Formations and morphological stabilities of ultrathin CoSi₂ films

In this paper we investigate the formations and morphological stabilities of Co-silicide films using 1-8-nm thick Co layers sputter-deposited on silicon(100) substrates.These ultrathin Co-silicide films are formed via solid-state reaction of the deposited Co films with Si substrate at annealing temperatures from 450℃ to 850℃.For a Co layer with a thickness no larger than 1 nm,epitaxially aligned CoSi2 films readily grow on silicon(100) substrate and exhibit good morphological stabilities up to 600℃.For a Co layer thicker than 1 nm,polycrystalline CoSi and CoSi2 films are observed.The critical thickness below which epitaxially aligned CoSi2 film prevails is smaller than the reported critical thickness of the Ni layer for epitaxial alignment of NiSi2 on silicon(100) substrate.The larger lattice mismatch between the CoSi2 film and the silicon substrate is the root cause for the smaller critical thickness of the Co layer.     

Formations and morphological stabilities of ultrathin CoSi2 films

In this paper we investigate the formations and morphological stabilities of Co-silicide fihns using 1-8-nm thick Co layers sputter-deposited on silicon （100） substrates. These ultrathin Co-silicide films are formed via solid-state reaction of the deposited Co films with Si substrate at annealing temperatures from 450 ℃ to 850 ℃. For a Co layer with a thickness no larger than i nm, epitaxially aligned CoSi2 films readily grow on silicon （100） substrate and exhibit good morphological stabilities up to 600 ℃. For a Co layer thicker than 1 nm, polycrystalline CoSi and CoSi2 films are observed. The critical thickness below which epitaxially aligned CoSi2 film prevails is smaller than the reported critical thickness of the Ni layer for epitaxial alignment of NiSi2 on silicon （100） substrate. The larger lattice mismatch between the CoSi2 film and the silicon substrate is the root cause for the smaller critical thickness of the Co layer.     

Effect of InxGal-xN ＂continuously graded＂ buffer layer on InGaN epilayer grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

In this paper we report on the effect of an lnxGal xN continuously graded buffer layer on an InGaN epilayer grown on a GaN template. In our experiment, three types of buffer layers including constant composition, continuously graded composition, and the combination of constant and continuously graded composition are used. Surface morphologies, crystalline quality, indium incorporations, and relaxation degrees of InGaN epilayers with different buffer layers are investigated. It is found that the InxGa1-xN continuously graded buffer layer is effective to improve the surface morphology, crystalline quality, and the indium incorporation of the InGaN epilayer. These superior characteristics of the continuously graded buffer layer can be attributed to the sufficient strain release and the reduction of dislocations.     

Effects of cold rolling deformation on microstructure,hardness, and creep behavior of high nitrogen austenitic stainless steel

Effects of cold rolling deformation on the microstructure, hardness, and creep behavior of high nitrogen austenitic stainless steel （HNASS） are investigated. Microstructure characterization shows that 70% cold rolling deformation results in significant refinement of the microstructure of this steel, with its average twin thickness reducing from 6.4 μm to 14 nm. Nanoindentation tests at different strain rates demonstrate that the hardness of the steel with nano-scale twins （nt-HNASS） is about 2 times as high as that of steel with micro-scale twins （mt-HNASS）. The hardness of nt-HNASS exhibits a pronounced strain rate dependence with a strain rate sensitivity （m value） of 0.0319, which is far higher than that of mt-HNASS （m = 0.0029）. nt-HNASS shows more significant load plateaus and a higher creep rate than mt-HNASS. Analysis reveals that higher hardness and larger m value of nt-HNASS arise from stronger strain hardening role, which is caused by the higher storage rate of dislocations and the interactions between dislocations and high density twins. The more significant load plateaus and higher creep rates of nt-HNASS are due to the rapid relaxation of the dislocation structures generated during loading.     

Spectroscopy of the Forming Process of Quantum Dots Accompanied by the Thinning of Wetting Layer

A series of Cd0.44Zn0.56Se/ZnSe sandwich structures with different Cd0.44Zn0.56Se embedded layer thicknesses were fabricated by metal organic chemical vapor deposition. When the embedded layer thickness exceeded 3.0 nm, the photoluminescence spectra of the sample changed into the two-band structure from the one-band structure, and atomic force microscopy images indicate that Cd0.44Zn0.56Se quantum dots were formed. In the two-band photoluminescence spectrum, the band at the low energy side was attributed to be from quantum dots, and the high-energy one arose from the wetting layer. Thinning of the wetting layer with quantum dots forming was confirmed indirectly by the significant blue shift of the wetting-layer photoluminescence band compared to the photoluminescence band of the samples for which the Cd0.44Zn0.56Se layer thickness was less than 3.0nm. This thinning arose from mass migration during the Stranski-Krastanow growth of Cd0.44Zn0.56Se quantum dots.     

