Ion-beam doping during molecular beam epitaxy

Compositional modifications on the atomic scale, made possible through molecular beam epitaxy, have opened up a new range of semiconductor devices. Some recent work has investigated the addition of ion dopants during molecular beam epitaxy, with the goal of improving electrical and optical properties.     

Au schottky barrier diodes on β-SiC thin films deposited on silicon substrates by reactive magnetron sputtering technique

β-SiC thin films have been grown on (100) silicon substrates using reactive magnetron sputtering of a silicon target in an Ar/CH₄ mixed plasma. For the first time it has been possible to make gold Schottky diodes on β-SiC grown by reactive magnetron sputtering. Current-voltage measurements showed an ideality factor of 1.27 and a leakage current density of 4 μA/cm². Capacitance-voltage measurements gave a barrier height of 1.04 eV. The static dielectric constant for β-SiC was determined to be 9.     

Thermal stability and crystallization of amorphous Si1−xBx, Si1−xPx and Si1−xSbx alloy thin films

The thermal stability and crystallization of the amorphous Si_1−xP_x, Si_1−xB_x and Si_1−xSb_x alloy systems have been studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). It was found that the amorphous Si-P and Si-B alloys have a high thermal stability and crystallize at temperatures as high as 1150°C, whereas amorphous Si-Sb alloys are unstable and crystallize already at 350°C. The thermal stability is explained by strong Si-P and Si-B bonds, whilst the instability is explained by the weakening of Si-Si bonds by the presence of Sb atoms (< 17 at.% Sb) and by weak Si-Sb and Sb-Sb bonds (> 17 at.% Sb). The thermal stability and instability of the amorphous alloys were correctly predicted from calculated Gibbs free energy diagrams (GFED). The calculated GFED were also used together with the observed crystallization temperatures to successfully predict the first crystalline phase to form in the Si-P and Si-B systems. The first crystalline phases that formed were Si (< 40 at.% B and < 30 at.% P), a newly reported phosphide, Si₁₂P₅ (30 at.% P), and SiP (> 30 at.% P).     

1260 nm InGaAs vertical-cavity lasers

The fabrication and performance of highly strained double-quantum well InGaAs/GaAs vertical-cavity lasers with record-long emission wavelength of 1260 nm at room temperature is reported. Depending on device diameter, the minimum threshold current is in the low mA-regime while the maximum output power exceeds 1 mW. The devices work continuous-wave over a wide temperature range of at least 10-120°C     

N1s Electron Binding Energies of CN_x Thin Films Grown by Magnetron Sputtering at Different Temperature

Carbon nitride thin films deposited using dc unbalanced magnetron sputtering system have been analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT1R) and Raman spectroscopy. The XPS data show that N1s binding states depend on substrate temperature Ts, in which the peak at 400.0 eV increases with Ts, whereas the peak at 398.3 eV decreases with Ts slightly On the basis of XPS, FT1R and Raman spectra, the assignment of N1s electron binding energies was made. The peak at 400.0 eV is attributed to N atoms bonded to sp2 coordinated C atoms. The peak at 398.3 eV is attributed to N atoms bonded to sp3 coordinated C atoms as well as N C bonds.     

Effects of substrate temperature and substrate material on the structure of reactively sputtered TiN films

Stoichiometric TiN films were reactively magnetron sputtered in an Ar-N₂ atmosphere. The films were deposited at various substrate temperatures in the range 200–650°C onto two types of substrate material, high speed steel and stainless steel. The microstructure of the films obtained was investigated by the use of a transmission electron microscope and the morphology was studied in a scanning electron microscope. Measurements of the hardness were also performed. The analysis of the microstructure shows that the growth of the film is markedly influenced by the substrate material. In particular, the high speed steel substrates were found to have a considerable influence on the microstructure. The vanadium carbide particles in these steels, which have a good lattice match to TiN, stimulate a localized epitaxial growth to occur on these carbide particles. This results in a microstructure consisting of large grains surrounded by small grains. The shape of the large grains is influenced by the temperature. In the development of these large grains cracks and/or voids occur in and around the grains at substrate temperatures above 400°C and the hardness drops by about 20%. No large grains were found on films deposited onto stainless steel and their hardness increases slightly with temperature. High hardness for films deposited onto the high speed steel substrate at temperatures above 400°C can also be obtained if a substrate bias is used. Ion bombardment during film growth suppresses the formation of the large grains with voided or cracked boundaries because of a continuous renucleation process. The formation of the different microstructures is discussed in terms of surface energy minimization and thermally activated processes as surface and grain boundary migration.     

Defects in amorphous and solid phase epitaxial silicon

The microstructural morphology of amorphous Si (a-Si) layers deposited in ultrahigh vacuum, as well as crystalline Si grown by solid phase epitaxy (SPE), was studied as a function of Al doping and vapour beam incidence angle. The microstructure of the films was investigated using cross-section transmission electron microscopy. All a-Si layers have a columnar structure, with an average column width of 5 nm. The direction of the columns abruptly changes with the change of deposition direction and shows local column tilts and void formation at substrate surface irregularities. These built-in defects in the a-Si films also influence the defect structure in epitaxial Si films grown by SPE. Voids are initially aligned along the column directions and extra voids form owing to irregularities of the columnar structure. Doping of amorphous Si with Al to 10¹⁸−10²⁰ cm⁻³ does not leave detectable effects in the amorphous structure itself, but will increase the void density of the re-grown SPE Si layers. Furthermore, segregation of Al resulting in metallic inclusions in the amorphous crystalline interface causes metal induced crystallization of Si at temperatures far below the normal SPE regrowth temperature, thus preventing the formation of single crystalline silicon in a single-step process.     

Ion tracks and microstructures in barium titanate irradiated with swift heavy ions: A combined experimental and computational study

Tetragonally structured barium titanate (BaTiO₃) single crystals were irradiated using 635 MeV ²³⁸U⁺ ions to fluences of 1 × 10⁷, 5 × 10¹⁰ and 1.4 × 10¹² ions cm^?2 at room temperature. Irradiated samples were characterized using ion channeling, X-ray diffraction, helium ion microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The results show that the ion-entry spot on the surface has an amorphous core of up to ～10 nm in diameter, surrounded by a strained lattice structure. Satellite-like defects around smaller cores are also observed and are attributed to the imperfect epitaxial recrystallization of thermal-spike-induced amorphization. The critical value of the electronic stopping power for creating observable amorphous cores is determined to be ～22 keV nm^?1. Molecular dynamics simulations show an amorphous track of ～1.2 nm in radius under thermal energy deposition at 5 keV nm^?1; the radius increases to ～4.5 nm at 20 keV nm^?1. A linear fit of the core diameter as a function of the square root of the energy deposition rate suggests a reduction in the diameter by an average of ～8.4 nm due to thermal recrystallization if electron–phonon coupling efficiency of 100% is assumed. The simulation also reveals details of the bonding environments and shows different densities of the amorphous zones produced at different energy deposition rates.