CdS/Si nanofilm heterojunctions based on amorphous silicon films:Fabrication,structures,and electrical properties

Shortening the distance between the depletion region and the electrodes to reduce the trapped probability of carriers is a useful approach for improving the performance of heterojunction.The CdS/Si nanofilm heterojunctions are fabricated by using the radio frequency magnetron sputtering method to deposit the amorphous silicon nanofilms and Cd S nanofilms on the ITO glass in turn.The relation of current density to applied voltage(I-V)shows the obvious rectification effect.From the analysis of the double logarithm I-V curve it follows that below~2.73 V the electron behaviors obey the Ohmic mechanism and above~2.73 V the electron behaviors conform to the space charge limited current(SCLC)mechanism.In the SCLC region part of the traps between the Fermi level and conduction band are occupied,and with the increase of voltage most of the traps are occupied.It is believed that Cd S/Si nanofilm heterojunction is a potential candidate in the field of nano electronic and optoelectronic devices by optimizing its fabricating procedure.     

Structural and electrical characterization of annealed Si1-xCx/SiC thin film prepared by magnetron sputtering

Si-rich Sil-xCx/SiC multilayer thin films are prepared using magnetron sputtering, subsequently followed by thermal annealing in the range of 800-1200 ℃. The influences of annealing temperature （Ta） on the formation of Si and/or SiC nanocrystals （NCs） and on the electrical characteristics of the multilayer film are investigated by using a variety of analytical techniques, including X-ray diffraction （XRD）, Raman spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry （FT-IR）, current-voltage （I-V） technique, and capacitance-voltage （C-V） technique. XRD and Raman analyses indicate that Si NCs begin to form in samples for Ta _ 800 ~C. At annealing temperatures of 1000 ℃ or higher, the formation of Si NCs is accompanied by the formation of SiC NCs. With the increase in the annealing temperature, the shift of FT-IR Si-C bond absorption spectra toward a higher wave number along with the change of band shape can be explained by a Si-C transitional phase between the loss of substitutional carbon and the formation of SiC precipitates and a precursor for the growth of SiC crystalline. The C-V and I-V results indicate that the interface quality of Si1-xCx/SiC multilayer film is improved significantly and the leakage current is reduced rapidly for Ta ≥ 1000 ℃, which can be ascribed to the formation of Si and SiC NCs.     

Pressure and Temperature Induced Phase Transition of ZnS from First-Principles Calculations

The pressure induced phase transition of ZnS from the wurtzite （WZ） and the zincblende （ZB） structures to the rocksalt （RS） structure and the temperature induced phase transition from the ZB structure to the WZ structure are investigated by ab initio plane-wave pseudopotential density-functional theory （DFT）, together with the quasiharmonic Debye model. It is found that the zero-temperature transition pressures from the WZ-ZnS and the ZB-ZnS to the RS-ZnS are 17.20 and 17.37 GPa, respectively. The zero-pressure transition temperature from the ZB-ZnS to the WZ-ZnS is 1199 K. All these results are consistent with the available experimental data. Moreover, the dependences of the normalized primitive cell volume V/V0 on pressure and thermal expansion coefficient α on temperature are also obtained successfully.     

Effects of AlGaN/AlN Stacked Interlayers on GaN Growth on Si （111）

We report the growth of high quality and crack-free GaN film on Si （111） substrate using Al0.2Ga0.8N/AlN stacked interlayers. Compared with the previously used single AlN interlayer, the AlGaN/AlN stacked interlayers can more effectively reduce the tensile stress inside the GaN layer. The cross-sectional TEM image reveals the bending and annihilation of threading dislocations （TDs） in the overgrown GaN film which leads to a decrease of TD density.     

ReaxFF molecular dynamics study on oxidation behavior of 3C-SiC:Polar face effects

The oxidation of nanoscale 3C-SiC involving four polar faces(C(100), Si(100), C(111), and Si(111)) is studied by means of a reactive force field molecular dynamics(Reax FF MD) simulation. It is shown that the consistency of 3C-SiC structure is broken over 2000 K and the low-density carbon chains are formed within SiC slab. By analyzing the oxygen concentration and fitting to rate theory, activation barriers for C(100), Si(100), C(111), and Si(111) are found to be 30.1,35.6, 29.9, and 33.4 k J·mol-1. These results reflect lower oxidative stability of C-terminated face, especially along [111] direction. Compared with hexagonal polytypes of SiC, cubic phase may be more energy-favorable to be oxidized under high temperature, indicating polytype effect on SiC oxidation behavior.     