Particle simulation on electron acceleration process by the laser ponderomotive force in inhomogeneous underdense plasma layers

The mechanism of electron ponderomotive acceleration due to increasing group velocity of laser pulse in inhomogeneous underdense plasma layers is studied by two-dimensional relativistic parallel particle-in-cell code. The electrons within the laser pulse move with it and can be strongly accelerated ponderomotively when the duration of laser pulse is much shorter than the duration of optimum condition for acceleration in the wake. The extra energy gain can be attributed to the change of laser group velocity. More high energy electrons are generated in the plasma layer with descending density profile than that with ascending density profile. The process and character of electron acceleration in three kinds of underdense plasma layers are presented and compared.     

The influence of AlN/GaN superlattice intermediate layer on the properties of GaN grown on Si（111） substrates

AlN/GaN superlattice buffer is inserted between GaN epitaxial layer and Si substrate before epitaxial growth of GaN layer. High-quality and crack-free GaN epitaxial layers can be obtained by inserting AlN/GaN superlattice buffer layer. The influence of AlN/GaN superlattice buffer layer on the properties of GaN films are investigated in this paper. One of the important roles of the superlattice is to release tensile strain between Si substrate and epilayer. Raman spectra show a substantial decrease of in-plane tensile strain in GaN layers by using AlN/GaN superlattice buffer layer. Moreover, TEM cross-sectional images show that the densities of both screw and edge dislocations are significantly reduced. The GaN films grown on Si with the superlattice buffer also have better surface morphology and optical properties.     

Finite element analysis of stress and strain distributions in InAs/GaAs quantum dots

In this paper, we perform systematic calculations of the stress and strain distributions in InAs/GaAs truncated pyramidal quantum dots (QDs) with different wetting layer (WL) thickness, using the finite element method (FEM). The stresses and strains are concentrated at the boundaries of the WL and QDs, are reduced gradually from the boundaries to the interior, and tend to a uniform state for the positions away from the boundaries. The maximal strain energy density occurs at the vicinity of the interface between the WL and the substrate. The stresses, strains and released strain energy are reduced gradually with increasing WL thickness. The above results show that a critical WL thickness may exist, and the stress and strain distributions can make the growth of QDs a growth of strained three-dimensional island when the WL thickness is above the critical value, and FEM can be applied to investigate such nanosystems, QDs, and the relevant results are supported by the experiments.     

Internal Friction of Bend-Deformed Nanocrystalline Nickel by Mechanical Spectroscopy

Internal friction of nanocrystalline nickel is investigated by mechanical spectroscopy from 360 K to 120 K. Two relaxation peaks are found when nanocrystalline nickel is bent up to 10% strain at room temperature and fast cooling. However, these two peaks disappear when the sample is annealed at room temperature in vacuum for ten days. The occurrence and disappearance of the two relaxation peaks can be explained by the interactions of partial dislocations and point defects in nanocrystalline materials.     

Temperature-Dependent Structure of Epitaxial （Ba,Sr）TiOa Films Grown on SrRuO3-Covered SrTiO3 Substrates

Growth dynamics of epitaxiai （Ba, Sr）TiO3 thin films deposited at different temperatures on SrRuO3/SrTiO3 substrates by pulsed laser deposition is investigated by transmission electron microscopy. The films exhibit a layered structure comprising sublayers with distinctive features in regard to the remaining strain, density of misfit dislocations and/or lattice defects, and growth habit. We correlate these temperature-dependent features with the predominant misfit-strain relaxation mechanisms for each one of the detected growth regimes. The thickness dependence of the film structure is discussed within the framework of the predictions for a kineticaily modified Stranski-Krastanov growth mode.     

Effect of the O2/Ar Pressure Ratio on the Microstructure and Surface Morphology of Epi-MgO/IBAD-MgO Templates for GdBa2Cu3O7？δ Coated Conductors

High-quality epi-MgO buffer layers under different O2/Ar pressure ratios are fabricated by rf magnetron sputtering on textured IBAD-MgO templates. Under the total deposition pressure remaining constant （14 Pa）, the effect of changing the ratio of O2/Ar pressure from 1：4 to 3：2 on the microstructure and surface morphology of epi-MgO films is studied. The microstructure and morphology of epi-MgO are fully characterized by x-ray diffraction, atom force microscope and scanning electron microscope. The best texture quality of epi-MgO with an out-plane Δω value of 1.8° and an in-plane Δ？ value of 5.22° are obtained under the ratio of O2/Ar pressure 3：2. Further, the surface morphology indicates that the surface of epi-MgO is smooth with rms surface roughness about 4.7 nm at O2/Ar pressure ratio 3：2. After that, GdBa2Cu3O7？δ （GBCO） layers are deposited on the CeO2 cap layer buffered epi-MgO/IBAD-MgO templates to assess the efficiency of such a buffer layer stack. The critical current density of GBCO films （thickness of 200 nm） is higher than 3 MA/cm2, indicating that epi-MgO/IBAD-MgO is promising for depositing superconducting layers with a higher critical current density.     

