Effect of thermal annealing on the formation of silicon nanoclusters in SiOX films grown by PLD

Silicon nanoclusters formation in pulsed laser deposited (PLD) silicon suboxide (SiO_X) films by thermal annealing is reported. The SiO_X films are prepared by ablation of silicon target at different oxygen partial pressures. The different deposition conditions are employed to study the effect of oxygen concentration on the size of the nanoclusters. Post deposition thermal annealing of the films leads to the phase separation in silicon suboxide films. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, micro-Raman spectroscopy and UV-vis absorption spectroscopy studies were carried out to characterize the formation of silicon nanoclusters in SiO_X films.     

532 nm纳秒激光辐照下的单晶硅表面微结构及荧光特性

采用Nd:YAG纳秒脉冲激光对单晶硅在空气中进行辐照,研究了表面微结构在不同能量密度和扫描速度下的演化情况。扫描电子显微镜测量表明,激光在相对较低能量密度下辐照硅表面诱导出鱼鳞状波纹结构,激光能量密度相对较大时,诱导出絮状多孔的不规则微结构。光致荧光谱（PL）表明,激光扫描区域在710 nm附近有荧光发射。用氢氟酸腐蚀掉样品表面的SiOx后,荧光峰的强度显著降低,说明SiOx在光致发光增强上起重要作用。能量色散X射线谱（EDS）表明氧元素的含量随激光能量密度的增大而增加。研究表明:纳秒激光的能量密度和扫描速度对微结构形成起着决定性作用,改变了硅材料表面微结构尺寸,增大了光吸收面积; 氧元素在光致发光增强上起重要作用,微构造硅和SiOx对光致荧光的发射都有贡献。     

Photothermal laser processing of thin silicon nanoparticle films: on the impact of oxide formation on film morphology

Photothermal laser processing of thin films of H-terminated silicon nanoparticles (Si NPs) is investigated. Ethanolic dispersions of Si NPs with an average diameter of 45 nm are spin-coated on silicon substrates yielding films with thicknesses ≤500 nm. Small-area laser processing is carried out using a microfocused scanning cw-laser setup operating at a wavelength of 532 nm and a 1/e laser spot size of 1.4 μm. In conjunction with microscopic techniques, this provides a highly reproducible and convenient approach in order to study the dependence of the resulting film morphology and composition on the experimental parameters. Processing in air results in strongly oxidized granular structures with sizes between 100 and 200 nm. The formation of these structures is dominated by surface oxidation. In particular, changing the processing parameters (i.e., laser power, writing speed, and/or the background air pressure) has little effect on the morphology. Only in vacuum at pressures <1 mbar, oxygen adsorption, and hence oxide formation, is largely suppressed. Under these conditions, irradiation at low laser powers results in mesoporous surface layers, whereas compact silicon films are formed at high laser powers. In agreement with these results, comparative experiments with films of H-terminated and surface-oxidized Si NPs reveal a strong impact of the surface oxide layer on the film morphology. Mechanistic aspects and implications for photothermal processing techniques, e.g., targeting photovoltaic and thermoelectric applications, are discussed.     

Laser irradiation of chemisorbed oxygen on Si(111): Electronic states and clump formation of SiO2

The laser annealed Si(111) 1×1 surface with chemisorbed oxygen at submonolayer coverages and its irradiation with a ruby laser has been studied with ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy and high-resolution electron-energy-loss spectroscopy. The surface oxide which forms directly upon O₂ exposure is found to be similar to that which forms on the Si(111) cleaved 2×1 and the 7×7 reconstructed surfaces. Ruby-laser irradiation converts this surface oxide at submonolayer coverages into clumps of silicon dioxide and regions of clean silicon. Both surface oxides show electronic transitions in the visible and ultraviolet energy region which may be related to known network and point defects in vitreous and crystalline silicon dioxide.     

Study of structural and optical properties of ZnO films grown by pulsed laser deposition

Wurtzite zinc oxides films (ZnO) were deposited on silicon (0 0 1) and corning glass substrates using the pulsed laser deposition technique. The laser fluence, target-substrate distance, substrate temperature of 300 °C were fixed while varying oxygen pressures from 2 to 500 Pa were used. It is observed that the structural properties of ZnO films depend strongly on the oxygen pressure and the substrate nature. The film crystallinity improves with decreasing oxygen pressure. At high oxygen pressure, the films are randomly oriented, whereas, at low oxygen pressures they are well oriented along [0 0 1] axis for Si substrates and along [1 0 3] axis for glass substrates. A honeycomb structure is obtained at low oxygen pressures, whereas microcrystalline structures were obtained at high oxygen pressures. The effect of oxygen pressure on film transparency, band gap E_g and Urbach energies was investigated.     

