Effects of Relative Orientation of Molecules on Electron Transport in Molecular Devices

Effects of relative orientation of the molecules on electron transport in molecular devices are studied by the non-equilibrium Green function method based on density functional theory. In particular, two molecular devices with planar Au7 and Ag3 clusters sandwiched between the Al（100） electrodes axe studied. In each device, two typical configurations with the clusters parallel and vertical to the electrodes are considered. It is found that the relative orientation affects the transport properties of these two devices completely differently. In the Al（100）- Au7-Al（100） device, the conductance and the current of the parallel configuration are much larger than those in the vertical configuration, while in the Al（100）-Ag3-Al（100） device, an opposite conclusion is obtained.     

Effects of optical interference and annealing on the performance of poly （3-hexylthiophene）： fullerene based solar cells

<正>In this paper,the effects of optical interference and annealing on the performance of P3HT:PCBM based organic solar cells are studied in detail.Due to the optical interference effect,short circuit current density(J_SC) shows obvious oscillatory behaviour with the variation of active layer thickness.With the help of the simulated results,the devices are optimized around the first two optical interference peaks.It is found that the optimized thicknesses are 80 and 208 nm.The study on the effect of annealing on the performance indicates that post-annealing is more favourable than pre-annealing.Based on post-annealing,different annealing temperatures are tested.The optimized annealing condition is 160℃for 10 min in a nitrogen atmosphere.The device shows that the open circuit voltage V-（OC） achieves about 0.65V and the power conversion efficiency is as high as 4.0%around the second interference peak.     

Photoinduced degradation of organic solar cells with different microstructures

An in situ measurement setup is established to investigate the photoinduced degradation effects in a controllable inert gas ambient environment for the two different microstructures of poly(3-hexylthiophene)(P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyricacid methyl ester(PCBM) bulk-heterojunction organic solar cells. The two devices are fabricated with the solvent vapor drying process followed by a thermal annealing(vapor drying device) and only a normal thermal annealing process(control device), respectively. Their power conversion efficiencies(PCEs) and aging features are compared. Their different degradation behaviors in light absorption are confirmed. In addition, irradiation-induced changes in both nanostructure and surface morphology of the P3HT:PCBM blend films treated with two different fabrication processes are observed through scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. Aggregated bulbs are observed at the surfaces for control devices after light irradiation for 50 h, while the vapor drying devices exhibit smooth film surfaces, and the corresponding device features are not easy to degrade under the aging measurement. Thus the devices having solvent vapor drying and thermal annealing show better device stabilities than those having only the thermal annealing process.     

Influence of Post-Annealing on Electrical Characteristics of Thin-Film Transistors with Atomic-Layer-Deposited ZnO-Channel/Al_2O_3-Dielectric

High-performance thin-film transistors(TFTs) with a low thermal budget are highly desired for flexible electronic applications.In this work,the TFTs with atomic layer deposited ZnO-channel/Al_2O_3-dielectric are fabricated under the maximum process temperature of 200℃.First,we investigate the effect of post-annealing environment such as N_2,H_2-N_2(4%) and O_2 on the device performance,revealing that O_2 annealing can greatly enhance the device performance.Further,we compare the influences of annealing temperature and time on the device performance.It is found that long annealing at 200℃ is equivalent to and even outperforms short annealing at 300℃.Excellent electrical characteristics of the TFTs are demonstrated after O_2 annealing at 200℃ for 35 min,including a low off-current of 2.3 × 10~(-13) A,a small sub-threshold swing of 245mV/dec,a large on/off current ratio of 7.6×10~8,and a high electron effective mobility of 22.1cm~2/V·s.Under negative gate bias stress at — 10 V,the above devices show better electrical stabilities than those post-annealed at 300℃.Thus the fabricated high-performance ZnO TFT with a low thermal budget is very promising for flexible electronic applications.     

Effect of TiO2 Nanotubes on Polymer-Fullerene Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells

We investigate the photovoltaic properties of hybrid organ/c solar cell based on the blend of poly[2-methoxy-5-（2- ethylhexoxy-l,4-phenylenevinylene） （MEH-PPV）, C60 and titanium dioxide （TiO2） nanotubes. In comparison of the composite devices with different TiO2：[MEH-PPV ＋C60] weight ratios of lw$.% （D1-1）, 2wt.% （D1-2）, 3wt.% （D1-3）, 5wt.% （D1-4）, 10wt.% （D1-5） and 20wt.% （D1-6）, it is found that the device Dl-a exhibits the best performance. The conversion efficiency is improved by a factor of 3 compared with the MEH-PPV：C60 device.     

