Carbon precipitation and diffusion in SiGeC alloys under silicon self-interstitial injection

In this work we investigate the diffusion and precipitation of supersaturated substitutional carbon in 200-nm-thick SiGeC layers buried under a silicon cap layer of 40 nm. The samples were annealed in either inert (N₂) or oxidizing (O₂) ambient at 850 °C for times ranging from 2 to 10 h. The silicon self-interstitial (I) flux coming from the surface under oxidation enhances the C diffusion with respect to the N₂-annealed samples. In the early stages of the oxidation process, the loss of C from the SiGeC layer by diffusion across the layer/cap interface dominates. This phenomenon saturates after an initial period (2–4 h), which depends on the C concentration. This saturation is due to the formation and growth of C-containing precipitates that are promoted by the I injection and act as a sink for mobile C atoms. The influence of carbon concentration on the competition between precipitation and diffusion is discussed. Received: 19 October 2001 / Accepted: 19 December 2001 / Published online: 20 March 2002 / Published online: 20 March 2002     

A non-isothermal Ginzburg–Landau model in superconductivity: Existence,uniqueness and asymptotic behaviour

In this paper we study a Ginzburg–Landau model which describes the behaviour of a superconducting material including thermal effects. We extend the traditional formulation of the problem, by introducing the temperature as an additional state variable. Accordingly, together with the Gor’kov–Eliashberg system, we introduce an evolution equation for the absolute temperature. We examine in detail the case which allows only variations of the concentration of superconducting electrons and of the temperature, neglecting the electromagnetic field. For this problem existence and uniqueness of the solution are shown. Finally we analyze the asymptotic behaviour of the solutions, proving that the system possesses a global attractor.     

Influence of channeling effects on ion distribution and damage profiles during high energy ion implantation in Si

Nitrogen implantation has been performed in silicon [001] crystals in carefully controlled alignment conditions. The channeling effects are clearly evident when implanting in [001] and [011] directions at energies ranging from 0.6 to 1.4 MeV. Both ion distribution and damage profiles are strongly influenced by channeling effects during ion implantation. The angular region around the [001] direction has been also investigated by implanting at small angles with respect to the axis. The same kind of study has been performed by implanting at different angles with respect to the planar (011) direction. The ion distributions (investigated by SIMS) show a strong dependence upon the alignment conditions. Moreover in high energy ion implantation, the lattice damage is located deep inside the crystal, leaving the surface layer almost unperturbed. The channeling effects on the damage production have been investigated by double crystal diffraction (DCD) in the low-dose regime and by RBS-channeling experiments (after implantation at doses greater than 1 × 10¹⁵ cm^–2) and for different ion alignment conditions.A big increase in the ion ranges and a strong reduction in the lattice damage is evident when implanting along major crystal axes. No saturatíon of the lattice damage and of the channelled component of the beam has been detected if the implantation is performed parallel to the [011] axis.     

Oesophageal cancer treated by photodynamic therapy alone or followed by radiation therapy

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) with porphyrins and red light is receiving increasing attention in the management of malignant tumours. At present PDT is primarily indicated for the treatment of superficial or early-stage lesions. At the Department of Radiotherapy and the First Institute of Surgery in Padova (Italy) more than 150 cases of tumours of different types have been treated using this technique. This paper briefly describes 21 cases of superficial oesophageal cancer. A complete response was observed in 11 of 21 cases. Radiation therapy appeared to be very effective as a salvage treatment of non-response patients.     

Homolytic substitutions in indolinone nitroxide radicals—I: Reaction with aroyloxyl radicals

Indolinone nitroxides undergo a homolytic substitution with aroyl oxyl radicals, leading to two isomers, 7-aroyloxy- and 5-aroyloxy-derivative, respectively, whose structures were assigned on the basis of the ESR hfccs and of the ¹H NMR spectra of the corresponding amines. The presence of aroyl oxyl radicals in the reaction medium was demonstrated by thermal decomposition of benzoyl peroxide in the presence of aromatic acids.     

New methods for the preparation of 1-phenyl-trans-cyclohexane-1,2-diol

In contrast with previous reports, it was found that the reaction of 1-phenylcyclohexene with peroxyformic acid is not entirely stereospecific, but gives some trans-1-phenylcyclohexane-1, 2-diol (IV) beside the cis-isomer (III). The reaction of 1-phenylcyclohexene oxide (II) with formic acid yielded a similar mixture of III and IV, while addition of trichloroacetic acid in benzene was entirely cis-stereospecific. Reaction of the epoxide II with potassium hydroxide took place only under very drastic conditions to give a small yield of III, while sodium 2-dimethylaminoethoxide added exclusively in a trans way, leading to the amino ether X, which was easily transformed into the trans-glycol IV. The latter compound was also the main product of the borohydride reduction of 2-hydroxy-2-phenylcyclohexanone (IX). Possible explanations of the observed stereochemical results are discussed.     

Structural characterization techniques for the analysis of semiconductor strained heterostructures

A combined method for structural characterization of strained epitaxial heterostructures involving different techniques such as Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS), multiple crystal X-ray diffractometry (MCD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is presented. In order to obtain a complete characterization of the analysed structure, three different quantities are measured independently: the epilayer thickness, the density of misfit dislocations which may appear at the interface, and the significant components of the strain tensor, mainly the tetragonal distortion, affecting the epilayer lattice. In this way the thermodynamic state and the mechanisms of plastic deformation of the structures can be fully investigated. In this contribution we present and discuss the experimental results concerning a set of InP/GaAs samples having different layer thicknesses ranging from 5 to 500 nm. The thickness of the samples has been determined by RBS. Measurements of in-plane strain and tetragonal distortion have been performed by MCD and RBS-channelling respectively, finally TEM has been used for determining the defects densities and distribution.     

Stable nitroxide radicals from phenylisatogen and arylimino-derivatives with organo-metallic compounds

Stable nitroxide radicals were obtained by the oxidation of 1-hydroxyindolines prepared by allowing the organo-metallic compounds to act upon 2-phenylisatogen and arylimino-derivatives. In both cases nitroxides are obtained with a ^N of approximately 9 gauss, in agreement with similar known compounds. The ESR spectra of numerous nitroxide radicals are discussed and a number of cases of magnetic non-equivalence of methylenic protons adjacent to asymmetric carbon are brought to light.