激光烧蚀硅过程中的元素沉积规律

激光在半导体加工行业(特别是硅材料)具有广阔的应用前景。激光与硅作用过程极其复杂,本文主要研究了紫外激光脉冲对硅进行烧蚀的形貌特征以及环境气体的影响。研究表明,紫外激光烧蚀硅产生激光等离子体的电离效应对烧蚀特性起了决定性的影响：气化、电离物的产生为材料的去除提供了条件,同时激光等离子体冲击波会把相变材料有效排出,激光等离子体光谱的电离效应则把空气中的氧元素有效电离并沉积到烧蚀产物中。     

Nanosecond pulsed laser ablation of silicon in liquids

Laser fluence and laser shot number are important parameters for pulse laser based micromachining of silicon in liquids. This paper presents laser-induced ablation of silicon in liquids of the dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and the water at different applied laser fluence levels and laser shot numbers. The experimental results are conducted using 15 ns pulsed laser irradiation at 532 nm. The silicon surface morphology of the irradiated spots has an appearance as one can see in porous formation. The surface morphology exhibits a large number of cavities which indicates as bubble nucleation sites. The observed surface morphology shows that the explosive melt expulsion could be a dominant process for the laser ablation of silicon in liquids using nanosecond pulsed laser irradiation at 532 nm. Silicon surface’s ablated diameter growth was measured at different applied laser fluences and shot numbers in both liquid interfaces. A theoretical analysis suggested investigating silicon surface etching in liquid by intense multiple nanosecond laser pulses. It has been assumed that the nanosecond pulsed laser-induced silicon surface modification is due to the process of explosive melt expulsion under the action of the confined plasma-induced pressure or shock wave trapped between the silicon target and the overlying liquid. This analysis allows us to determine the effective lateral interaction zone of ablated solid target related to nanosecond pulsed laser illumination. The theoretical analysis is found in excellent agreement with the experimental measurements of silicon ablated diameter growth in the DMSO and the water interfaces. Multiple-shot laser ablation threshold of silicon is determined. Pulsed energy accumulation model is used to obtain the single-shot ablation threshold of silicon. The smaller ablation threshold value is found in the DMSO, and the incubation effect is also found to be absent.     

飞秒脉冲激光辐照对硅发光性能的影响

利用飞秒脉冲激光对单晶硅进行辐照,研究了在不同环境(纯水和空气)和能量密度条件下激光刻蚀过后硅片的光致荧光特性.对于辐照后的硅片,利用了场发射扫描电子显微镜(FESEM)、能谱仪(EDS)、傅里叶红外光谱仪(FT-IR)、光致荧光光谱仪(PL)进行表征.结果显示:在空气中样品表面形成了条纹状微结构,纯水中硅片表面生成了尺寸更小的珊瑚状微结构;激光刻蚀后在硅片表面的生成物主要是SiOx(x2),在纯水中处理后硅片氧元素的含量接近是空气中的4倍;傅里叶变换红外透射谱中主要为Si—Si键(610 cm-1)和Si—O—Si键(1105 cm-1)的振动;在空气和纯水中激发出的荧光均为蓝光(420—470 nm),在各自最佳激发波长下,纯水中荧光强度比空气中强2到3倍,但是在可见光范围内荧光峰的位置和形状都基本没有发生变化.研究表明:氧元素在光致发光增强上起着重要作用,光致发光最主要是由形成的氧缺陷SiOx(x2)导致的,生成低值氧化物SiOx的多少决定了发光的强弱.     

Cleaning of submicrometer structures on Si-masters with pulsed excimer laser and reactive ion etching

The replication of submicrometer-sized structures is accomplished utilizing replica molding of a UV-cured acrylate blend. Atomic force microscopy (AFM), optical, and scanning electron microscope images reveal acrylate residues on the Si-master after replication. The differences between excimer laser and reactive ion cleaning of the Si-masters in terms of their effectiveness and reliability is discussed. Forty to sixty KrF laser pulses at 400 mJ/cm² are suitable for removing acrylate residues from the Si-masters, while the oxygen plasma etching removes acrylate residues only to a limited degree because of a silicon diacrylate constituent in the acrylate blend.     

