Nanostructured CuO with different average crystallite sizes in the range ~11–48 nm is synthesized by thermolysis of carbonate precursor at different temperatures. Structural characterization of the samples is done using X-ray powder Diffraction and Transmission Electron Microscopy techniques. Analysis of UV–Visible absorption spectra of the samples reveal direct band gaps in the range 1.49–1.79 eV which is blue shifted in comparison with that corresponding to single crystalline CuO. DC electrical conductivity of the samples is found to increase with increase in crystallite size/decomposition temperature. The conduction mechanism is found to be defect dependent with holes associated with uncompensated Cu²⁺ vacancies being the charge carriers. A comparison of the DC electrical conductivities in vacuum and air ambience reveal that there is a decrease in the concentration of O^2- vacancies with increase in the decomposition temperature. X-ray photoelectron spectral studies confirm an increase in the concentration of Cu³⁺ ions in samples with higher electrical conductivity. Analysis of Raman spectra indicates a decrease in the concentration of O^2- vacancies with increase in the decomposition temperature confirming the proposed role of Cu²⁺ and O^2- vacancies in determining the electrical conductivity.     

Optical and electrical measurement of FeSe2 thin films obtained at low temperature

FeSe₂ thin films were prepared at low temperature by thermal annealing at 350 °C during 6 h of sequentially evaporated iron and selenium films under selenium atmosphere. The structural, optical and electrical characteristics were investigated. The roughness of films (~76 nm) was confirmed by AFM images. Moreover, optical band gap of FeSe₂, which was evaluated as nearly 1.11 eV and confirmed by the electrical study which yielded a value in the order of 1.08 eV. The electrical conductivity, conduction mechanism, dielectric properties and relaxation model of theses thin films were studied using impedance spectroscopy technique in the frequency range 5 Hz–13 MHz under various temperatures (180–300 °C). Besides, complex impedance and AC conductivity have been investigated on the basis of frequency and temperature dependence.     

Study on dielectric properties of lanthanum copper tantalate ceramics by impedance spectroscopy

A new perovskite ceramic material with the composition La_2/3CuTa₄O₁₂ was synthesized by solid state reaction method. SEM observations revealed dense and fine-grained microstructure and not uniform grain size distribution in the ceramics sintered in the temperature range 1180–1220 °C. Impedance spectroscopy studies were carried out in the temperature range from −55 to 700 °C at frequencies 10 Hz–2 MHz. Three types of dielectric responses were recognized, attributed to grains, grain boundaries and the electrode-sample interface. The relaxation times determined from the impedance data follow the Arrhenius law with the activation energies of 0.25 eV and 0.94 eV for grains and grain boundaries, respectively. DC electrical conductivity of the investigated ceramics was investigated in the temperature range 20–700 °C. The determined activation energy of electrical conduction was about 0.5 eV. The dielectric properties of La_2/3CuTa₄O₁₂ ceramics were compared with those of other A_2/3CuTa₄O₁₂ (A=Y, Nd, Sm, Gd, Dy, Bi) materials, being the spontaneously formed internal barrier layer capacitors, and some essential differences were found.     

Effects of annealing temperature on the photoluminescence of RF sputtered Barium titanate thin films

BaTiO₃ thin films were deposited onto quartz substrates by an RF magnetron sputtering method. The films deposited at room temperature and annealed at 773–1173 K were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD)Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV–vis spectroscopy and Photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL). X-ray diffraction studies revealed that the film is amorphous in nature at 773 K and that the crystallinity increases with increase in annealing temperature. The average crystallite size of the films increased from 13–18 nm and the optical band gap decreased in the range of 4.33–3.43 eV, with increase in annealing temperature. The films exhibited good adherence to the substrates and the SEM images showed smooth surface morphology. Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis confirmed the presence of barium, titanium and oxygen in the film. The red-shifts of excitonic UV emission peaks were observed in all samples which can be attributed to the stress produced due to lattice distortions. The visible PL emission intensity showed appreciable enhancement with post-deposition annealing.     