Effect of Temperature on Structural and Magnetic Properties of Laser Ablated Iron Oxide Deposited on Si（100）

We fabricate Fe3O4 thin films on Si（100） substrates at different temperatures using pulsed laser deposition, and study the effect of annealing and deposition temperature on the structural and magnetic properties of Fe3O4 thin films. Subsequently, the films are characterized by x-ray diffraction （XRD）, scanning electron microscopy （SEM） and vibrating sample magnetometery （VSM）. The XRD results of these films confirm the presence of the Fe3O4 phase and show room-temperature ferromagnetism, as observed with VSM. We demonstrate the optimized deposition and annealing conditions for an enhanced magnetization of 854 emu/cm3 that is very high when compared to the bulk sample.     

Effect of Al Doping on Properties of SiC Films

Undoped and Al-doped 3C-SiC films are deposited on Si（100） substrates by low-pressure chemical vapour deposition. Effects of aluminium incorporation on crystallinity, strain stress, surface morphology and growth rate of SiC films have been investigated. The x-ray diffraction patterns and rocking curves indicate that the crystallinity is improved with aluminium doping. Raman scatting patterns also demonstrate that the strain stress in SiC films is released due to the incorporation of Al ions and the increase of film thickness. Furthermore, due to the catalysis of surface reaction which is induced by trimethylaluminium, the growth rate is increased greatly and the growth process varies from three-dimensional island-growth mode to step-flow growth mode.     

Studies of diamond-like carbon （DLC） films deposited on stainless steel substrate with Si/SiC intermediate layers

In this work, diamond-like carbon （DLC） films were deposited on stainless steel substrates with Si/SiC intermediate layers by combining plasma enhanced sputtering physical vapour deposition （PEUMS-PVD） and microwave electron cyclotron resonance plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition （MW-ECRPECVD） techniques. The influence of substrate negative self-bias voltage and Si target power on the structure and nano-mechanical behaviour of the DLC films were investigated by Raman spectroscopy, nano-indentation, and the film structural morphology by atomic force microscopy （AFM）. With the increase of deposition bias voltage, the G band shifted to higher wave-number and the integrated intensity ratio ID/IG increased. We considered these as evidences for the development of graphitization in the films. As the substrate negative self-bias voltage increased, particle bombardment function was enhanced and the sp^3-bond carbon density reducing, resulted in the peak values of hardness （H） and elastic modulus （E）. Silicon addition promoted the formation of sp^3 bonding and reduced the hardness. The incorporated Si atoms substituted sp^2- bond carbon atoms in ring structures, which promoted the formation of sp^3-bond. The structural transition from C-C to C-Si bonds resulted in relaxation of the residual stress which led to the decrease of internal stress and hardness. The results of AFM indicated that the films was dense and homogeneous, the roughness of the films was decreased due to the increase of substrate negative self-bias voltage and the Si target power.     

Figure of Merit for Detectors Based on Laser-Induced Thermoelectric Voltages in La1-xCaxMnO3 and YBa2Cu3O7-σ Thin Films

A figure of merit （FOM） Z = Up/τr, where Up is thepeak voltage, and τr is the rise time of the laser-induced thermoelectric voltage （LITV） signal, is defined for photodetector based on the LITV and the influence of the parameters on FOM is analysed based on the time dependence of LITVs in La1-xCaxMnO3 （LCMO） and YBa2Cu3O7-σ （YBCO） thin films grown on vicinal-cut substrates. We find that the FOM increases as the photon penetration depth decreases, and linearly increases with the thermal diffusion constant D. To achieve the highest FOM, the film thickness d has to be controlled to an optimum value. We also find that the FOM is directly proportional to the laser absorption coefficient no, the laser energy density per pulse E, the illuminated length of film 1, sin（2α） [αis the vicinal-cut angle], the Seebeck coefficient anisotropy （ Sab - Sc）, and is inversely proportional to the mass density ρ and the specific heat c0.     