Characteristics Analysis of Vertical Double Gate Strained Channel Heterostructure Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor-Field-Effect-Transistor

Since device feature size shrinks continuously, there appears various short-channel effects on the fabrication and performance of devices and integrated circuits. We present a vertical double gate （VDG） strained channel heterostrueture metal-oxide-semiconduetor-field-effect-transistor （MOSFET）. The electrical characteristics of the device with the effective gate length scaled down to 60nm are simulated. The results show that the drive current and transconductance are improved by 57.92% and 54.53% respectively, and grid swing is decreased by 36.83% over their unstrained counterparts. VDG MOSFETs exhibit a stronger capability to restrict short-channel-effects over traditional MOSFETs.     

Annealing induced refinement on optical transmission and electrical resistivity of indium tin oxide

The effect of annealing condition on sputtered indium tin oxide （ITO） films on quartz with the thickness of 200 nm is characterized to show enhanced optical transparency and optimized electrical contact resistivity. The as-deposited grown ITO film exhibits only 65% and 80% transmittance at 532 and 632.8 nm, respectively. After annealing at 475 ℃ for 15 min, the ITO film is refined to show improved transmittance at shorter wavelength region. The transmittances of 88.1% at 532 nm and 90.4% at 632.8 nm can be obtained. The 325-nm transmittance of the post-annealed ITO film is greatly increased from 12.7% to 41.9%. Optimized electrical property can be obtained when annealing below 450 ℃, leading to a minimum sheet resistance of 26 Ω/square. Such an ITO film with enhanced ultraviolet （UV） transmittance has become an alternative candidate for applications in current UV photonic devices. The morphology and conductance of the as-deposited and annealed ITO films are determined by using an atomic force microscopy （AFM）, showing a great change on the uniformity distribution with finite improvement on the surface conductance of the ITO film after annealing.     

F4-TCNQ concentration dependence of the current-voltage characteristics in the Au/P3HT：PCBM：F4-TCNQ/n-Si （MPS） Schottky barrier diode

In this study, we investigate some main electrical parameters of the gold/poly（3-hexylthiophene）：[6,6]-phenyl C61 bu- tyric acid methyl ester：2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane/n-type silicon （Au/P3HT：PCBM：F4-TCNQ/n- Si） metal-polymer-semiconductor （MPS） Schottky barrier diode （SBD） in terms of the effects of F4-TCNQ concentration （0%, 1%, and 2%）. F4-TCNQ-doped P3HT：PCBM is fabricated to figure out the p-type doping effect on the device per- formance. The main electrical parameters, such as ideality factor （n）, barrier height （ФB0）, series resistance （Rs）, shunt resistance （Rsh）, and density of interface states （Nss） are determined from the forward and reverse bias current-voltage （l-V） characteristics in the dark and at room temperature. The values of n, Rs, ФB0, and Nss are significantly reduced by using the 1% F4-TCNQ doping in P3HT：PCBM：F4-TCNQ organic blend layer, additionally, the carrier mobility and current are increased by the soft （1%） doping. The most ideal values of electrical parameters are obtained for 1% F4-TCNQ used diode. On the other hand, the carrier mobility and current for the hard doping （2%） become far away from the ideal diode values due to the unbalanced generation of holes/electrons and doping-induced disproportion when compared with 1% F4-TCNQ doping. These results show that the electrical properties of MPS SBDs strongly depend on the F4-TCNQ doping and doping concentration of interfacial P3HT：PCBM：F4-TCNQ organic layer. Moreover, the soft F4-TCNQ dop- ing concentration （1%） in P3HT：PCBM：F4-TCNQ organic layer significantly improves the electrical characteristics of the Au/P3HT：PCBM：F4-TCNQ/n-Si （MPS） SBDs which enables the fabricating of high-quality electronic and optoelectronic devices.     

Modified solution-processible fabrication of metallic photonic crystals with template removal

High-temperature annealing and pre-annealing lift-off procedures are employed to improve the solutionproeessible technique for the fabrication of one- （1D） and two-dimensional （2D） metallic photonic crystals （MPCs） based on colloidal gold nanoparticles. This enables the successful fabrication of gold nanowires or nanocylinder array structures with the photoresist template removed completely, which is crucial for the application of MPCs in biosensors and optoelectronic devices. Microscopic measurements show homogeneous 1D and 2D photonic structures with an area as large as 100 mm2. Plasmonic resonance of the gold nanostructures and its coupling with the resonance mode of the planar waveguide underneath the photonic structures are observed, implying the excellent optical properties of this kind of MPCs based on the improved fabrication technique.     

