Structure and electrical transport properties of bismuth thin films prepared by RF magnetron sputtering

Bismuth thin films were prepared on glass substrates with RF magnetron sputtering and the effects of deposition temperature on surface morphology and their electrical transport properties were investigated. Grain growth of bismuth and the coalescence of grains were observed above 393 K with field emission secondary electron microscopy. Continuous thin films could not be obtained above 448 K because of the segregation of grains. Hall effect measurements showed that substrate heating yields the decrease of carrier density and the increase of mobility in exponential ways until 403 K. Resistivity of sputter deposited bismuth films has its minimum (about 0.7 × 10⁻³ Ω cm) in range of 403-433 K. Annealing of bismuth films deposited at room temperature was carried out in a radiation furnace with flowing hydrogen gas. The change of resistivity was not significant due to the cancellation of the decrease of carrier density and the increase of mobility. However, the abrupt change of electrical properties of film annealed above 523 K was observed, which is caused by the oxidation of bismuth layer.     

Low-dimension self-interstitial diffusion in α-Zr

The mobility of self-interstitials in α-zirconium (α-Zr) is studied with molecular dynamic (MD) and molecular static (MS) simulations, using Ackland’s many-body inter-atomic potential. The basal crowdion configuration is found to be the ground state. Four types of diffusion jumps can be identified via MS, in-plane in-line, in-plane off-line, out-of-plane in-line and out-of-plane off-line. The in-plane migration is dominated by one-dimensional crowdion motion along the [110] directions, interrupted from time to time by off-line or out-of-plane jumps. Based on the MS results, the activation energies and pre-exponentials for the diffusion processes are determined by fits to the Arrhenius plots of D_c and D_a. The diffusional anisotropy factor D_c/D_a is also obtained, and compares well with experimental results. The mean frequency of each type of jumps is then found using Monte Carlo simulation, and is reported as a function of temperature. The mean lifetime and mean free path of the one-dimensional mobility are then obtained. The 1-D mean free path is found to be unimportant for sink separations involved under the usual irradiation damage conditions. Received: 4 March 2002 / Accepted: 4 April 2002 / Published online: 10 September 2002 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. E-mail: Chung.Woo@polyu.edu.hk     

Thermoelectric properties of p‐type Mg2Si0.6Ge0.4 fabricated by bulk mechanical alloying and hot pressing

Bulk mechanical alloying (BMA) followed by hot pressing (HP) was used to prepare Mg₂Si_0.6Ge_0.4 thermoelectric material with high densification. Starting from the elemental power mixture, the Mg₂Si_0.6Ge_0.4 solid solution was solid‐state synthesized via BMA. In fact, the peaks for the cubic‐structured Mg₂Si_0.6Ge_0.4 solid solution phase were detected after 300 cycles in BMA. The single phase of Mg₂Si_0.6Ge_0.4 was synthesized at 600 cycles in BMA. Mg₂Si_0.6Ge_0.4 showed p‐type semiconduction without doping. Effects of hot pressing conditions on thermoelectric properties were investigated. With increasing hot pressing temperature from 673 to 773 K and pressure from 500 MPa to 1 GPa, the electrical conductivity increased and the Seebeck coefficient decreased. The maximum figure of merit was obtained with the processing parameter of 600 cycles BMA and hot pressing at 773 K, 1 GPa for 1 h. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Energy transport in one-dimensional thermoelectric systems

The efficiency of thermoelectric power generators and the coefficient of performance of thermoelectric refrigerators increase rapidly in the region of small ZT, and then level off to a flat curve in the region of large ZT, where ZT is the figure of merit. Therefore, simply because one-dimensional thermoelectric materials have high ZT predicted theoretically does not imply that efficient thermoelectric devices can be built with such one-dimensional systems. Our numerical analysis, based on the fundamental thermodynamics which is independent of material systems, with emphasis on energy transport has confirmed this conjecture.     

