Contact resistance variation in top-contact organic thin-film transistors with the deposition rate of Au source/drain electrodes

We investigated the effect of the deposition rate of Au source/drain electrodes on the contact resistance of the top-contact organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs). For the formation of source/drain contacts, Au was thermally deposited at the different rates of 0.5, 1.0, 5.0, and 13.0 Å/s. With increasing the Au deposition rate, the contact resistance extracted at the gate voltage of − 30 V could be reduced from 14 × 10⁶ to 2.4 × 10⁶ Ω, resulting in the characteristic improvements of the top-contact OTFT. It is also found that the contact resistance significantly affects the off-state currents of the device having the short channel length of 10 μm. The control of the deposition rate of source/drain electrodes is suggested to optimize the contact properties of the top-contact OTFTs as well as the device performance.     

Ni/Au、Pd/Au与p-AlGaN材料的接触特性

在AlGaNpin型日盲紫外探测器结构中的p-AlGaN层上生长了Ni/Au和Pd/Au,并在600～850℃温度下进行快速热退火,测量其退火前后传输线模型中各金属接触间的电学性质。实验发现,Ni/Au与Pd/Au在p-AlGaN上表现出了不同的接触性能。为了更好的说明金属与p-AlGaN材料接触之间在退火后电流的变化,还测量了p-AlGaN材料裸片两点之间I-V曲线在退火前后的变化。实验表明,比起Ni/Au来,Pd/Au在p-AlGaN材料上制备欧姆接触具有一定的优势,并在文中进行了分析。     

Influence of Au capping Layer on spin accumulation in a lateral spin-valve structure

We investigate the influence of Au capping layer on the spin accumulation in a lateral spin valve consisting of Permalloy and Cu wires. The nonlocal spin valve measurements show that the Au capping significantly suppresses the spin accumulation in the Cu wire, although it improves the electrical conductivity. This is understood as a result of the small spin-flip resistance of Au whereby absorbed spins are successively flipped.     

Probing electrostatic potentials in solution with carbon nanotube transistors

We have used single-walled carbon nanotube transistors to measure changes in the chemical potential of a solution due to redox-active transition-metal complexes. The interaction of the molecules with a gold electrolyte-gate wire changes the electrostatic potential sensed by the nanotube, which in turn shifts the gate-voltage dependence of the nanotube conductance. As predicted by the Nernst equation, this shift depends logarithmically on the ratio of oxidized to reduced molecules.     

Stretchable graphene transistors with printed dielectrics and gate electrodes

With the emergence of human interface technology, the development of new applications based on stretchable electronics such as conformal biosensors and rollable displays are required. However, the difficulty in developing semiconducting materials with high stretchability required for such applications has restricted the range of applications of stretchable electronics. Here, we present stretchable, printable, and transparent transistors composed of monolithically patterned graphene films. This material offers excellent mechanical, electrical, and optical properties, capable of use as semiconducting channels as well as the source/drain electrodes. Such monolithic graphene transistors show hole and electron mobilities of 1188 ± 136 and 422 ± 52 cm(2)/(V s), respectively, with stable operation at stretching up to 5% even after 1000 or more cycles.     

Optical spin generation/detection and spin transport lifetimes

We generate electron spins in semiconductors by optical pumping. The detection of them is also performed by optical technique using time-resolved pump-probe photoluminescence polarization measurements in the presence of an external magnetic field perpendicular to the generated spin. The spin polarization in dependences of the pulse length, pump-probe delay and external magnetic field is studied. From the dependence of spin-polarization on the delay of the probe, the electronic spin transport lifetimes and the spin relaxation frequencies as a function of the strength of the magnetic field are estimated. The results are discussed based on hyperfine effects for interacting electrons.     

Photo-response behavior of Au nano-particle/porphyrin polymer composite device with nano-gapped electrodes

Electrodes with a gap size of 15 ∼ 80 nm could be bridged by porphyrin molecular wires with 50 ∼ 300 nm length. The porphyrin units could be coordinated with Au nano-particles having pyridinyl moiety. The device with both the porphyrin and Au nano-particles showed photo-response characteristics while those without the Au nano-particles showed no response.     