Measurement and Analysis of Composition and Depth Profile of H in Amorphous Si1-xCx:H Films

Composition in amorphous Si1-xCx：H heteroepitaxial thin films on Si （100） by plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition （PECVD） is analysed. The unknown x （0.45-3.57） and the depth profile of hydrogen in the thin films are characterized by Rutherford backscattering spectrum （RBS）, resonance-nuclear reaction analysis （R-NRA） and elastic recoil detection （ERD）, respectively. In addition, the depth profile of hydrogen in the unannealed thin films is compared to that of the annealed thin films with rapid thermal annealing （RTA） or laser spike annealing （LSA） in nitrogen atmosphere. The results indicate that the stoichiometric amorphous SiC can be produced by PECVD when the ratio of CH4/SiH4 is approximately equal to 25. The content of hydrogen decreases suddenly from 35% to 1% after 1150℃ annealing. RTA can reduce hydrogen in SiC films effectively than LSA.     

Modifying Quantum Well States of Pb Thin Films via Interface Engineering

We demonstrate the importance of interface modification on improving electron confinement by preparing Pb quantum islands on Si（111） substrates with two different surface reconstructions, i.e., Si（111）-7 ×7 and Si（111）- Root3×Root3-Pb （hereafter, 7 ×7 and R3）. Characterization with scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy shows that growing Pb films directly on a 7 × 7 surface will generate many interface defects, which makes the lifetime of quantum well states （QWSs） strongly dependent on surface locations. On the other hand, QWSs in Pb films on an R3 surface are well defined with small variations in linewidth on different surface locations and are much sharper than those on the 7 × 7 surface. We show that the enhancement in quantum confinement is primarily due to the reduced electron-defect scattering at the interface.     

Growth of a Novel Periodic Structure of SiC/AIN Multilayers by Low Pressure Chemical Vapour Deposition

A novel lO-period SiC/A1N multilayered structure with a SiC cap layer is prepared by low pressure chemical vapour deposition （LPCVD）. The structure with total film thickness of about 1.45~m is deposited on a Si （111） substrate and shows good surface morphology with a smaller rms surface roughness of f.3 nm. According to the secondary ion mass spectroscopy results, good interface of the 10 period SiC/A1N structure and periodic changes of depth profiles of C, Si, A1, N components are obtained by controlling the growth procedure. The structure exhibits the peak reflectivity close to 30% near the wavelength of 322 nm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of growth of the SiC/AIN periodic structure using the home-made LPCVD system.     

Doped Polycrystalline 3C-SiC Films Deposited by LPCVD for Radio-Frequency MEMS Applications

Polycrystalline 3C-SiC films are deposited on SiO2 coated Si substrates by low pressure chemical vapour deposition （LPCVD） with C3H8 and SiH4 as precursors. Controlled nitrogen doping is performed by adding NH3 during SiC growth to obtain the low resistivity 3C-SiC films. X-ray diffraction （XRD） patterns indicate that the deposited films are highly textured （111） orientation. The surface morphology and roughness are determined by scanning electron microscopy （SEM） and atomic force microscopy （AFM）. The surface features are spherulitic texture with average grain size of 100nm, and the rms roughness is 20nm （AFM 5×5 μm images）. Polycrystalline 3C-SiC films with highly orientational texture and good surface morphology deposited on SiO2 coated Si substrates could be used to fabricate rf microelectromechanical systems （MEMS） devices such as SiC based filters.     

Rectifying barrier at GaN/SiC hetero-junction studied with positron annihilation spectroscopy

Positron annihilation spectroscopy on GaN films grown on SiC substrate with MBE are presented. It is shown that the GaN/SiC interface is rectifying towards positrons, such that positrons can only travel from SiC to GaN and not vice versa. Potential steps seen by the positron at the GaN/SiC interface are calculated from experimental values of electron and positron work function. This “rectifying” effect has been successfully mimicked by inserting a thin region of very high electric field in the Variable Energy Positron Fit （VEPF） analysis. The built-in electric field is attributed to different positron affinities, dislocation and/or interface defects at the GaN/SiC interface.     

Detailed Characteristics of Expansion Velocity of Si from Laser Ablated SiC

Optical emission of plasma is used to investigate the characteristics of dynamics distribution in the plume gen- erated by ablation of a SiC sample using Nd：YAG laser. The plume expansion dynamics is characterized by time-of-flight measurement. We find that the profiles of Si （I） （390.55 nm） split into two components and the Si （1I） （634. 71 nm） spectra show two distinct expansion dynamics regions. The time-of-flight measurement of Si（ll） （634. 71 nm） under different laser irradianee conditions, from 0.236 G W/cm^2 to 1.667 G W/cm^2, are presented and discussed.     