A new analytical model of high voltage silicon on insulator （SOI） thin film devices

A new analytical model of high voltage silicon on insulator (SOI) thin film devices is proposed, and a formula of silicon critical electric field is derived as a function of silicon film thickness by solving a 2D Poisson equation from an effective ionization rate, with a threshold energy taken into account for electron multiplying. Unlike a conventional silicon critical electric field that is constant and independent of silicon film thickness, the proposed silicon critical electric field increases sharply with silicon film thickness decreasing especially in the case of thin films, and can come to 141V/μm at a film thickness of 0.1μm which is much larger than the normal value of about 30V/μm. From the proposed formula of silicon critical electric field, the expressions of dielectric layer electric field and vertical breakdown voltage (V_B,V) are obtained. Based on the model, an ultra thin film can be used to enhance dielectric layer electric field and so increase vertical breakdown voltage for SOI devices because of its high silicon critical electric field, and with a dielectric layer thickness of 2μm the vertical breakdown voltages reach 852 and 300V for the silicon film thicknesses of 0.1 and 5μm, respectively. In addition, a relation between dielectric layer thickness and silicon film thickness is obtained, indicating a minimum vertical breakdown voltage that should be avoided when an SOI device is designed. 2D simulated results and some experimental results are in good agreement with analytical results.     

Highly Strained Si Films with Ultra-low Dislocation Density Grown on Virtual Substrates of Thin Thickness

By using compositionally graded SiGe films as virtual substrates, tensile strained Si films with the strain of 1.5% and the threading dislocation density less than 1.0 × 10^5 cm-2 are successfully grown in micron size windows by molecular beam epitaxy （MBE）. The thickness of the virtual substrates was only 33Onto. On the surface of the s-Si films no cross-hatched lines resulting from misfit dislocations could be observed. We attribute these results to the edge-induced strain relaxation of the epitaxial films in windows, and the patterned virtual substrates with compositionally graded SiGe films.     

Self-aligned Coupled Waveguide Distributed Bragg Reflector Lasers

A novel self-aligned coupled waveguide (SACW) multi-quantum-well (MQW) distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) laser is proposed and demonstrated for the first time. By selectively removing the MQW layer and leaving the low SCH/SACW layer the Bragg grating is partially formed on this layer. By optimizing the thickness of the low SCH/SACW layer, a-80% coupling efficiency between the MQW gain region and the passive region are obtained. The typical threshold current of the SACW DBR laser is 39 mA, the slope efficiency can reach to 0.2 mW/mA and the output power is more than 20 mW with a more than 30dB side mode suppression ratio.     

Microstructural Properties of Single Crystalline PbTe Thin Films Grown on BaF2（111） by Molecular Beam Epitaxy

Single crystal PbTe thin films have been grown on BaF2 （111） by using solid source molecular beam epitaxy. The studies of evolution of the surface morphology with the increasing growth temperature from 375 to 525℃ by AFM show that PbTe epilayers exhibit smooth surface morphologies with atomic layer scale roughness and are crack free. It is found that for PbTe grown at 475℃, the morphology is dominated by triangles and the rms roughness is 3.987nm. Compared to the rms roughnesses of 0.432nm and 0.759nm for the samples grown at 375 and 525℃ respectively, the surface of the PbTe layer grown at 475℃ is much rougher. This roughening transition is due to the interaction between the elastic relaxation and the plastic relaxation during the strain relaxation process. In contrast to the result of the morphology that the PbTe epitaxial layer grown at 375℃ has most smooth surface, as observed from the line width of x-ray diffraction curves at higher growth temperature improves the crystal quality of the single-crystalline Pb Te layer.     

