Effect of magnetic field on galvanomagnetic properties of mica/Bi/EuS heterostructures

The dependences of the Hall coefficient R_H and magnetoresistance Δρ/ρ on magnetic field (B=0.01?1.0 T) were obtained in the temperature range 77–300 K for thin Bi films with thicknesses d=40–250 nm, grown on mica substrates and covered by a EuS layer. It was established that in the entire temperature range for all Bi films the criterion of weak field was fulfilled at magnetic fields up to 1 T: R_H remained practically constant in the entire range of magnetic field and Δρ/ρ for all investigated samples changed with changing magnetic field according to a parabolic law.     

Oscillatory Behavior of Thermoelectric Properties in <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-PbTe Quantum Wells

The room-temperature dependences of the Seebeck coefficient, Hall coefficient, electrical conductivity, charge carrier mobility, and thermoelectric power factor were obtained as a function of thickness d (d = 8 nm to 400 nm) of PbTe epitaxial layers grown by thermal evaporation in vacuum of PbTe polycrystals doped with Na onto (100)KCl surfaces and covered with an Al₂O₃ layer. Distinct oscillations in the d-dependences of the properties were observed and attributed to the size quantization of the energy spectra in PbTe layers. The experimental values of the oscillation period are in good agreement with the results of theoretical calculations using the effective-mass approximation and a model for a rectangular potential well with infinitely high walls. It follows from the obtained results that quantization of the energy spectrum in PbTe thin-film structures occurs not only for the electron gas but also for the hole gas.     

Spin injection and transport in organic spin-valves based on fullerene C60

We report the fabrication and magnetoresistance (MR) of the La_0.67Sr_0.33MnO₃/C₆₀/Co spin valves. The introduction of 1.5 nm AlO_x barrier between the C₆₀ layer and cobalt top electrode prevents effectively interfacial diffusion and Co penetration, and thus an appreciable positive MR (as large as 3.65%) at room temperature was exhibited for the devices in the thickness range (5–40 nm) of C₆₀ studied. Possible mechanisms on the MR polarity are proposed. Furthermore, based on the temperature- and thickness- dependent MR and I–V characteristics, we have obtained clear evidences that the MR of C₆₀-based spin-valves originates from the tunneling of spin-polarized electrons at the low thickness of C₆₀, however at the larger thickness (>20 nm) the electrons are injected into and subsequently hopping transport within the C₆₀ spacer.     

105 nm Gate length pMOSFETs with high-K and metal gate fabricated in a Si process line on 200 mm GeOI wafers

We report on the fabrication and electrical characterization of deep sub-micron (gate length down to 105 nm) GeOI pMOSFETs. The Ge layer obtained by hetero-epitaxy on Si wafers has been transferred using the Smart Cut^TM process to fabricate 200 mm GeOI wafers with Ge thickness down to 60–80 nm. A full Si MOS compatible pMOSFET process was implemented with HfO₂/TiN gate stack. The electrical characterization of the fabricated devices and the systematic analysis of the measured performances (I_ON, I_OFF, transconductance, low field mobility, S, DIBL) demonstrate the potential of pMOSFET on GeOI for advanced technological nodes. The dependence of these parameters have been analyzed with respect to the gate length, showing very good transport properties (μ_h ～ 250 cm²/V/s, I_ON = 436 μA/μm for L_G = 105 nm), and OFF current densities comparable or better than those reported in the literature.     

Active layer thickness effect on the recombination process of PCDTBT:PC71BM organic solar cells