Electrical Properties of Ca<Subscript>9</Subscript>ZnLi(PO<Subscript>4</Subscript>)<Subscript>7</Subscript> Ceramics Prepared by Reactive Pressureless Sintering

Well-crystallized Ca₉ZnLi(PO₄)₇ ceramics were prepared by reactive pressureless sintering at atmospheric pressure. The single-phase Ca₉ZnLi(PO₄)₇ ceramics were confirmed by x-ray diffraction (XRD). The dielectric and electrical properties were investigated over a wide frequency range (1 Hz to 1 MHz) by complex impedance spectroscopy at different temperatures between 25°C and 600°C. A dielectric anomaly was observed at 440°C, which might be related to the phase transition. The impedance Cole–Cole plot was used to analyze the results of complex impedance measurements, revealing that the electrical properties depend strongly on frequency and temperature. Two relaxation dispersions of the electrical parameters were found and analyzed in terms of bulk and grain-boundary ionic transfer processes. The slope of the alternating-current (AC) conductivity over a wide range of temperatures provides activation energies from 0.48 eV to 1.69 eV. These results suggest that the conduction process is of the mixed type.     

Electrical measurements of dielectric properties of molybdenum-doped zinc oxide thin films

Effects of molybdenum element content on electrical conductivity of ZnO sprayed thin films were investigated using the impedance spectroscopy method in the frequency ranging from 5 Hz to 13 MHz for temperature lying in 300–475 °C domain. It is observed that AC conductivity is a power law. The values of dielectric constants ε₁ and ε₂ were found to decrease with frequency and increase with temperature. The activation energy determined from the plot of both DC conductivity and the hopping frequency with 1000/T shows that the hopping conduction is the dominant mechanism. Also, experimental data of DC conductivity were analyzed using the small polaron hopping model. The impedance analysis of undoped ZnO and Mo-doped ZnO (1% and 2%) shows only one semicircle implying the response originated from a single capacitive element corresponding to the bulk grains. However, the same analysis for ZnO:Mo (3% ) shows two semicircles which proves the existence of grain boundaries. Finally, analyses of polaron hopping mechanism and Urbach tailing allow some explanations of these transport phenomena. This study shows an effective variation of electrical measurements of Mo-doped ZnO films in terms of temperature leading to possible use of such films as gas sensors.     

Stability of polysilicon thin film transistors under switch operating

Ageing of low temperature polysilicon Thin Film Transistors (TFTs) under AC gate bias stress is reported in this study. The active layer of these high performances transistors is amorphous deposited using Low Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition (LPCVD) technique. The drain and source regions are in-situ doped during the LPCVD deposition by using phosphine to fabricate n-type transistors. The active layer and the drain arid source regions are Solid Phase Crystallized. The field effect mobility is higher than 100 cm²/V.s, the subthreshold slope around 0.6 V/dec, the threshold voltage around 0.2V and the switching time around 370 nsec.As these TFTs are commonly used as switching devices in the most of applications in large area electronics field, the study of their stability under AC electrical stress is important. The present work shows that the effect of the positive or negative DC stress is higher than that of the AC stress and then the degradation of polysilicon TFTs is over-estimated when it is checked from the effects of DC gate bias stress.Degradation under bias stress is shown to originate from the creation of gap states at the channel-interface oxide and in the channel material. The lower influence of the AC stress is explained from an annealing effect of the created states by the application of an opposite sign bias stress.     

Chemical vapor deposition of tantalum nitride films for metal gate application using TBTDET and novel single-source MOCVD precursors

In this paper, physical and electrical properties of TaN films used as metal electrodes in MOS structures are discussed. TaN films were deposited by MOCVD from commercial TBTDET and two novel mixed amido/imido/guanidinato and mixed amido/imido/hydrazido precursors. It will be shown that morphology (only films deposited from the guanidinato compound above 750 °C showed cubic TaN phase while all other films were amorphous) and O content (5 at.% and 25 at.% in case of guanidinato and in case of TBTDET precursor, respectively) do not necessary predetermine resistivity. Lowest resistivity (230 μΩ cm) was obtained for TBTDET. Evaluated values of metal work function are 4.4–4.6 eV (TBTDET) and 3.9 eV (guanidinato compound). Films deposited from the hydrazido compound reveal bad electrical properties (e.g., metal layers behave dielectric-like).     