Residual gas properties in a field emission device with ZnO emitters

In this paper, a vacuum system is employed to compare the emission stabilities of the same ZnO cathode in a sealed field emission （FE） device and under ultrahigh vacuum （UHV） conditions. It is observed that the emission current is more stable under the UHV level than in the device. When all conditions except the ambient gases are kept unchanged, the emission current degradation is mainly caused by the residual gases in the sealed device. The quadrupole mass spectrometer （QMS） equipped on the vacuum system is used to investigate the residual gas components. Based on the obtained QMS data, the following conclusions can be drawn： the residual gases in ZnO-FE devices are H2, CH4, CO, Ar, and CO2. These residual gases can change the work function at the surface through adsorption or ion bombardment, thereby degrading the emission current of the cathode.     

Organic Light-Emitting Diodes with Magnesium Doped CuPc as an Efficient Electron Injection Layer

Bright organic electroluminescent devices are developed using a metal-doped organic layer intervening between the cathode and the emitting layer. The typical device structure is a glass substrate/indium-tin oxide （ITO）/copper phthalocyanine （CuPc）/N,N＇-bis-（1-naphthl）-diphenyl-1,1＇-biphenyl-4,4＇-diamine （NPB）/Tris（8-quinolinolato） aluminum（Alq3）/Mg-doped CuPc/Ag. At a driving voltage of 11 V, the device with a layer of Mg-doped CuPc （1：2 in weight） shows a brightness of 4312cd/m^2 and a current efficiency of 2.52cd/A, while the reference device exhibits 514 cd/m^2 and 1.25 cd/A.     

Ruthenium oxide and strontium ruthenate electrodes for ferroelectric thin-films capacitors

Metallic ruthenium and ruthenium oxides, such as SrRuO₃ and RuO₂, are potential electrode materials for ferroelectric capacitors. The electrical properties (e.g. leakage currents) of such thin film devices are dependent on the electronic properties of the electrode/ferroelectric junctions and therefore also on the electrode work functions. During growth and processing of film-electrode layer structures the formation of sub-oxides within the electrode is possible, with their work functions being unknown. In order to obtain information for predicting device properties, we have systematically analysed the valence bands and work functions of RuO_x and SrRuO_y thin films with different oxidation states by using photoelectron spectroscopy techniques. The results suggest that Ru⁰ and Ru⁴⁺ ions are present in co-existence at the surfaces of oxygen-deficient polycrystalline films (inhomogeneous oxidation). For both oxygen-deficient materials the work function coincides with that of metallic ruthenium (4.6ǂ.1 eV). Only for fully oxidised ruthenium oxide and strontium ruthenate films (no Ru⁰ present at the surface) is the work function increased to 5.0 or 4.9 eV, respectively. As an example of importance for new dynamic random access memory applications, the junctions of Ba_1-xSr_xTiO₃ with SrRuO_y and RuO_x are discussed.     

Evolution of Structural Defects in SiOx Films Fabricated by Electron Cyclotron Resonance Plasma Chemical Vapour Deposition upon Annealing Treatment

We study the structural defects in the SiO, film prepared by electron cyclotron resonance plasma chemical vapour deposition and annealing recovery evolution. The photoluminescence property is observed in the as-deposited and annealed samples. [-SiO3]^2- defects are the luminescence centres of the ultraviolet photoluminescence （PL） from the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and PL measurements. [-SiO3]^2- is observed by positron annihilation spectroscopy, and this defect can make the S parameters increase. After 1000℃ annealing, [-SiO3]^2- defects still exist in the films.     

Electrical Studies on Pentacene Thin Film Transistors with Different Channel Widths

In order to conduct electrical studies on organic thin film transistors, top-contact devices are fabricated by growing polycrystalline films of freshly synthesized pentacene over Si/SiO2 substrates with two different channel widths under identical conditions. Reasonable field effect mobilities in order of 10^-2-10^-3 cm^2V^-1s^-1 are obtained in these devices. An elaborative electrical characterization of all the devices is undertaken to study the variance in output saturation current, field effect mobility, and leakage current with aging under ambient conditions. As compared to the devices with longer channel width, the devices with shorter channel width exhibit better electrical performance initially. However, the former devices sustain the moderate performance much longer than the latter ones.     

Dependence of functional properties on processing in sol-gel (Pb,La)TiO3 thin films

Pb_0.88La_0.08TiO₃ films were processed on Si-based substrates by a diol-based sol-gel route from solutions with variable content of PbO excess. Crystallisation was performed at heating rates of 10 °C min^-1 and higher than 500 °C min^-1 (rapid heating). The pyroelectric coefficient was measured after poling the samples by two methods: applying a sinusoidal wave and applying a train of square pulses, with the latter showing a higher poling efficiency. The piezoelectric d₃₃ coefficient was determined by double-beam interferometry. Strain vs. field measurements provided evidence of 90° domain orientation in these films. Those crystallised at 10 °C min^-1 showed the highest functional properties (%=1.7᎒^-2 7C cm^-2 K^-1 and d₃₃=57 pm V^-1). This is a consequence of the higher stability of the 90° domains oriented during poling, caused by the lower tensile stress arising during preparation. The voltage responsivity of these films also benefited from the lower permittivity arising from their higher porosity. These films are good candidates for applications in infrared detectors and microelectromechanical devices.     