We investigated the effect of active layer thickness on recombination kinetics of poly[N-9″-hepta-decanyl-2,7-carbazole-alt-5,5-(4′,7′-di-2-thienyl-2′,1′,3′-benzothiadiazole)] (PCDTBT) and [6,6]-phenyl C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC₇₁BM) based solar cells. Analysis of the fitted Lambert W-function of illuminated current density–voltage (J–V) characteristics revealed increased recombination processes with increased active layer thicknesses. The ideality factor extracted from PCDTBT:PCBM solar cells continuously increased from 1.89 to 3.88 when photoactive layer thickness was increased from 70 to 150 nm. We found that such increase in ideality factor is closely related to the defect density which is increased with increased photoactive layer thickness beyond 110 nm. Therefore, the different density of defect states in PCDTBT:PCBM solar cells causes the different recombination paths where solar cells with a thicker active layer (?110 nm) are considered to undergo coupled trap-assisted recombination processes while single-defect trap-assisted recombination is dominant for thinner (70–90 nm) PCDTBT:PCBM solar cells. As a result, we found that the optimal efficiencies of PCDTBT:PC₇₁BM solar cells were limited to the active layers between 70 and 90 nm. Particularly, when PCDTBT:PC₇₁BM solar cells were optimized with an active layer thickness of 70 nm, energy conversion efficiency reached 6.5% while an increase in thickness led to the reduction of efficiency to 4.7% at 133 nm but then an increase to 5.02% at 150 nm.     

Crosslinkable organic glasses with quadratic nonlinear optical activity

In this paper, the use of a pure benzimidazole based dimethacrylic push–pull chromophore has been investigated for the preparation of thin films exhibiting quadratic nonlinear optical (NLO) properties. To stabilize these NLO properties, the chromophore orientation has been frozen in a noncentrosymmetric arrangement by cross-linking the material using thermal polymerization induced by suitable initiators. The films present a very stable quadratic optical activity up to T = 152 °C with SHG coefficient d₃₃ of 14 pm/V measured at 1.9 μm.     

Effects of ammonia concentration on property of Cd1−xZnxS films by chemical bath deposition

Cd_1−xZn_xS thin films were grown on soda–lime glass substrates by chemical-bath deposition (CBD) at 80 °C with stirring. All the samples were annealed at 200 °C for 60 min in the air. The crystal structure, surface morphology, thickness and optical properties of the films were studied with transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), step height measurement instrument and spectrophotometer respectively. The results revealed that Cd_1−xZn_xS thin films had cubic crystal structure and the intensity of the diffraction peak increased gradually as ammonia concentration rose and the grain size varied from 5.1 to 8.3 nm. All of Cd_1−xZn_xS thin films had a granular surface with some smaller pores and the average granule sizes increased from 92 to 163 nm with an increase in ammonia concentration. The Cd_1−xZn_xS thin films had the highest transmittance with ammonia concentration of 0.5 M L⁻¹, whose thickness was 50 nm and band gap was 2.62 eV.     

A plasmonically enhanced polymer solar cell with gold–silica core–shell nanorods

We report the use of chemically synthesized gold (Au)–silica core–shell nanorods with the length of 92.5 ± 8.0 nm and diameter of 34.3 ± 4.0 nm for the efficiency enhancement of bulk heterojunction (BHJ) polymer solar cells. Silica coated Au nanorods were randomly blended into the BHJ layers of these solar cells. This architecture inhibits the carrier recombination at the metal/polymer interface and effectively exploits light absorption at the surface plasmon resonance wavelengths of the Au–silica nanorods. To match the two plasmon resonant peaks of the Au–silica nanorods, we employed a low bandgap polymer, poly[2,6-(4,4-bis-(2-ethylhexyl)-4H-cyclopenta[2,1-b;3,4-b′] dithiophene)-alt-4,7-(2,1,3-benzothiadiazole)] (PCPDTBT) to construct a solar cell. The absorption spectrum of PCPDTBT:[6,6]-phenyl-C₇₁-butyric acid methyl ester (PC₇₀BM) is relatively wide and matches the two plasmon resonance peaks of Au–silica nanorods, which leads to greater plasmonic effects. We also constructed the poly(3-hexylthiophene):[6,6]-phenyl-C₆₁-butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT:PC₆₀BM) cells for comparison. The absorption spectrum of P3HT:PC₆₀BM only overlaps one of the plasmon resonance peak of Au–silica nanorods. The efficiency of the P3HT:PC₆₀BM device incorporating optimized Au–silica nanorods is enhanced by 12.9% from 3.17% to 3.58%, which is due to the enhanced light absorption. Compared with the P3HT:PC₆₀BM device with Au–silica nanorods, the PCPDTBT:PC₇₀BM device with 1 wt% Au–silica nanorods concentration has a higher efficiency of 4.4% with an increase of 26%.     

