Microstructure of Epitaxial Er2O3 Thin Film on Oxidized Si (111) Substrate

Er₂O₃ thin films are grown on oxidized Si (111) substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. The sample grown under optimized condition is characterized in its microstructure, surface morphology and thickness using grazing incidence x-ray diffraction (GIXRD), atomic force morphology and x-ray reflectivity. GIXRD measurements reveal that the Er₂O₃ thin film is a mosaic of single-crystaldomains. The interplanar spacing d in-plane residual strain tensor ε_| and the strain relaxation degree ξ are calculated. The Poisson ratio μ obtained by conventional x-ray diffraction is in good agreement with that of the bulkEr₂O₃. In-plane strains in three sets of planes, i.e. (440), (404), and (044), are isotropic.     

Characterization of Al2O3 Thin Films on GaAs Substrate Grown by Atomic Layer Deposition

Al2O3 thin films are grown by atomic layer deposition on GaAs substrates at 300℃. The structural properties of the Al2O3 thin film and the Al2O3/GaAs interface are characterized using x-ray diffraction （XRD）, high- resolution transmission electron microscopy （HRTEM）, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy （XPS）. The XRD results show that the as-deposited Al2O3 film is amorphous. For 30 atomic layer deposition growth cycles, the thicknesses of the Al2O3 thin film and the interface layer from the HRTEM are 3.3 nm and 0.Snm, respectively. XPS analyses reveal that the Al2O3/GaAs interface is almost free from As2O3.     

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.     

Epitaxial Properties of Co-Doped ZnO Thin Films Grown by Plasma Assisted Molecular Beam Epitaxy

High quality Co-doped ZnO thin films are grown on single crystalline Al2O3（0001） and ZnO（0001） substrates by oxygen plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy at a relatively lower substrate temperature of 450℃. The epitaxial conditions are examined with in-situ reflection high energy electron diffraction （RHEED） and ex-situ high resolution x-ray diffraction （HRXRD）. The epitaxial thin films are single crystal at film thickness smaller than 500nm and nominal concentration of Co dopant up to 20%. It is indicated that the Co cation is incorporated into the ZnO matrix as Co^2＋ substituting Zn^2＋ ions. Atomic force microscopy shows smooth surfaces with rms roughness of 1.9 nm. Room-temperature magnetization measurements reveal that the Co-doped ZnO thin films are ferromagnetic with Curie temperatures Tc above room temperature.     

Effect of Substrate Bias on Microstructures of Zirconia Thin Films Deposited by Cathodic Vacuum Arc

Zirconium oxide （Zr02） thin films are deposited at room temperature by cathodic arc at substrate biases of 0 V, -60 V and -120 V, respectively. The crystal structure, composition, morphology, and deposition rate of the as-deposited thin films are systematically investigated by x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy （XPS） as well as scanning electron microscopy. The results show that the crystal structure, morphology and deposition rate of the films all are dependant on substrate bias. With the increase of bias voltage from 0 V to -120 V, the zirconium oxide thin film grown on silicon wafer first exhibits monoclinic lattice and tetragonal lattice, further evolves monoclinic phase with the preferred orientation along the （-111） and （-222） directions at -60 V and finally along nearly one observed preferred （002） direction under -120 V. In addition, the variations of morphology with bias voltage are correlated to changes of the film structure. The results of XPS demonstrate that Zr elements are almost oxidized completely in the films achieved under -120 V bias.     

White Light Emission from ZnS:Mn Thin Films Deposited on GaN Substrates by Pulsed Laser Deposition

ZnS:Mn thin films are grown on GaN substrates by pulsed laser deposition.The structure,morphology and optical properties are investigated by x-ray diffraction,scanning electron microscopy and photoluminescence(PL).The obtained ZnS:Mn thin films are grown in preferred orientation along β-ZnS(111) direction corresponding to crystalline structure of cubic phase.The deposition temperature has an obvious effect on the structure,surface morphology and optical properties of ZnS:Mn thin films.PL measurements show that there are two emission bands located at 440 nm and 595 nm when the films are deposited at temperatures from 100℃ to 500℃.The relative integrated intensity of the blue emission and orange-red emission is determined by the deposition conditions.At the proper deposition temperature of 300℃,the color coordinate is closest to(0.33,0.33).The ZnS:Mn films on GaN substrates can exhibit white fight emission.     

Chemical Composition Dependent Elastic Strain in AlGaN Epilayers

Systematic investigations are performed on a set of AlxGa1-xN/GaN heterostructures grown by metalorganie chemical vapor deposition on sapphire （0001）. The Al composition x is determined by Rutherford backseattering. By using high resolution x-ray diffraction and the channeling scan around an off-normal （1213） axis in {1010} plane of the AlGaN layer, the tetragonal distortion eT csused by the elastic strain in the epilayer is determined. The results show that eT in the high-quality AlGaN layers is dramatically influenced by the Al content.     