NiSi Film Synthesized by Isochronal Annealing in a Magnetron Sputtering System

By repeatedly pre-cleaning the sputtering chamber with Ar gas and in-situ isochronal annealing samples, NiSi films are successfully prepared on Si （100） substrates in a radio-frequency magnetron sputtering system. A comparison between the obtained NiSi and excess oxygen-contaminated Ni/Si films has been performed by EDX analysis of oxygen atomic content in both the films. Focused ion beam milling technology is employed to make the cross-sections of the samples for characterizing the NiSi film thickness and NiSi/Si interface roughness. The influences of nickel film thickness on the NiSi-film morphology and on the NiSi/Si interface roughness are studied.     

Effect of Trimethyl Aluminium Surface Pretreatment on Atomic Layer Deposition Al2O3 Ultra-Thin Film on Si Substrate

Ultra-thin Al2O3 dielectric films have been deposited on Si substrates by using trimethyl aluminium （TMA） and water as precursors in an atomic layer deposition （ALD） system. Growth of the interracial layer between ultra-thin Al2O3 and the Si substrate is effectively suppressed by a long-time TMA surface pretreatment of the Si substrate prior to A1203 atomic layer deposition. High resolution transmission electron microscopy （TEM） images show that the thickness of the interracial layer is reduced to be 0.5nm for the sample with TMA pretreatment lasting 3600s. The x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results indicate that the A1203 film deposited on the TMApretreated Si surface exhibits very good thermal stability. However, a hysteresis of about 50mV is observed in the C- V curve of the samples with the TMA pretreatment.     

Wettability of Si and Al–12Si alloy on Pd-implanted 6H–SiC

Si C monocrystal substrates are implanted by Pd ions with different ion-beam energies and fluences,and the effects of Pd ion implantation on wettability of Si/Si C and Al–12 Si/Si C systems are investigated by the sessile drop technique.The decreases of contact angles of the two systems are disclosed after the ion implantation,which can be attributed to the increase of surface energy(σ_(SV)) of Si C substrate derived from high concentration of defects induced by the ionimplantation and to the decrease of solid–liquid surface energy(σ_(SL)) resulting from the increasing interfacial interactions.This study can provide guidance in improving the wettability of metals on Si C and the electronic packaging process of Si C substrate.     

Influences of Pressure and Substrate Temperature on Epitaxial Growth of γ-Mg2SiO4 Thin Films on Si Substrates

An epitsucial γ-Mg2SiO4 thin film can be a good buffer between the Si substrate and some oxide thin films. For high temperature superconducting multilayer structures, hopefully it can be taken as an insulating layer to replace the widely used MgO film. To explore such possibilities, we carry out systematic studies on the influences of pressure and substrate temperature on the epitaxy of γ-Mg2SiO4 thin films grown on Si （100） substrates using rf magnetron sputtering with an Mg target of purity of 99.95 percent. With the substrate temperature kept at 500℃ and the pressure changing from lO Pa to 15 Pa, in the XRD spectra the 7-Mg2SiO4 （400） peak grows drastically while the MgO （200） peak is suppressed. Keeping the pressure at 15Pa and increasing the temperature from 500℃ to 570℃ further can improve the film epitaxy, while working at 780℃ and 11Pa seems to give very good results. X-ray photoelectronic spectroscopy and φ scan are used to characterize the stoichiometry, crystallinity, and in-plane growth of the samples.     

Raman Spectrum of Epitaxial Graphene on SiC （0001） by Pulsed Electron Irradiation

We report new Raman features of epitaxial graphene （EG） on Si-face 4H-SiC prepared by pulsed electron irradiation （PEI）. With increasing graphene layers, frequencies of G and 2D peaks show blue-shifts and approach those of bulk highly-oriented pyrolytic graphite. It is indicated that the EG is slightly tension strained and tends to be strain-free. Meanwhile, single Lorentzian line shapes are well fitted to the 2D peaks of EG on SiC（O001） and their full widths at half maximum decrease with the increasing graphene layers, which indicates that the multilayer EG on Si-face can also contain turbostratic stacking by our PEI route instead of only AB Bernal stacking by a traditional thermal annealing method. It is worth noting that the stacking style plays an important role on the charge carrier mobility. Therefore our findings will be a candidate for growing quality graphene with high carrier mobility both on the Si- and C-terminated SiC substrate. Mechanisms behind the features are studied and discussed.