Post-annealing modification in structural properties of ZnO thin films on p-type Si substrate deposited by evaporation

Zinc oxide (ZnO) films of thickness ∼380 nm were deposited on p-type Si (1 1 1) substrate maintained at 300 °C under 3×10⁻⁶ Torr by a radio frequency (RF) heating source. Transmission Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrum exhibited a clear Zn–O bond excitation frequency of ∼408 cm⁻¹. X-ray diffraction spectrum demonstrated four peaks (P₁–P₄) at 2θ (deg) ∼36±0.06, 40±0.09, 82±0.17 and 86±0.2, which originated from (1 0 0), (0 0 2), (2 0 1) and (0 0 4) hexagonal planes, respectively. P₂ being the highest intensity peak indicated that the growth of ZnO predominantly occurred along the c-axis i.e. (0 0 2) plane. Micrographs of the samples obtained from scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) identically displayed scattered nanocrystallites, which grew bigger with the increase of sample annealing temperature (°C) in the range of 400–1000. AFM pictures, in particular, exposed the hexagonal structure of the deposited films along with voids. However, ZnO composition ∼6:1 (Zn:O) as calculated from the energy dispersive spectrum (EDS) revealed that the formation of ZnO was not stoichiometric, rather of Zincsuboxide structure ZnO_x (x<1). Arrhenius plot of the resistivity data yielded a donor level (zinc interstitial and/or Zn–on–O site) with ionization energy E_c–1.26 eV, thereby it supports our measured results, in general.     

A comparative study of electrical and optical properties of InN and In0.48Ga0.52N

We present results of our studies concerning electrical and optical properties of In_0.48Ga_0.52N and InN. Hall measurement were carried out at temperatures between T=77 and 300 K. Photoluminescence (PL) spectrum in InN and In_0.48Ga_0.52N. InN has a single peak at 0.77 eV at 300 K. However, the PL in In_0.48Ga_0.52N has two peaks; a prominent peak at 1.16 eV and a smaller peak at 1.55 eV. These two peaks are attributed to Indium segregation corresponding to a high Indium concentration of 48% and a low concentration of 36%. High electric field measurements indicate that drift velocity that tends to saturate at around V_d=1.0×10⁷ cm/s at 77 K in InN at an electric field of F=12 kV/cm. However, in In_0.48Ga_0.52N the I–V curve is almost linear up to an electric field of F=45 kV/cm, where the drift velocity is V_d=1.39×10⁶ cm/s. At applied electric fields above this value a S-type negative differential resistance (NDR) is observed leading to an instability in the current and to the irreversible destruction of the sample.     

HCS degradation of 5 nm oxide high-voltage PLDMOS

Hot carrier (HC) injection, inducing drain and gate leakage current increase in 5 nm oxide p-channel LDMOS transistors, is investigated. Devices with two different drain implants are studied. At low gate voltage (V_GS) and high drain voltage (V_DS), reduction of the ON-resistance (R_ON) is observed. At stress times at which R_ON almost reaches its constant level, an increase of the drain leakage in OFF state (V_DS = −60 V, V_GS = 0 V) is observed. Longer stress time leads to increased gate leakage and in some cases oxide breakdown. In contrast to what was reported for devices with 25 nm gate oxide thickness, the threshold voltage of 5 nm gate oxide PLDMOS transistors does not drift. The experimental data can be fully explained by hot carrier injection and the oxide damage can be explained by two different and competing degradation mechanisms. By combining experimental data and TCAD simulations we are further capable to locate the hot spot of maximum oxide damage in the accumulation (Acc) region of the PLDMOS.     