Compositional and Structural Properties of TiO2-xNx Thin Films Deposited by Radio-Frequency Magnetron Sputtering

TiO2-xNx thin films are deposited onto Si（100） and quartz substrates by arf magnetron sputtering method using a titanium metal disc as a target in Ar, N2, and 02 atmospheres. The substrate temperature is kept at 300℃. The O2 and Ar gas flow rates are kept to be constants and the N gas flow rate is varied. TiO2-xNx films with different N contents are characterized by x-ray diffraction and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results indicate that the TiO2-xNx thin films can be obtained at 13% N and 15% N contents in the film, and the films with mixed TiO2 and TiN crystal can be obtained at 13% N and 15% N contents in the film. In terms of the results of x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, N ls of β-N （396 eV） is the main component in the TiO2-xNx thin films. Because the energy level of β-N is positioned above the valence-band maximum of TiO2, an effective optical-energy gap decreases from 2.8 eV （for pure TiO2 film deposited by the same rf sputtering system） to 2.3 eV, which is verified by the optical-absorption spectra.     

Laser Molecular Beam Epitaxy Growth of BaTiO3 in Seven Thousands of Unit-Cell Layers

BaTiO3 thin films in seven thousands of unit-cell layers have been successfully fabricated on SrTiO3 （001） substrates by laser molecular beam epitaxy. The fine streak pattern and the undamping intensity oscillation of reflection high-energy electron diffraction indicate that the BaTiO3 film was layer-by-layer epitaxial growth. The measurements of scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy show that surfaces of the BaTiO3 thin film are atomically smooth. The measurements of x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy, as well as selected-area electron diffraction reveal that the BaTiO3 thin film is a c-oriented epitaxial crystalline structure.     

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.     

Influence of Ytterbia Content on Residual Stress and Microstructure of Y2O3--ZrO2 Thin Films Prepared by EB-PVD

Y2O3 stabilized ZrO2 （YSZ） thin films with different Y2O3 molar contents （0, 3, 7, and 12 mol%） are deposited on BK7 substrates by electron-beam evaporation technique. The effects of different Y2O3 contents on residual stresses and structures of YSZ thin films are studied. Residual stresses are investigated by means of two different techniques： the curvature measurement and x-ray diffraction method. It is found that the evolution of residual stresses of YSZ thin films by the two different methods is consistent. Residual stresses of films transform from compressive stress into tensile stress and the tensile stress increases monotonically with the increase of Y2O3 content. At the same time, the structures of these films change from the mixture of amorphous and monoclinic phases into high temperature cubic phase. The variations of residual stress correspond to the evolution of structures induced by adding of Y2O3 content.     

Room-Temperature Anisotropic Ferromagnetism in Fe-Doped In2O3 Heteroepitaxial Films

Fe-doped In2O3 films are grown epitaxially on YSZ （100） substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The in-situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction, the atomic force microscopy, and the x-ray diffraction patterns show that the films have a well defined cubic structure epitaxially oriented in the （100） direction. Room temperature ferromagnetism is observed by an alternating gradient magnetometer. Strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy with a remnant magnetization ratio of 0.83 and a coercivity of 2,5 kOe is revealed. Both the structural and the magnetic measurements suggest that this ferromagnetism is an intrinsic property deriving from the spin-orbit coupling between the diluted Fe atoms.     

Epitaxial Growth of Graphene on 6H-SiC （0001） by Thermal Annealing

An epitaxial graphene （EG） layer is successfully grown on a Si-terminated 6H-SiC （（9001） substrate by the method of thermal annealing in an ultrahigh vacuum molecular beam epitaxy chamber. The structure and morphology of the EG sample are characterized by reflection high energy diffraction （RHEED）, Raman spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy （AFM）. Graphene diffraction streaks can are clearly observed in the Raman spectrum. The AFM about 4-10 layers. be seen in RHEED. The G and 2D peaks of graphene results show that the graphene nominal thickness is     

Resistive Switching Behavior in Amorphous Aluminum Oxide Film Grown by Chemical Vapor Deposition

The repeatable bipolar resistive switching phenomenon is observed in amorphous Al2O3 prepared by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition on ITO glass, with ITO as the bottom electrode and Ag as the top electrode. The crystal structure, morphology, composition and optical properties of Al2O3 thin films are investigated by x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and ultraviolet-visible-infrared spectroscopy, respectively. The electronic character of Ag/Al2O3/ITO structure is tested by an Agilent B1500A. The device shows a typical bipolar resistive switching behavior under the dc voltage sweep mode at room temperature. The variation ratio between HRS and LRS is larger than nearly three orders of magnitude, which indicates the good potential of this structure in future resistive random access memory （ReRAM） applications. Based on the conductive filament model, the high electric field is considered the main reason for the resistive switching according to our measurements.     

