Partial dislocations and stacking faults in 4H-SiC PiN diodes

Using plan-view transmission electron microscopy (TEM), we have identified stacking faults (SFs) in 4H-SiC PiN diodes subjected to both light and heavy electrical bias. Our observations suggest that the widely expanded SFs seen after heavy bias are faulted dislocation loops that have expanded in response to strain of the 4H-SiC film, while faulted screw or 60° threading dislocations do not give rise to widely expanded SFs. Theoretical calculations show that the expansion of SFs depends on the Peach-Koehler (PK) forces on the partial dislocations bounding the SFs, indicating that strain plays a critical role in SF expansion.     

Role of interface chemistry and growing surface stoichiometry on the generation of stacking faults in ZnSe/GaAs

The existence of Zn-As and vacancy-contained Ga-Se interfacial layers are suggested by transmission electron microscopy of Zn-and Se-exposed (or - reacted) ZnSe/GaAs interfaces, respectively. A very low density of faulted defects in the range of ∼10⁴cm² was obtained in samples with Zn passivation on an Asstabilized GaAs-(2 × 4). However, the density of As precipitates increases as the surface coverage of c(4 × 4) reconstruction increased on the Zn-exposed Asstabilized GaAs-(2 × 4) surface and this is associated with an increase of the density of extrinsic-type stacking faults bound by partial edge dislocations with a core structure terminated on additional cations. On the other hand, densities of extrinsic Shockley-and intrinsic Frank-type stacking faults are of ∼5 × 10⁷/cm² in samples grown on Se-exposed Ga-rich GaAs-(4 × 6) surfaces. Annealing on this Se-exposed Ga-rich GaAs-(4 × 6) generated a high density of vacancy loops (1 × 10⁹/cm²) and an increase of the densities of both Shockley-and Frank-type stacking faults (>5 × 10⁸/cm²) after the growth of the films. Furthermore, we have studied the dependence of the generation and structure of Shockley-type stacking faults on the beam flux ratios in samples grown on Zn-exposed As-stabilized GaAs-(2 × 4) surfaces. Cation-and anion-terminated extrinsic-type partial edge dislocations were generated in samples grown under Zn-and Se-rich conditions, respectively. However, an asymmetric distribution on defect density under varied beam flux ratios (0.3 ≤ P_Se/P_Zn ≤ 10) is obtained.     

Microstructure of Heteroepitaxial ZnTe Grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy on Si(211) Substrates

The interface of ZnTe/Si(211) grown by molecular beam epitaxy was investigated by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Several types of defects such as misfit dislocations, stacking faults, agglomerations of vacancies, and precipitates were observed and studied by electron microscopy at the ZnTe/Si interface. The distribution of misfit dislocations at the interface was revealed with the assistance of the fast Fourier transformation filtering technique. A stick-and-ball interface model including misfit dislocation geometry is proposed. The possible origins of the stacking faults, vacancies, and precipitates are discussed.     

Dislocation and stacking fault interactions in silicon

The influence of dislocations generated by thermal stress during epitaxial processing upon other dislocations and upon epitaxial stacking fault densities and oxidation induced stacking fault densities is examined. High dislocation densities were observed at the intersection of thermally induced slip planes. Like dislocation densities, epitaxial stacking fault densities increased at slip plane intersections. Thermally induced dislocations influenced the arrangement of dislocation loops generated by lattice strain from heavy doping. Oxidation induced stacking faults were found to nucleate at areas of heavy slip, parallel to the slip lines.     

Effects of platinum and oxygenation on microstructure in YBa2Cu3O7−δ/Y2BaCuO5 bulk materials

Transmission electron microscopy examinations have been conducted on undoped and PtO₂ doped YBa₂Cu₃O_7−δ, with excess Y₂BaCuO₅ (211) in the molar ratio of 5∶1 (123/211), processing using the solid liquid melt growth technique. Magnetization hysteresis suggests that addition of Pt strongly influences the pinning behavior. Considerable differences in dislocation and stacking fault densities were observed. Dislocation nets and tangles were commonly observed in the Pt doped samples. In both samples, stacking faults were observed near 211 precipitates, interplatelet boundaries, and dislocations. Dislocations appear to be formed during high temperature processing, while stacking faults appear to be generated during the final oxygenation step. The density and distribution of fine precipitates (∼25–100 nm) were comparable in both specimens suggesting that Pt additon affects the size and acicular morphology of only the coarser 211 (∼1–10 μm). It is proposed that the observed increase in J_c due to Pt addtion may be attributed to the increase in defect density rather than fine precipitates.     