Sol–gel derived nanocrystalline ZnO photoanode film for dye sensitized solar cells

Nanocrystalline ZnO was synthesized from zinc (II) acetate/oxalate mixture using a facile sol–gel synthesis and is characterized by techniques such as powder XRD, FTIR and Raman spectroscopy, TEM and SEM. The TEM and SEM study showed that the nanocrystalline ZnO powder and film have an average particle size of 25 nm. This material has been successfully applied as photoanodes in dye sensitized solar cells (DSCs) constructed with standard N719 dye and conventional iodide/triiodide (I⁻/I₃⁻) electrolytes. A systematic investigation of the performance of DSCs with film thickness and dyeing time had also been carried out. Among the five different film thicknesses 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20 μm prepared, the best result was obtained for the film thickness of 16 μm for 2 h dying showing an efficiency of 2.2% with a J_SC of 4.7 mA cm⁻² and a very high fill factor of >73%.     

The effect of oxide layer thickness on the quantification of 1.5 MeV γ–radiation induced interface traps in the Ag/SiO2/Si MOS devices

This work presents the effect of varied thickness of oxide layer and radiation dose on electrical characteristics of Ag/SiO₂/Si MOS devices irradiated by 1.5 MeV γ–radiations of varied doses. SiO₂ layers of 50, 100, 150 and 200 nm thickness were grown on Si substrates using dry oxidation and exposed to radiation doses of 1, 10 and 100 kGy. The exposure to radiation resulted in generation of fixed charge centers and interface traps in the SiO₂ and at the Si/SiO₂ interface. Capacitance-conductance-voltage (C-G-V) and capacitance-conductance-frequency (C-G-f) measurements were performed at room temperature for all MOS devices to quantify the active traps and their lifetimes. It is shown that accumulation and minimum capacitances decreased as the thickness of SiO₂ layer increased. For the unexposed MOS devices, the flat band voltage V_FB decreased at a rate of −0.12 V/nm, density of active traps increased by 4.5 times and depletion capacitance C_DP, increased by 2.5 times with the increase of oxide layer thickness from 50 to 200 nm. The density of active traps showed strong dependence on the frequency of the applied signal and the thickness of the oxide layer. The MOS device with 200 nm thick oxide layer irradiated with 100 kGy showed density of active interface traps was high at 50 kHz and was 3.6×10¹⁰ eV⁻¹ cm⁻². The relaxation time of the interface traps also increased with the exposure of γ–radiation and reached to 9.8 µs at 32 kHz in 200 nm thick oxide MOS device exposed with a dose of 100 kGy. It was inferred that this was due to formation of continuum energy states within the band gap and activation of these defects depended on the thickness of oxide layer, applied reverse bias and the working frequency. The present study highlighted the role of thickness of oxide layer in radiation hard environments and that only at high frequency, radiation induced traps remain passivated due to long relaxation times.     

Characteristics of RF reactive sputter-deposited Pt/SiO2/n-InGaN MOS Schottky diodes

All RF sputtering-deposited Pt/SiO₂/n-type indium gallium nitride (n-InGaN) metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) diodes were investigated before and after annealing at 400 °C. By scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the thickness of Pt, SiO_2, n-InGaN layer was measured to be ~250, 70, and 800 nm, respectively. AFM results also show that the grains become a little bigger after annealing, the surface topography of the as-deposited film was smoother with the rms roughness of 1.67 nm and had the slight increase of 1.92 nm for annealed sample. Electrical properties of MOS diodes have been determined by using the current–voltage (I–V) and capacitance–voltage (C–V) measurements. The results showed that Schottky barrier height (SBH) increased slightly to 0.69 eV (I–V) and 0.82 eV (C–V) after annealing at 400 °C for 15 min in N₂ ambient, compared to that of 0.67 eV (I–V) and 0.79 eV (C–V) for the as-deposited sample. There was the considerable improvement in the leakage current, dropped from 6.5×10⁻⁷ A for the as-deposited to 1.4×10⁻⁷ A for the 400 °C-annealed one. The annealed MOS Schottky diode had shown the higher SBH, lower leakage current, smaller ideality factor (n), and denser microstructure. In addition to the SBH, n, and series resistance (R_s) determined by Cheungs׳ and Norde methods, other parameters for MOS diodes tested at room temperature were also calculated by C–V measurement.     