Molecular dynamics study of coupled layer thickness and strain rate effect on tensile behaviors of Ti/Ni multilayered nanowires

Novel properties and applications of multilayered nanowires(MNWs) urge researchers to understand their mechanical behaviors comprehensively.Using the molecular dynamic simulation,tensile behaviors of Ti/Ni MNWs are investigated under a series of layer thickness values(1.31,2.34,and 7.17 nm) and strain rates(1.0 × 10~8 s~(-1) ≤ε≤5.0 × 10~(10) s~(-1)).The results demonstrate that deformation mechanisms of isopachous Ti/Ni MNWs are determined by the layer thickness and strain rate.Four distinct strain rate regions in the tensile process can be discovered,which are small,intermediate,critical,and large strain rate regions.As the strain rate increases,the initial plastic behaviors transform from interface shear(the shortest sample) and grain reorientation(the longest sample) in small strain rate region to amorphization of crystalline structures(all samples) in large strain rate region.Microstructure evolutions reveal that the disparate tensile behaviors are ascribed to the atomic fractions of different structures in small strain rate region,and only related to collapse of crystalline atoms in high strain rate region.A layer thickness-strain rate-dependent mechanism diagram is given to illustrate the couple effect on the plastic deformation mechanisms of the isopachous nanowires.The results also indicate that the modulation ratio significantly affects the tensile properties of unequal Ti/Ni MNWs,but barely affect the plastic deformation mechanisms of the materials.The observations from this work will promote theoretical researches and practical applications of Ti/Ni MNWs.     

Effectively Blocked Mechanism in Quantum Tunnelling of n-Coupled Single-Molecular Magnets

We present theoretical study on quantum tunnelling in s-coupled single-molecule magnets （SMMs） by spincoherent-state path integral. It is found that, due to weak coupling between SMMs, the tunnelling process involving more than one-spin-flip is effectively blocked and the main contribution to the relaxation of the mag- netization comes from the tunnelling processes involving just one-spin-flip. Starting from the negative saturated magnetization, the effect of the antiferromagnetic on tunnelling coupling is found to be qualitatively different from the ferromagnetic coupling. A criterion is developed to determine both the nature and the strength of the exchange coupling from the position of the first resonance of a spherical sample with homogeneous magnetization.     

Influence of Surface Transition Layers on Phase Transformation and Pyroelectric Properties of Ferroelectric Thin Film

Taking into account surface transition layers （STLs）, we study the phase transformation and pyroelectric properties of ferroelectric thin films by employing the transverse Ising model （TIM） in the framework of the mean field approximation. The distribution functions representing the intra-layer and inter-layer couplings between the two nearest neighbour pseudo-spins are introduced to characterize STLs. Compared with the results obtained by the traditional treatments for the thin films using only the single surface transition layer （SSL）, it is shown that the STL model reflects a more realistic and comprehensive situation of films. The effects of various parameters on the phase transformation properties have shown that STL can make the Curie temperature of the film higher or lower than that of the corresponding Sulk material, and the thickness of STL is a key factor influencing the film properties. For a film with definite thickness, there exists a critical STL thickness at which ferroelectricity will disappear when the intra-layer and inter-layer interactions are weak.     

Influence of Strain-Reducing Layer on Strain Distribution of Self-Organized InAs/GaAs Quantum Dot and Redshift of Photoluminescence Wavelength

A systematic investigation about the strain distributions around the InAs/GaAs quantum dots using the finite element method is presented. A special attention is paid to influence of an Ino.2 Gao.sAs strain reducing layer. The numerical results show that the horizontal- and vertical-strain components and the biaz~ial strain are reinforced in the InAs quantum dot due to the strain-reducing layer. However, the hydrostatic strain in the quantum dot is reduced. In the framework of eight-band k · p theory, we study the band edge modifications due to the presence of a strain reducing layer. The results demonstrate that the strain reducing layer yields the decreasing band gap, i.e., the redshift phenomenon is observed in experiments. Our calculated results show that degree of the redshift will increase with the increasing thickness of the strain-reducing layer. The calculated results can explain the experimental results in the literature, and further confirm that the long wavelength emission used for optical fibre communication is realizable by adjusting the dependent parameters. However, based on the calculated electronic and heavy-hole wave function distributions, we find that the intensity of photoluminescence will exhibits some variations with the increasing thickness of the strain-reducing layer.     

Photoluminescence and lasing properties of InAs/GaAs quantum dots grown by metal-organic chemical vapour deposition

Photoluminescence （PL） and lasing properties of InAs/GaAs quantum dots （QDs） with different growth procedures prepared by metalorganic chemical vapour deposition are studied. PL measurements show that the low growth rate QD sample has a larger PL intensity and a narrower PL line width than the high growth rate sample. During rapid thermal annealing, however, the low growth rate sample shows a greater blueshift of PL peak wavelength. This is caused by the larger InAs layer thickness which results from the larger 2-3 dimensional transition critical layer thickness for the QDs in the low-growth-rate sample. A growth technique including growth interruption and in-situ annealing, named indium flush method, is used during the growth of GaAs cap layer, which can flatten the GaAs surface effectively. Though the method results in a blueshift of PL peak wavelength and a broadening of PL line width, it is essential for the fabrication of room temperature working QD lasers.