Noise sources identification in integrated circuits through correlation analysis

The identification and localization of noise sources in a linear integrated circuit affected by burst noise or excess 1/f noise is difficult because many devices are potentially responsible for the same output noise. In some practical cases, however, correlation measurement of the noise present at input, output, and other externally accessible terminals makes this identification possible. The method has been successfully employed in a power audio amplifier IC, and has led also to the identification of structural defects responsible for noise. The role of stacking faults, dislocation loops, and slip line dislocations in     

Dislocation nucleation mechanism and doping effect in p-type ZnSe/GaAs

Nitrogen doped ZnSe/GaAs heterostructures grown at 150 and 250°C were studied by transmission électron microscopy (TEM). The density of threading dislocations and the interfacial dislocation structure in ZnSe/GaAs heterostructures are related to the N-doping concentration. In addition, in-situ TEM heating studies show that Frank partial dislocations formed below critical thickness in N-doped ZnSe/GaAs are the sources for nucleation of a regular array of misfit dislocations at the ZnSe/GaAs interface. By the dissociation of the Frank partial dislocations and interaction reactions between the dislocations, the 60° misfit dislocations form. The Frank partial dislocations bound stacking faults which usually form in pairs at the film/substrate interface. The density of stacking faults increases with increasing N-doping concentration. Thus, at high N-doping levels, the dislocation nucleation sources are close together and not all of the Frank partial dislocations dissociate, so that a high density of threading dislocations results in samples with high N-doping concentrations. The high density of threading dislocations in the ZnSe film are found to be associated with a reduction or saturation of the net carrier density.     

Structural study of degraded ZnMgSSe blue light emitters

Using electroluminescence (EL) topography and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), we investigated the nonluminescent regions which form while current is being injected into ZnMgSSe/ZnSSe/ZnCdSe-based blue light emitters. Small dark spots were observed just after turn-on and spread out forming rough nonluminescent triangles in the <100> directions in the EL image of the active region. TEM studies showed that the small dark spots are pre-existing stacking faults originating at the substrate/epitaxial layer interface. The nonluminescent triangles were found to be a dense region of dislocation dipoles and dislocation loops. Each dipole was aligned along two <110> directions in the {111} planes. The Burgers vectors were of the type a/2<011> inclined at 45° to the (001) junction plane.     

Oxygen Vacancy Creation,Drift, and Aggregation in TiO2‐Based Resistive Switches at Low Temperature and Voltage

Transmission electron microscopy with in situ biasing has been performed on TiN/single‐crystal rutile TiO₂/Pt resistive switching structures. Three elementary processes essential for switching: i) creation of oxygen vacancies by electrochemical reactions at low temperatures (<150 °C), ii) their drift in the electric field, and iii) their coalescence into planar faults (and dissociation from them) have been documented. The faults have a form of vacancy discs in {110} and {121} planes, are bound by partial dislocation loops, and are identical to Wadsley defects observed in nonstoichiometric TiO₂ annealed at high temperatures. The faults can be regarded as a precursor to the formation of oxygen‐deficient Magnéli phases, but 3D secondary phase inclusions have not been detected. Together, the observations shed light on the behavior of oxygen vacancies in relatively low electric fields and temperatures, suggesting that, in addition to the rather accepted notion of oxygen vacancy motion during the writing processes in resistive switching devices, such motion may occur even during reading, and may be accompanied by significant oxygen vacancy creation at modest device excitation levels.     

Connection structures between type-I and type-II defects in neutron irradiated beta-Si3N4

High-resolution electron microscopy (HREM) observation clarified that various types of interstitial dislocations were induced into beta-Si3N4 by high-dose neutron irradiation, and two of them have been analysed and reported in our previous papers. These two defective structures are called type-I and type-II. They are interstitial dislocation loops introduced into [100] and [110] planes, respectively. In this study, it was found that some of these dislocation loops connected with each other. The connections of type-I-L2-type-II-B and type-I-R2-type-II-A dislocations were observed by HREM. Tetrahedral arrangements of the connected parts are proposed, based on the simplified crystal structure model of beta-Si3N4. In addition, a new type of defect, type-III, was found. Type-III is an interstitial dislocation loop introduced into [100] planes. It was also found that type-I-A and type-III dislocations connected with each other.     