Nano-Crystalline Diamond Films with Pineapple-Like Morphology Grown by the DC Arcjet vapor Deposition Method

A nano-crystlline diamond film is grown by the dc arcjet chemical vapor deposition method. The film is characterized by scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy （HRTEM）, x-ray diffraction （XRD） and Ftaman spectra, respectively. The nanocrystalline grains are averagely with 80hm in the size measured by XRD, and further proven by Raman and HRTEM. The observed novel morphology of the growth surface, pineapple-like morphology, is constructed by cubo-octahedral growth zones with a smooth faceted top surface and coarse side surfaces. The as-grown film possesses （100） dominant surface containing a little amorphous sp2 component, which is far different from the nano-crystalline film with the usual cauliflower-like morphology.     

Determination of Al Composition in Strained AlGaN Layers

AlxGa1-xN/GaN heterostructures are grown on c-sapphire with the Al composition x from 0.2 to 0.4 and thicknesses from 20nm to 30nm. The lattice parameters a and c are determined from 2θ/ω scan. The AIGaN layers are found to be under tensile strain by using x-ray diffraction. Vegard＇s law induces a large deviation in Al composition determination by only considering the linear relationship between one lattice parameter （α or c） and Al composition. The accurate determination of Al composition is only possible with consideration of both the lattice parameters α and c, by assuming the tetragonal distortion in the AlGaN layer. Additionally, the results obtained from x-ray diffraction are verified by Rutherford backscattering.     

Unidirectional expansion of lattice parameters in GaN induced by ion implantation

This paper reports that the 150-keV Mn ions are implanted into GaN thin film grown on Al2O3 by metal-organic chemical vapour deposition.The X-ray diffraction reciprocal spacing mapping is applied to study the lattice parameter variation upon implantation and post-annealing.After implantation,a significant expansion is observed in the perpendicular direction.The lattice strain in perpendicular direction strongly depends on ion fluence and implantation geometry and can be partially relaxed by post-annealing.While in the parallel direction,the lattice parameter approximately keeps the same as the unimplanted GaN,which is independent of ion fluence,implantation geometry and post-annealing temperature.     

Influence of Concentration of Vanadium in Zinc Oxide on Structural and Optical Properties with Lower Concentration

ZnO films doped with different vanadium concentrations are deposited onto glass substrates by dc reactive magnetron sputtering using a zinc target doped with vanadium. The vanadium concentrations are examined by energy dispersive spectroscopy （EDS） and the charge state of vanadium in ZnO thin films is characterized by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results of x-ray diffraction （XRD） show that all the films have a wurtzite structure and grow mainly in the c-axis orientation. The grain size and residual stress in the deposited films are estimated by fitting the XRD results. The optical properties of the films are studied by measuring the transmittance. The optical constants （refractive index and extinction coefficient） and the film thickness are obtained by fitting the transmittance. All the results are discussed in relation with the doping of the vanadium.     

Annealing effects on the structure and electrical characteristics of amorphous Er2O3 films

Amorphous Er 2 O 3 films are deposited on Si (001) substrates by using reactive evaporation.This paper reports the evolution of the structure,morphology and electrical characteristics with annealing temperatures in an oxygen ambience.X-ray diffraction and high resolution transimission electron microscopy measurement show that the films remain amorphous even after annealing at 700 C.The capacitance in the accumulation region of Er 2 O 3 films annealed at 450 C is higher than that of as-deposited films and films annealed at other temperatures.An Er 2 O 3 /ErO x /SiO x /Si structure model is proposed to explain the results.The annealed films also exhibit a low leakage current density (around 1.38 × 10 4 A/cm 2 at a bias of 1 V) due to the evolution of morphology and composition of the films after they are annealed.     

Grain size and its distribution in NiTi thin films sputter-deposited on heated substrates

Grain size and its distribution in NiTi thin films sputter-deposited on a heated substrate have been investigated using the small angle x-ray scattering technique. The crystalline particles have a small size and are distributed over a small range of sizes for the films grown at substrate temperatures 370 and 420℃. The results show that the sizes of crystalline particles are about the same. From the x-ray diffraction profiles, the sizes of crystalline particles obtained were 2.40nm and 2.81nm at substrate temperatures of 350 and 420℃, respectively. The morphology of NiTi thin films deposited at different substrate temperatures has been studied by atomic force microscopy. The root mean square roughness calculated for the film deposited at ambient temperature and 420℃ are 1.42 and 2.75nm, respectively.