Giant spin Hall effect in perpendicularly spin-polarized FePt/Au devices

Conversion of charge current into pure spin current and vice versa in non-magnetic semiconductors or metals, which are called the direct and inverse spin Hall effects (SHEs), provide a new functionality of materials for future spin-electronic architectures. Thus, the realization of a large SHE in a device with a simple and practical geometry is a crucial issue for its applications. Here, we present a multi-terminal device with a Au Hall cross and an FePt perpendicular spin injector to detect giant direct and inverse SHEs at room temperature. Perpendicularly magnetized FePt injects or detects perpendicularly polarized spin current without magnetic field, enabling the unambiguous identification of SHEs. The unprecedentedly large spin Hall resistance of up to 2.9 mOmega is attributed to the large spin Hall angle in Au through the skew scattering mechanism and the highly efficient spin injection due to the well-matched spin resistances of the chosen materials.     

Analysis of effective channel length variation for thin-film transistors with edge waviness in source/drain electrodes

We analyzed the effective channel length variation of hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin-film transistors (TFTs) that have wavy edge source/drain (S/D) electrodes. Edge waviness is frequently observed when narrow electrodes are fabricated by using printing methods. We used hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) TFTs and photolithographically patterned wavy edge S/D electrodes for accurate analysis. From a transmission line method (TLM), we successfully related the channel current variation to the variation of current transfer length (L_{T_wavy}) of the wavy edge S/D electrodes originated from current spreading and geometrical edge waviness effects which can be separately extracted.     

Giant enhancement of spin accumulation and long-distance spin precession in metallic lateral spin valves

The non-local spin injection in lateral spin valves is strongly expected to be an effective method to generate a pure spin current for potential spintronic application. However, the spin-valve voltage, which determines the magnitude of the spin current flowing into an additional ferromagnetic wire, is typically of the order of 1 μV. Here we show that lateral spin valves with low-resistivity NiFe/MgO/Ag junctions enable efficient spin injection with high applied current density, which leads to the spin-valve voltage increasing 100-fold. Hanle effect measurements demonstrate a long-distance collective 2π spin precession along a 6-μm-long Ag wire. These results suggest a route to faster and manipulable spin transport for the development of pure spin-current-based memory, logic and sensing devices.     

Organic heterojunction ambipolar field effect transistors with asymmetric source and drain electrodes

Ambipolar organic field effect transistors with heterojunction structures have been fabricated using a biphenyl-capped thiophene oligomer (BP2T) and a naphthalene derivative (GS1b) for p-type and n-type organic semiconductors, respectively. Asymmetric electrode structures with Au source and Al-Li drain resulted in better performances than that of a symmetric device due to improved electron injection by the low work-function drain metal.     

Interaction Kinetics between Sn-Pb Solder Droplet and Au/Ni/Cu Pad

The interracial phenomena of the Sn-Pb solder droplet on and needle-like AuSn4 are formed at the interface after Au/Ni/Cu pad are investigated. A continuous AuSn2 the liquid state reaction （soldering）. The interracial reaction between the solder and Au layer continues during solid state aging with AuSn4 breaking off from the interface and felling into the solder. The kinetics of Au layer dissolution and diffusion into the solder during soldering and aging is analyzed to elucidate intermetallic formation mechanism at the solder/Au pad interface. The concentration of Au near the solder/pad interface is identified to increase and reach the solubility limit during the period of liquid state reaction. During solid state reaction, the thickening of Au-Sn compound is mainly controlled by element diffusion.     

Probing magnetic anisotropy and spin polarization in spintronic materials

Magnetic anisotropy and spin polarization are fundamental parameters in ferromagnetic materials that have use in spintronic device applications. As the need for screening properties of new magnetic materials rises, it is important to have measurement probes for quantities such as anisotropy and spin polarization. We have developed two unconventional yet powerful techniques to study these parameters. A resonant RF transverse susceptibility method is used to map the characteristic anisotropy and switching fields over a wide range in temperature and magnetic fields. For studies of spin polarization, the phenomenon of Andreev reflection across ferromagnet-superconductor junctions is used to extract values of the transport spin polarization. The effectiveness of these approaches is demonstrated in candidate spintronic materials such as half-metallic CrO/sub 2/ thin films and arrays of monodisperse, single-domain Fe nanoparticles.     