多孔硅量子点的受激辐射：陷阱态的作用

 经激光辐照和高温退火后能够在硅基上生成氧化多孔硅结构。用514 nm的激光泵浦,观测到该多孔硅的受激辐射。当激励强度超过阈值时,在650～750 nm区域有很强的受激发光峰。这些受激发光峰的半高宽小于0.5 nm。激光辐照和高温退火后,在样品上能形成某些特殊的氧化结构。在傅里叶红外光谱分析中,显示有硅氧双键或硅氧桥键在硅表面形成。计算结果表明：当硅氧双键或硅氧桥键形成时,电子的陷阱态出现在纳晶硅的带隙中。价带顶和陷阱态之间的粒子数反转是解释这种受激辐射的关键。     

Nuclear fusion induced by a super-intense ultrashort laser pulse in a deuterated glass aerogel

A SiO₂ aerogel with absorbed deuterium is proposed as a target for the fusion reaction d + d → He³ + n induced by a superintense ultrashort laser pulse. The multiple inner ionization of oxygen and silicon atoms in the aerogel skeleton occurs in the superintense laser field. All the formed free electrons are heated and removed from the aerogel skeleton by the laser field at the front edge of the laser pulse. The subsequent Coulomb explosion of the deuterated charged aerogel skeleton propels the deuterium ions up to kinetic energies of ten keV and higher. The neutron yield is estimated at up to 10⁵ neutrons per laser pulse for ～200–500 ps if the peak intensity is 10¹⁸ W/cm² and the pulse duration is 35 fs.     

Phase transitions in erbium-doped silicon exposed to laser radiation

The dynamics of phase transitions induced by nanopulsed ruby laser radiation (80 nsec, 2 J/cm²) both in silicon layers doped with erbium ions and in those containing doped erbium and oxygen have been studied by an optical probing method. It is shown that the reflectivity behavior of structures under pulsed irradiation is governed by phase transitions (melting and crystallization) of implanted silicon and also by interference effects at the interfaces of the resulting phases. It is established that the profiles of erbium distribution change under nanosecond laser irradiation and that the dopant is forced out to the surface due to a segregation effect at small implantation doses. As the implanatation dose increases, diffusion deep into the sample tends to prevail over segregation. A considerable increase in the photoluminescence peak intensity at 0.81 eV is found after both the pulsed laser processing and thermal post-annealing of doped samples as opposed to spectra of samples subjected either to thermal annealing or to pulsed laser irradiation. Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 76, No. 2, pp. 225–231, March–April, 2009.     

Oxygen diffusion and thermal donor formation in silicon

The information available on the diffusion of oxygen and on the formation of thermal donors in silicon is critically reviewed. In this context the effects of intrinsic point defects on the diffusion-controlled growth of oxygen precipitates is investigated in some detail. Seemingly contradictory experimental results on the diffusivity of oxygen in silicon at temperatures around 400° C are explained in terms offast-diffusing gas-like molecular oxygen in silicon. The concept of molecular oxygen is also invoked in a newly suggested model of thermal donor formation in silicon. The diffusivity of molecular oxygen in silicon is estimated to be around 10^–9cm²s^–1 at 450° C, almost nine orders of magnitude higher than the diffusivity of atomic oxygen in interstitial position.     

脉冲激光辐照p型硅单晶向n型转化

本文研究了p型硅单晶用红宝石脉冲激光辐照之后向n型转化的效应。这个效应与补偿杂质有关。实验结果表明:脉冲激光辐照之后补偿杂质浓度增加,补偿杂质磷分布发生变化,杂质补偿度大于7％的样品在被激光辐照的区域较容易转变为n型导电。这个效应与硅单晶中氧含量、晶面和晶体生长方式无关。 关键词：     

Laser interaction with the end atoms of a linear chain

The effects of laser radiation on a one-dimensional linear system are examined using classical mechanics. Laser-induced desorption of oxygen from silicon and hydrogen from lead are studied in detail.     

Influence of irradiation on the thermal decomposition of lithium perchlorate

Abstract

Infrared absorption measurements were made before and after 90 °K electron irradiations of silicon samples which contained either dispersed oxygen, carbon, or carbon plus oxygen. Irradiation-produced absorption bands associated with two distinctly different defects are observed depending on the oxygen and carbon content of the silicon. One center is the well-known vacancy-oxygen A-center defect (836-cm^?1 band) and is formed on irradiation in oxygen-containing silicon with a magnitude which is independent of the carbon content. Measurements have correlated the formation of one A-center with the loss of one interstitial oxygen atom, thereby indicating that A-center formation occurs by vacancy trapping at interstitial oxygen atoms. A second center (922-and 932-cm^?1 bands) is formed only in silicon crystals which contain both oxygen and carbon. The results indicate that this center is formed by the trapping of a silicon interstitial at a carbon-oxygen complex.     