A low-cost CMOS dual-mode AC/DC data converter for signal measuring technique

A low-cost CMOS dual-mode AC/DC data converter for signal measuring technique is newly proposed. Instead of traditional full wave rectification, the realized synchronous rectification circuit is more attractive due to the easier integration and lower cost. In this paper, the design strategies of implementing the signal processing of AC and DC modes in the integrated circuit are discussed completely. Proven through SIMULINK in system level and SPICE simulations in circuit level, simulation results show that the proposed dual-mode AC/DC data converter achieves 8-bit resolution in DC mode and 7-bit resolution in AC mode. Measurement results have successfully verified the correct functions and performance of the proposed data converter and confirmed it for AC/DC signal measuring technique. The area of this chip is 710 × 630 μm² and the measured power consumption is 5.1 mW. The proposed dual-mode AC/DC data converter is suitable for the system of analog and mixed-signal boundary scan.     

Grain Boundary Carrier Scattering in ZnO Thin Films: a Study by Temperature-Dependent Charge Carrier Transport Measurements

In the present investigation, the effects of annealing in oxygen atmosphere on the electrical and optical properties of pulsed direct-current (DC) magnetron-sputtered ZnO thin films have been studied. With annealing, the electrical conductivity was found to increase from 2.3 S cm to 123 S cm. The optical transparency was also found to improve from 83% to 90%. The improvement in the electrical properties with annealing is attributed to the reduction of the grain boundary potential from 34 meV to 8 meV. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements revealed oxygen deficiency in as-deposited films, whereas adequate incorporation of oxygen was observed in the annealed films. Ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) measurements showed a shift of +0.8 eV in the Fermi level with annealing. This shift indicates significant changes in the electrical conductivity with annealing, which is due to an increase in the carrier concentration.     

The correlation of γ-irradiation,particle size and their effects on physical properties of AgInSe2 nanostructure thin films

In this work the effect of γ-irradiation on the optical and electrical properties of near stoichiometric AgInSe₂ nanostructure thin films have been characterized. The XRD pattern of ingot AgInSe₂ powder prepared by solid state reaction showed tetragonal polycrystalline single-phase structure. The thin films of thickness 75 nm were prepared by inert gas condensation (IGC) technique at using constant Ar flow and substrate temperature of 300 K.Thin films were exposed to annealing process at 473 K for 2 h in vacuum of 10⁻² Torr. The amorphous and tetragonal nanocrystalline structures were detected for as-deposited and annealed films respectively by grazing incident in-plane X-ray diffraction (GIIXD) technique. The structure and average particle size of annealed irradiated films by different γ-doses from 0 to 4 Mrad were determined using high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM). Optical transmission, reflection and absorption spectra were studied for both annealed unirradiated and irradiated films. Two optical transitions for each annealed unirradiated and film exposed to γ-irradiation doses from 0 to 4 Mrad were observed. The evaluated E_g1 due to 1^st transition have decreased from 1.52 to 1.44 eV and E_g2 due to 2^nd transition have decreased from 2.83 to 2.30 eV as the particle size increased from 7.3 to 9.5 nm by raising the irradiation dose up to 1 Mrad. The behavior of d.c. electrical conductivity with temperature that measured under vacuum was examined for all films under investigation. The evaluated activation energies due to irradiation doses are ranging from 0.58 to 0.68 eV.     