Observation on Defects in Poly-Si Films Prepared by RTCVD Under Nonideal Conditions

Polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin films were deposited on quartz substrates by rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition (RTCVD) under nonideal conditions. Then, crystallographic defects in the poly-Si films were investigated by using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and optical microscopy combined with defect etching. We found that as-deposited poly-Si films contain a lot of twin crystals, including first-order, second-order, third-order, and higher-order twinned crystals. Besides twinned crystals, stacking faults, dislocations, dislocation nets, dislocation loops, extended dislocations, and dislocation line arrays were also found. Finally, the origins of the defects were analyzed, being attributed to the peculiarities of the RTCVD-quartz growth system, stress caused by lattice and thermal mismatch, a huge temperature ramp, and nonideal deposition conditions. Although our experimental results cannot represent the crystallographic quality of poly-Si films prepared by RTCVD, they at least indicate what kinds and how many defects exist in poly-Si films when deposition conditions severely deviate from the optimum.     

Radiation-induced segregation and precipitation behaviours around cascade clusters under electron irradiation

We have investigated the formation of cascade clusters and structural changes in them by means of electron irradiation following ion irradiation in an austenitic stainless steel. Almost all of the cascade clusters, which were introduced by the ion irradiation, grew to form interstitial-type dislocation loops or vacancy-type stacking fault tetrahedra after electron irradiation at 623 K, whereas a few of the dot-type clusters remained in the matrix. It was possible to recognize the concentration of Ni and Si by radiation-induced segregation around the dot-type clusters. After electron irradiation at 773 K, we found that some cascade clusters became precipitates (delta-Ni2Si) due to radiation-induced precipitation. This suggests that the cascade clusters could directly become precipitation sites during irradiation.     

碲锌镉晶片中位错与Te沉淀的透射电子显微分析

采用透射电子显微镜对碲锌镉晶体材料的缺陷特性进行了分析，观察并研究了碲锌镉晶体中Te沉淀相形貌和Te沉淀周围的棱柱位错环. 认为棱柱位错的形成是由Te沉淀相的析出引起的，而沉淀相在基体中的析出与基体形成错配应力，又造成位错的增殖. Te沉淀与棱柱位错两种缺陷是相互依存的.     

The generation of point defects in GaAs by electron-hole recombination at dislocations

The degradation of GaAs heterojunction lasers results in the formation of long dislocation dipoles which grow by a climb process involving point defect concentrations of the order of 10¹⁹ cm⁻³. The driving force for this climb process is not understood and it has been suggested that the material contains a supersaturation of native interstitials which condense on the dislocation during device operation. An alternative model proposed that the driving force is related to the energy released by electron-hole recombination on the dislocation which is partially dissipated by the dislocation emitting vacancies into the surrounding lattice.Gallium arsenide substrates containing greater than 2 × 10¹⁸ tellurium atoms cm⁻³ contain interstitial concentrations of the order of 10¹⁷ cm⁻³ which condense out to form small dislocation loops during an anneal at 880°C. The presence of these loops indicates that the annealed material does not contain excess interstitials in solution. This annealed material was optically pumped and examined by transmission electron microscopy. It was found that the loops developed into dipoles typical of degraded lasers. The number of point defects involved in this climb process increased with increasing pumping power and time. These results are discussed in terms of the two mechanisms listed above and it is concluded that the energy released by electron-hole recombination at the dislocation provides the driving force for the climb process.     

α黄铜爆炸,滚压强化后表面层组织结构的TEM研究

与喷丸强化相似,α黄铜经爆炸强化后表面层因高速应变而形成显微孪晶栅栏。仔细分析这些孪晶的构造,可以发现它们内部包含了密集的趋近某一方向的螺位错线和大量重叠层错。孪晶栅栏把α晶粒分割成许多小块,块内位错密度很高,但没有胞状结构出现。α黄铜经滚压强化后表面层内没有发现孪晶栅栏,只看到具有方向性的螺位错趋于紧密排列,并显示出将要形成孪晶亚结构的倾向,因此,对α黄铜而言,强化方式不同,强化层内的组织结构是有着明显差别的。     

Structure of [110] tilt grain boundaries in zirconia bicrystals

Cubic stabilized zirconia bicrystals with [110] symmetric tilt grain boundaries were fabricated by diffusion bonding of two single crystals with the composition of ZrO2-9.6mol%Y2O3. The structures of symmetric tilt small angle grain boundary and two types of symmetric tilt sigma3 grain boundaries with different grain boundary planes were observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HREM) observations clarified that the [110] small angle tilt grain boundary consists of periodic array of b = a/2[110] type edge dislocations. This result is consistent with Frank's dislocation model for small angle grain boundary. HREM observation also revealed that the 70.5 degrees sigma3 grain boundary shows atomically coherent grain boundary structure with the boundary plane of [111], while the 109.5 degrees sigma3 grain boundary accompanies grain boundary facets taking [111]/[115] asymmetric grain boundary plane. Because of the very low surface energy of [111] plane and/or high lattice matching of [111] and [115] type planes, the grain boundary faceting may be preferred in spite of increasing grain boundary area to about 6%. TEM-energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analyses were performed on both sigma3 grain boundaries, and the segregation of yttrium ions to the boundaries was detected in both cases. The amount of segregation is about the same in both sigma3 boundaries. It can be concluded that the segregation of yttrium ions to sigma3 grain boundary exists in cubic zirconia.     