Thickness-dependent optoelectronic properties of CuCr0.93Mg0.07O2 thin films deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering

CuCr_0.93Mg_0.07O₂ thin films were successfully deposited by DC reactive magnetron sputtering at 1123 K from metallic targets. The influence of film thickness on the structural and optoelectronic properties of the films was investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results revealed that all the films had a delafossite structure with no other phases. The optical and electrical properties were investigated by UV–VIS spectrophotometer and Hall measurement, respectively. It was found that the optoelectronic properties exhibited a thickness-dependent behavior. The optical band gap and the average transmittance of the films showed a monotonous decrease with respect to the increase in thickness. The average transmittance in the visible region decreased from 67% to 47% as the thickness increased from ~70 nm to ~280 nm. Simultaneously, the conductivity of the films fell from 1.40 S∙cm⁻¹ to 0.27 S∙cm⁻¹. According to Haacke's figure of merit (FOM), a film with a maximum FOM value of about 1.72×10⁻⁷ Ω⁻¹ can be achieved when the thickness is about 70 nm (σ≈ 1.40 S·cm⁻¹ and T_av. ≈67%).     

Effects of Ga concentration on structural and electrical properties of screen printed-CIGS absorber layers on polyethylene terephthalate

Copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) films were deposited as an absorber layer on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates by a screen printing technique using CIGS ink with a Ga content ranging from 0.3 to 0.6. The melting point of PET substrate is 254.9 °C; the average transmission in the visible (400 nm–800 nm) for PET substrates is greater than 85%. Effects of Ga content of the CIGS absorber layer on structural and electrical properties of the CIGS films were studied. The lattice parameters, a and c for all CIGS films were decreased with increasing Ga content. At room temperature, Hall mobility and charge-carrier concentration of the CIGS films varies from 97.2 to 2.69 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ and 9.98×10¹⁶ to 3.23×10¹⁸ cm⁻³, respectively.     

Thickness dependent barrier performance of permeation barriers made from atomic layer deposited alumina for organic devices

Organic devices like organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) or organic solar cells degrade fast when exposed to ambient air. Hence, thin-films acting as permeation barriers are needed for their protection. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is known to be one of the best technologies to reach barriers with a low defect density at gentle process conditions. As well, ALD is reported to be one of the thinnest barrier layers, with a critical thickness – defining a continuous barrier film – as low as 5–10 nm for ALD processed Al₂O₃. In this work, we investigate the barrier performance of Al₂O₃ films processed by ALD at 80 °C with trimethylaluminum and ozone as precursors. The coverage of defects in such films is investigated on a 5 nm thick Al₂O₃ film, i.e. below the critical thickness, on calcium using atomic force microscopy (AFM). We find for this sub-critical thickness regime that all spots giving raise to water ingress on the 20 × 20 μm² scan range are positioned on nearly flat surface sites without the presence of particles or large substrate features. Hence below the critical thickness, ALD leaves open or at least weakly covered spots even on feature-free surface sites. The thickness dependent performance of these barrier films is investigated for thicknesses ranging from 15 to 100 nm, i.e. above the assumed critical film thickness of this system. To measure the barrier performance, electrical calcium corrosion tests are used in order to measure the water vapor transmission rate (WVTR), electrodeposition is used in order to decorate and count defects, and dark spot growth on OLEDs is used in order to confirm the results for real devices. For 15–25 nm barrier thickness, we observe an exponential decrease in defect density with barrier thickness which explains the likewise observed exponential decrease in WVTR and OLED degradation rate. Above 25 nm, a further increase in barrier thickness leads to a further exponential decrease in defect density, but an only sub-exponential decrease in WVTR and OLED degradation rate. In conclusion, the performance of the thin Al₂O₃ permeation barrier is dominated by its defect density. This defect density is reduced exponentially with increasing barrier thickness for alumina thicknesses of up to at least 25 nm.     