On the existence of ion-acoustic solitary waves in a gravitating dusty plasma having charge fluctuation

Theoretical investigation on the propagation of ion-acoustic waves in an unmagnetized self-gravitating plasma has been made for the existence of solitary waves using the reductive perturbation method. It is observed that nonlinear excitations follow a coupled third-order partial differential equation which is slightly different from the usual case of coupled Korteweg-de Vries (K-dV) system. It appears that the system so deduced is a two-component generalization of the previous one derived by Paul et al. (1999) in which it was shown that ion-acoustic solitary waves can not exist in such system.     

Influence of electrolytic hydrogen on the etch pit density of iron (110) surfaces

Etch pit densities on iron (110) surfaces in sulphuric acid grow linearly with the interfacial hydrogen activity in excess of a critical activity. The hydrogen activity is approximately proportional to the square root of the cathodic current density. At constant cathodic current density the etch pit density increases with temperature and decreases with external stress. Dislocations at which the excess etch pits form penetrate into the iron at a rate proportional to the hydrogen activity and the square root of time. Effects of prior hydrogen deposition on the shape of etch pits are seen at depths greater than the penetration depth of hydrogen generated dislocations. Changes of etch pit shape similar to those produced by hydrogen are also found when external stress is applied.The results are compared to Prussin's theory in which the assumption is made that stresses accompanying diffusion of an impurity are fully relieved by plastic deformation and formation of dislocations for stresses exceeding a critical stress. While some of the predictions of the theory are met by the experiments, the dislocations penetrate into the iron much slower than diffusion of hydrogen, since dislocations cannot move fast enough, i.e. stresses are not fully relieved.     

Diffusion and solubility of zinc in dislocation-free and plastically deformed silicon crystals

Floating-zone Si crystals enclosed in quartz ampoules were exposed to Zn vapour released by an elemental diffusion source. Penetration profiles of Zn in Si were recorded using the spreading-resistance technique or neutron activation analysis. Both the erfc-type distributions observed in plastically deformed specimens and the non-erfc profiles determined on dislocationfree wafers are consistently interpreted within the framework of the kick-out model. As an implication, Si self-interstitials generated in excess by interstitial-to-substitutional transitions of in-diffusing Zn atoms annihilate not only at the surface but also at dislocations. On the other hand, dislocation-induced segregation of Zn appears to be rather minor, as revealed by transition electron microscopy. Combining the Zn incorporation rate in dislocation-free Si with solubility data from saturated specimens yields the self-interstitial contribution to the Si self-diffusion coefficient.Dedicated to H.J. Queisser on the occasion of his 60th birthday     

Improved Programming Efficiency through Additional Boron Implantation at the Active Area Edge in 90nm Localized Charge-Trapping Non-volatile Memory

As the scaling-down of non-volatile memory （NVM） cells continues, the impact of shallow trench isolation （STI） on NVM cells becomes more severe. It has been observed in the 90nm localized charge-trapping non-volatile memory （NROMTM） that the programming efficiency of edge cells adjacent to STI is remarkably lower than that of other cells when channel hot electron injection is applied. Boron segregation is found to be mainly responsible for the low programming efficiency of edge cells. Meanwhile, an additional boron implantation of 10°tilt at the active area edge as a new solution to solve this problem is developed.     

Effect of electron inertia on large amplitude solitary waves in presence of kinematic viscosity in dusty plasma

Nonlinear dust acoustic solitary waves in a dusty plasma are studied for nonzero kinematic viscosity. Sagdeev’s potential can be obtain upto any order in ϕ. The existence of soliton solution is determined by pseudopotential approach. It is seen that the electron inertia has a significant effect on the existence of solitary waves in presence of kinematic viscosity.     

Dust Particle Properties in a Dual-Frequency Driven Sheath

We study characteristics of a single dust particle in a duai-frequency capacitively coupled plasma sheath, such as charging and suspending processes, using a collisionless self-consistent model. Also, the movement of the dust grain with time is investigated for the various radii and initial velocities. The numerical results show that, after several microseconds, the charging process of the dust particle reaches equilibrium, and the grain obtains its equilibrium position, In addition, it is found that the parameters of the low-frequency source impact on the charging and suspending processes of the dust grain significantly.