The new origin of dark-line defects in planar-stripe DH lasers

The transmission electron microscope (TEM) observations of degraded and undegraded diodes have shown that usually, though not always, small dislocation loops are introduced into the stripe area during selective zinc diffusion for stripe fabrication. These loops grow to giant dislocation loops, which correspond to dark line defects (DLD's) during device operation. The growth velocity of DLD's which originate from the loops with Burgers vectors ofa/2 langle 011 rangleinclined is more rapid than that ofa [001]normal anda/2 langle 110 rangleparallel to the junction plane, and is the same order of magnitude as the growth velocity of common DLD's which originate from the threading dislocations.     

Structural analysis of Ge x Si1−x /Si layers by remote plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition on Si (100)

In this work, remote plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (RPCVD) has been used to grow Ge _x Si_1−x /Si layers on Si(100) substrates at 450° C. The RPCVD technique, unlike conventional plasma CVD, uses an Ar (or He) plasma remote from the substrate to indirectly excite the reactant gases (SiH₄ and GeH₄) and drive the chemical deposition reactions. In situ reflection high energy electron diffraction, selected area diffraction, and plan-view and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (XTEM) were used to confirm the single crystallinity of these heterostructures, and secondary ion mass spectroscopy was used to verify abrupt transitions in the Ge profile. XTEM shows very uniform layer thicknesses in the quantum well structures, suggesting a Frank/ van der Merwe 2-D growth mechanism. The layers were found to be devoid of extended crystal defects such as misfit dislocations, dislocation loops, and stacking faults, within the TEM detection limits (∼10⁵ dislocations/cm²). Ge _x Si_1−x /Si epitaxial films with various Ge mole fractions were grown, where the Ge contentx is linearly dependent on the GeH₄ partial pressure in the gas phase for at leastx = 0 − 0.3. The incorporation rate of Ge from the gas phase was observed to be slightly higher than that of Si (1.3:1).     

X-ray channeling technique using anomalous transmission and its application to si micro-defects induced by heat treatment

X-ray channeling (XRC) technique using anomalous transmission is newly developed as a method of evaluating micro-defects in bulk single crystals. It is ascertained that there is a definite correlation between the decrease of the (hkl) anomalously transmitted intensity and the characteristic of the lattice defect. The present XRC technique has been tentatively applied to micro-defects (M.D.’s) induced in Si during heat treatment. As a result, it is conjectured that dislocation loops and stacking faults are preferentially induced during N₂ atmosphere annealing at 1040‡C and wet O₂ atmosphere annealing at 1100‡C, respectively, though precipitates are also generated during both annealings.     

Linear Dendritic Block Copolymers as Promising Biomaterials for the Manufacturing of Soft Tissue Adhesive Patches Using Visible Light Initiated Thiol–Ene Coupling Chemistry

A library of dendritic–linear–dendritic (DLD) materials comprising linear poly(ethylene glycol) and hyperbranched dendritic blocks based on 2,2‐bis(hydroxymethyl) propionic acid is successfully synthesized and postfunctionalized with peripheral allyl groups. Reactive DLDs with pseudo‐generations of 3 to 6 (G3‐G6) are isolated in large scale allowing their thorough evaluation as important components for the development of biomedical adhesives. Due to their branched nature and inherent degradable ester‐bonds, promising biomaterial resins are accomplished with suitable viscosity, eliminating the excessive use of co‐solvents. By utilizing benign high‐energy visible light initiated thiol–ene coupling chemistry, DLDs together with tris[2‐(3‐mercaptopropionyloxy)ethyl] isocyanurate and surgical mesh enable the fabrication of soft tissue adhesive patches (STAPs) within a total irradiation time of 30 s. The STAPs display the ability to create good adhesion to wet soft tissue and encouraging results in cytotoxicity tests. All crosslinked materials are also found to degrade after being stored in human blood plasma and phosphate buffered saline. The proposed benign methodology coupled with the promising features of the crosslinked materials is herein envisioned as a soft tissue adhesive with properties that do not exist in currently available tissue adhesives.