Fabrication of 4-Inch Nano Patterned Wafer with High Uniformity by Laser Interference Lithography

We report the fabrication of 4-inch nano patterned wafer by two-beam laser interference lithography and analyze the uniformity in detail. The profile of the dots array with a period of 800 nm divided into five regions is characterized by a scanning electron microscope. The average size in each region ranges from 270 nm to 320 nm,and the deviation is almost 4%, which is approaching the applicable value of 3% in the industrial process. We simulate the two-beam laser interference lithography system with MATLAB software and then calculate the distribution of light intensity around the 4 inch area. The experimental data fit very well with the calculated results. Analysis of the experimental data and calculated data indicates that laser beam quality and space filter play important roles in achieving a periodical nanoscale pattern with high uniformity and large area. There is the potential to obtain more practical applications.     

A Geometrical Model for Tortuosity of Tortuous Streamlines in Porous Media with Cylindrical Particles

We present a three-dimensional geometry model for tortuosity of streamlines in porous media with randomly placed cylindrical particles. The proposed model is expressed as functions of porosity and geometrical parameters with no empirical constant. This might be helpful for understanding the physical mechanism for tortuosity of streamlines in three-dimensional porous media. The model predictions are found to be in good agreement with the experimental data available.     

Absorption Enhancement of Silicon Solar Cell in a Positive-Intrinsic-Negative Junction

Absorption coefficient is a physical parameter to describe electromagnetic energy absorption of materials, which is closely related to solar cells and photodetectors. We grow a series of positive-intrinsic-negative(PIN) structures on silicon wafer by a gas source molecule beam epitaxy system and the investigate the absorption coefficient through the photovoltaic processes in detail. It is found that the absorption coefficient is enhanced by one order and can be tuned greatly through the thickness of the intrinsic layer in the PIN structure, which is also demonstrated by the 730-nm-wavelength laser irradiation. These results cannot be explained by the traditional absorption theory.We speculate that there could be some uncovered mechanism in this system, which will inspire us to understand the absorption process further.