Optical second harmonic generation measurements for investigating electron injection into a pentacene field effect transistor with Au source and drain electrodes

The pentacene field effect transistors (FETs)' operation for the injection carrier was revealed by means of the drain current-elapsed time (I_ds-t) and optical second harmonic generation (SHG) measurements. The charge carriers forming the conducting channel of pentacene FETs were mainly holes injected from the Au source electrode. Carrier injection from source and drain electrodes was followed by the carrier trapping, and the SHG signal modulated by the change in the electric field distribution between Au the source and drain electrodes was shown. In particular, at the off state of the FET, electron injection and succeeding trapping were suggested. Furthermore, hole injection assisted by trapped electrons was also suggested.     

Integrated electrophoresis chips/amperometric detection with sputtered gold working electrodes

An on-chip electrochemical detector for micromachined capillary electrophoresis (CE) systems, based on sputtering a gold working electrode directly onto the capillary outlet, is described. The new on-chip detector preparation requires no microfabrication or alignment procedures nor a decoupling mechanism. The attractive performance of the integrated electrophoresis chips/amperometric detection was demonstrated for the anodic detection of neurotransmitters. The response for dopamine was linear from 20 to 200 μM, with a LOD of 1.0 μM and a sensitivity of 52 pA/μM. Such intimate coupling of capillary electrophoresis chips and electrochemical detection facilitates the realization of complete integrated microanalytical devices.     

Tin whiskers growth of SnAgIn solder on Kovar substrate with Au/Ni plating

In this research, the interactions of SnInAg solder on Kovar leadframes (Fe29Ni17Co) with Au/Ni UMB was studied, to reveal the whiskers growth mechanism. Samples were prepared by reflow process and aging, with SnInAg solder paste on the substrate. Scanning electron microscope was used to observe the morphology and the cross-sectioned structure of the whiskers. Focused ion-beam was used for the preparation of the transmission electron microscope (TEM) samples, and energy dispersive X-ray and TEM were then used to distinguish the different intermetallic compound (IMC) phases. It was found that, a special solder thickness range would be needed for the growth of whiskers. The root cause of this strip whiskers growth region was studied. It is worthy to mention that, the Sn–Cu reactions, which was reported by many former researches, was not the main source of the compressive stress here. It was found that the Au–Sn reactions, the IMCs transformation during the aging process, and the oxidation layer growth were dominating the whiskers growth. Effects of cracks on the whiskers growth were carefully observed and discussed, and it was found that cracks under a certain width could exempt the breaking of the oxidation layer at the solder surface, thus help the whiskers growth. On the other hand, wide cracks might accommodate the deformation of the solder layer and prohibit the whiskers from being erupted out.     

Au/Ni bilayers on n-type silicon: Metallurgical and electrical behaviour

Diffusion effects during the formation of silicides in the Ni-Au-Si system were investigated by means of ⁴He⁺ MeV Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, Auger electron spectroscopy coupled with Ar⁺ ion sputtering and X-ray diffraction as a function of the heat treatment temperature (280–350°C) and time (10–1000 min). Schottky barrier heights were used to identify the type of metal present at the silicon surface. Au/Ni/Si and Ni/Au/Si structures were prepared by electron gun deposition of thin gold and nickel films onto n-type Si〈111〉 single crystals. After thermal treatment only Ni₂Si and NiSi compounds were observed and their formation follows the phase order confirmed by previous investigations on the Ni/Si system, with a growth controlled by a lattice diffusion process. In the Ni/Au/Si〈111〉 structure the diffusion of the silicon through the gold film was detected during the formation of nickel silicide and the kinetics of growth of Ni₂Si and NiSi were similar to those studied in the Ni/Si〈100〉 system. A diffusion of gold towards the Si-NiSi interface was observed during the growth of NiSi in the Au/Ni/Si〈111〉 structure. The Schottky barrier height measurements confirm these findings.