Chemical and structural modifications of laser treated WTi surfaces at different ambient conditions

In this work we have studied the influence of laser modification on the composition and structure of tungsten titanium (WTi) thin films, deposited on n-type (100) silicon wafers. After deposition, the samples were multi-pulse laser irradiated in a nitrogen, oxygen, and helium ambient. The composition of the WTi/Si sample was determined by Elastic Recoil Detection Analysis (ERDA). Surface morphology was monitored by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). In the experiment, typical laser output parameters were: wavelength 1064 nm, pulse duration 150 ps, and laser pulse energy 30 mJ. Surface concentrations of W and Ti, as well as the concentration of gas components nitrogen and oxygen were determinated before and after the action of laser radiation in different ambient conditions. The contents of W and Ti decreased after irradiation due to adsorbed gases from the surrounding atmosphere. After surface irradiation in the inert ambient (He), the concentrations of the components were not significantly changed. In other cases, oxygen was the dominant component at the surface, probably due to the high affinity of thin film components. Also, the morphological changes occurred at the surface of WTi, as an increase in the surface roughness and formation of the granular structures are a result of laser-induced surface oxidation and recrystallization.     

Structure, morphology and optical properties of SiO2−x thin films prepared by plasma-assisted pulsed laser deposition

The amorphous silicon oxide SiO_2−x thin films were prepared by the plasma-assisted pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method. X-ray diffraction spectrometry (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), UV-VIS-NIR scanning spectrophotometry and ellipsometry were used to characterize the crystallinity, microscopic morphology and optical properties of obtained thin films. The influences of substrate temperatures, oxygen partial pressures and oxygen plasma assistance on the compositions of silicon oxide (SiO_2−x) thin films were investigated. Results show that the deposited thin films are amorphous and have high surface quality. Stoichiometric silicon dioxide (SiO₂) thin film can be obtained at elevated temperature of 200 °C in an oxygen plasma-assisted atmosphere. Using normal incidence transmittance, a novel and simple method has been proposed to evaluate the value of x in transparent SiO_2−x thin films on a non-absorbing flat substrate.     

Silicon cluster formation in the laser ablation of SiO at 308 nm

Neutral silicon cluster formation in the laser (308 nm) ablation of silicon monoxide was investigated through the analysis of composition and dynamics of the ablation plume under different laser fluence conditions. The neutral species were ionized by a second laser (193 nm) and the positionized species detected by TOF-MS (time-of-flight mass spectrometry). At low laser fluences, plume composition is dominated by SiO; above 0.6 J/cm² Si, SiO and Si₂ have comparable intensity and Si_n (n≤7) clusters are observed. Flow velocities and temperatures of the ejected species are nearly mass-independent, indicating that the plume dynamics are close to the strong expansion limit, implying a collisional regime. Through the relation between the estimated values of terminal flow velocity and surface temperature, u_T²∝T_S, it is found that, at low laser fluences, the surface temperature increases linearly with laser fluence, whereas, at the laser fluence at which Si_n clusters are observed, the increase of temperature is below the linear dependence. The population distribution of the ejected Si_n provides some indication of a formation mechanism based on condensation. Analogies between the ablation behavior of silicon monoxide and silicon targets are considered. PACS 82.30.Nr; 81.05.Gc; 78.70.-g     

A simple method for well-defined and clean all-SiC nano-ripples in ambient air

Well-defined and clean all-SiC nano-ripples with a period of about 150 nm are produced via the combination of 800-nm femtosecond laser irradiation and chemical selective etching with mixture solution of 65 wt% HNO₃ acid (20 mL) and 40 wt% HF acid (20 mL). The incorporation mechanism of oxygen (O) species into the laser induced obscured nano-ripples is attributed to femtosecond laser induced trapping effect of dangling bonds, while that of chemical etching induced well-defined and clean nano-ripples is assigned to chemical reactions between mixture acid solution and amorphous silicon carbide (SiC) or silicon oxide (SiO₂). Results from EDX analysis show that the incorporated foreign O species (atomic percentages of 9.39%) was eliminated effectively via chemical etching, while the atomic percentages of silicon (Si) and carbon (C) were about 47.82% and 52.18% respectively, which were similar to those of original SiC material. And the influences of laser irradiation parameters on the nano-ripples are also discussed.