Nonvolatile Memory Characteristics with Embedded High Density Ruthenium Nanocrystals

Ruthenium （Ru） nanocrystals （NCs） embedded in SiO2 gate stacks are formed by rapid thermal annealing for the whole gate stacks and embedded in the memory structure, which is compatible with conventional CMOS technology. The devices exhibit a substantial and clockwise hysteresis in capacitance-voltage measurement. The Ru NCs exhibit high density （2 × 10^12cm^-2）, small size （2-4 nm） and good uniformity both in spatial distribution and morphology. The charging and long-term retention performances are explained by the Coulomb Blockade phenomena and the asymmetric electron tunnel barrier between the Ru NCs and the Si substrate, respectively.     

Room-Temperature Ferromagnetism in Zn1-xMnxO Thin Films Deposited by Pulsed Laser Deposition

Zn1-xMnxO （x = O.Olq3.1） thin films with a Curie temperature above 300K are deposited on Al2O3 （0001） substrates by pulsed laser deposition. X-ray diffraction （XRD）, ultraviolet （UV）-visible transmission and Raman spectroscopy are employed to characterize the microstructural properties of these films. Room temperature ferromagnetism is observed by superconducting quantum interference device （SQUID）. The results indicate that Mn doping introduces the incorporation of Mn^2＋ ions into the ZnO host matrix and the insertion of Mn^2＋ ions increases the lattice defects, which is correlated with the ferromagnetism of the obtained films. The doping concentration is also proven to be a crucial factor for obtaining highly ferromagnetic Zn1-xMnxO films.     

Atomic Diffusion in Cu/Si （111） and Cu/SiO2/Si （111） Systems by Neutral Cluster Beam Deposition

The Cu films are deposited on two kinds of p-type Si （111） substrates by ionized duster beam （ICB） technique. The interface reaction and atomic diffusion of Cu/Si （111） and Cu/SiO2/Si （111） systems are studied at different annealing temperatures by x-ray diffraction （XRD） and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry （RBS）. Some significant results are obtained： For the Cu/Si （111） samples prepared by neutral dusters, the interdiffusion of Cu and Si atoms occurs when annealed at 230℃. The diffusion coefficients of the samples annealed at 230℃ and 500℃ are 8.5 ×10^-15 cm^2.s^-1 and 3.0 ×10^-14 cm^2.s^-1, respectively. The formation of the copper-silicide phase is observed by XRD, and its intensity becomes stronger with the increase of annealing temperature. For the Cu/SiO2//Si （111） samples prepared by neutral dusters, the interdiffusion of Cu and Si atoms occurs and copper silicides are formed when annealed at 450℃. The diffusion coefficients of Cu in Si are calculated to be 6.0 ×10^-16 cm^2.s^-1 at 450℃, due to the fact that the existence of the SiO2 layer suppresses the interdiffusion of Cu and Si.     

Branching ratio and CP asymmetry of Bs→K0*(1430)η(') decays in the PQCD approach

In the two-quark model supposition for K₀^*(1430), which can be viewed as either the first excited state (Scenario Ⅰ) or the lowest lying state (Scenario Ⅱ), the branching ratios and the direct CP-violating asymmetries for decays B_s⁰→K₀^*0(1430)η^(') are studied by employing the perturbative QCD factorization approach. We find the following results: (a) The CP averaged branching ratios of B_s⁰→K₀^*0(1430)η and B_s⁰→K₀^*0(1430)η' are small and both in the order of 10^-7. If one views K₀^*(1430) as the lowest lying state, B (B_s⁰→K₀^*0(1430)η)≈3.9×10^-7 and B (B_s⁰→K₀^*0(1430)η')≈7.8×10^-7. (b) While the direct CP-violating asymmetries of these two decays are not small: if we still take the parameters of K₀^*(1430) in scenario Ⅱ, A_CP^dir (B_s⁰→K₀^*0(1430)η)≈56.2% and A_CP^dir (B_s⁰→K₀^*0(1430)η')≈2.4%. (c) The annihilation contributions will play an important role in accounting for future data, because both the branching ratios and the direct CP asymmetries of these two decays are sensitive to the annihilation type contributions.