Depression of the superconducting critical temperature and finite-size scaling relation in YBa2Cu3O7−δ/La2/3Ca1/3MnO3 bilayers

High-quality YBa₂Cu₃O_7?δ/La_2/3Ca_1/3MnO₃ (YBCO/LCMO) bilayers were fabricated on (0 0 1)-oriented SrTiO₃ (STO) substrates by dc-sputtering technique. Bottom layer was always LCMO since it grows better on STO than on YBCO. The thickness of the ferromagnetic layer varied between 5 and 35 monolayers (～2–13 nm) and that of the top YBCO was fixed at 10 monolayers (～12 nm). The transport properties of the YBCO layers as well as the magnetic properties of the LCMO counterparts were studied as a function of the LCMO layer thickness. A sizeable depression of the Curie temperature (T_C) of the LCMO layers from the bulk to lower temperatures is observed when decreasing their layer thickness d_LCMO, which might be ascribed to intrinsic dimensionality effects or strain-induced phenomena. On the contrary, the superconducting critical temperature of the YBCO layer T_S displays a sudden strong decrease at a critical LCMO thickness of ～12 nm. Since no dramatic change of the structural and morphological quality of the YBCO top layers with increasing d_LCMO is observed, the suppression of T_S of the YBCO layers should take place via proximity effect due to the increasing magnetization strength in the LCMO layer. However, extrinsic factors like interface strain, interdiffusion of cations between YBCO and LCMO or injection of spin-polarized carriers from the magnetic into the superconducting layer could also play an important role or even to be directly responsible for the observed depressed T_S.     

Low cycle fatigue performance of ball grid array structure Cu/Sn–3.0Ag–0.5Cu/Cu solder joints

Low cycle fatigue performance of ball grid array (BGA) structure Cu/Sn–3.0Ag–0.5Cu/Cu joints with different standoff heights (h, varying from 100 to 500 μm) and two pad diameters (d, d = 320 and 480 μm) under displacement-controlled cyclic loading was studied by experimental method and finite element (FE) simulation. A prediction method based on the plastic strain energy density and continuum damage mechanics (CDM) framework was proposed to evaluate the initiation and propagation of fatigue crack in solder joints. The results show that fatigue failure of solder joints is a process of damage accumulation and the plastic strain energy density performs a power function correlation with the cycle numbers of crack initiation and propagation. Crack propagation rate is affected by the stress triaxiality, which is dependent on the loading mode and increases dramatically with decreasing h under tensile loading, while the change of standoff height has very limited influence on the stress triaxiality under shear loading mode. Moreover, crack growth correlation constants identified in Cu/Sn–3.0Ag–0.5Cu/Cu joints with a specific geometry (h = 100 μm and d = 480 μm) can be well used to predict the fatigue life of BGA joints with other geometries. Furthermore, the results have also shown that the fatigue life of solder joints increases with decreasing the geometric ratio of h/d under the same nominal shear strain amplitude, while it drops with decreasing h/d under the same shear displacement amplitude in cyclic loading. When the geometric ratio (i.e., h/d ratio) is unchanged, the miniaturization of BGA joints brings about a decrease in fatigue life of the joints.     

Study on mobility enhancement in MOVPE-grown AlGaN/AlN/GaN HEMT structures using a thin AlN interfacial layer

Al_0.26Ga_0.74N/AlN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) structures with AlN interfacial layers of various thicknesses were grown on 100-mm-diameter sapphire substrates by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy, and their structural and electrical properties were characterized. A sample with an optimum AlN layer thickness of 1.0 nm showed a highly enhanced Hall mobility (μ_Hall) of 1770 cm²/Vs with a low sheet resistance (ρ_s) of 365 Ω/sq. (2DEG density n_s = 1.0 × 10¹³/cm²) at room temperature compared with those of a sample without the AlN interfacial layer (μ_Hall = 1287 cm²/Vs, ρ_s = 539 Ω/sq., and n_s = 0.9 × 10¹³/cm²). Electron transport properties in AlGaN/AlN/GaN structures were theoretically studied, and the calculated results indicated that the insertion of an AlN layer into the AlGaN/GaN heterointerface can significantly enhance the 2DEG mobility due to the reduction of alloy disorder scattering. HEMTs were successfully fabricated and characterized. It was confirmed that AlGaN/AlN/GaN HEMTs with the optimum AlN layer thickness show superior DC properties compared with conventional AlGaN/GaN HEMTs.