Investigation of strontium tantalate thin films for high-k gate dielectric applications

Strontium tantalate (STO) films were grown by liquid-delivery (LD) metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) using Sr[Ta(OEt)₅(OC₂H₄OMe)]₂ as precursor. The deposition of the films was investigated in dependence on process conditions, such as substrate temperature, pressure, and concentration of the precursor. The growth rate varied from 4 to 300 nm/h and the highest rates were observed at the higher process temperature, pressure, and concentration of the precursor. The films were annealed at temperatures ranging from 600 to 1000 °C. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and ellipsometry indicated that the as-deposited and the annealed films were uniform and amorphous and a thin (>2 nm) SiO₂ interlayer was found. Crystallization took place at temperatures of about 1000 °C. Annealing at moderate temperatures was found to improve the electrical characteristics despite different film thickness (effective dielectric constant up to 40, the leakage current up to 6×10⁻⁸ A/cm², and lowest midgap density value of 8×10¹⁰ eV⁻¹ cm⁻²) and did not change the uniformity of the STO films, while annealing at higher temperatures (1000 °C) created voids in the film and enhanced the SiO₂ interlayer thickness, which made the electrical properties worse. Thus, annealing temperatures of about 800 °C resulted in an optimum of the electrical properties of the STO films for gate dielectric applications.     

钛酸钡纳米粉体的共沉淀法合成与研究

采用TiCl4和BaCl2·2H2O原料,以正丁醇为分散剂,NH4HCO3和NH3·H2O作为沉淀剂合成钛酸钡前驱体,在900 ℃煅烧制备分散性良好的钛酸钡纳米粉体.利用XRD、透射电镜(TEM)和 SEM等手段分析了反应温度、TiCl4浓度、分散剂掺杂量等反应参数对粉体的晶相组成、晶粒度、形貌等的影响,并且测试了相应陶瓷烧结体的介电常数.结果表明,反应温度为900 ℃,TiCl4浓度为0.6 mol/L,分散剂用量为3‰条件下,保温2 h可制备高分散性的纳米级粉体.用以上方法制备的粉体烧结而成的陶瓷片介电常数约为3 400.     

Effect of post-growth annealing on the structural,optical and electrical properties of V2O5 nanorods and its fabrication,characterization of V2O5/p-Si junction diode

We report the synthesis of V₂O₅ nanorods by utilizing simple wet chemical strategy with ammonia meta vanadate (NH₄VO₃) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) exploited as precursor and surfactant agent, respectively. The effect of post-annealing on structural, optical and electrical properties of V₂O₅ nanorods was characterized by XRD, HRSEM-EDX, TEM, FT-IR, UV (DRS), PL, TG–DTA and DC conductivity studies. The X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that the prepared sample annealed at 150 °C for 5 h which exhibited anorthic phase of V₅O₉ and annealed at 300–600 °C showed the anorthic phase change to orthorhombic phase of V₂O₅ due to the post-annealing effect. The surface morphology results indicated that increasing temperature caused a change from microrods to a nanorods shape in the morphology of V₂O₅. FT-IR spectrum confirmed that the presence of V₂O₅ functional groups and the formation of V–O bond. The optical band gap was found in the range 2.5–2.48 eV and observed to decreases with various annealed temperature. The DC electrical conductivity was studied as a function of temperature which indicated the semiconducting nature. Further, the potential of V₂O₅ nanostructures were grown on the p-Si substrate using the nebulizer spray technique. The junction properties of the V₂O₅/p-Si diode were evaluated by measuring current (I)–voltage (V) and AC characteristics.     

Analysis of electrical parameters of the glasses of the system Bix(As2S3)100−x

This work presents the results of measuring the parameters of electrical conductivity of the glasses from the system Bi_x(As₂S₃)_100−x (x=1.5, 3, 5 and 7 at%), carried out in DC and AC regimes. The values of the activation energy ΔE_σ and of the pre-exponentail factor σ₀, obtained by fitting the DC component of the conductivity as a function of temperature, served as the basis for establishing the dominant mechanism of charge transport processes in the investigated glasses. Measurements in AC regime were performed on the samples with 5 and 7 at% Bi, and analyzed in terms of the CBH (Correlated Barrier Hopping) model.