Molecular secondary ion emission from adenine overlayers in dependence on the primary ion species and substrate material

The influence of the primary ion species (He⁺, Ne⁺, Ar⁺, Kr⁺, Xe⁺ and SF₅⁺) and substrate material (graphite, Al, Cu, Ag and Pb) on the secondary ion emission from molecular overlayers of the purine base adenine was investigated in dependence on the layer thickness. The measurements showed an increasing yield with increasing mass of the primary ions and its number of constituents. The yield enhancement, defined as the ratio between the maximum yield obtained from approximately a monolayer coverage of adenine to the yield obtained from a multilayer coverage, was shown to depend on the substrate material. However, a clear dependence on the primary ion species was not found.     

A spectroscopic study of CNx formation by the keV N2 irradiation of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite surfaces

Amorphous carbon nitride (CN_x) thin layer, formed by the keV N₂⁺ irradiation of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite, has been investigated using X-ray photoelectron and raman spectroscopies, and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry. C1s X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) peak separations indicate that C-N bonds form over and above the graphite fragmentation previously obtained on Ar⁺ irradiation. N1s XPS peak separations indicate three components. Their attributions, and the resultant CN_x structure, are confirmed by angle-resolved XPS and TOF-SIMS analyses.     

A SIMS study on Mg diffusion in Zn0.94Mg0.06O/ZnO heterostructures grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition

Zn_0.94Mg_0.06O/ZnO heterostructures have been grown on 2 in. sapphire wafer using metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). Photoluminescence (PL) mapping demonstrates that Mg distribution on the entire wafer is very uniform (standard deviation of Mg concentration/mean Mg concentration = 1.38%) with average concentration of ∼6%. The effect of annealing on the Mg diffusion in Zn_0.94Mg_0.06O/ZnO heterostructures has been investigated in detail by using secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). All the Mg SIMS depth profiles have been fitted by three Gaussian distribution functions. The Mg diffusion coefficient in the as-grown Zn_0.94Mg_0.06O layer deposited at 700 °C is two orders of magnitude lower than that of annealed samples, which clearly indicates that the deposition temperature of 700 °C is much more beneficial to grow ZnMgO/ZnO heterostructures and quantum wells.     

Quantitative study of oxygen enhancement of sputtered ion yields. I. Argon ion bombardment of a silicon surface with O2 flood

A novel quantification approach is applied to determine in situ the amount of surface oxygen within the sputtered particle escape depth during steady-state sputter depth profiling of silicon under simultaneous oxygenation with an oxygen flood gas or with an oxygen primary ion beam. Quantification is achieved by comparing the secondary ion intensities of ¹⁶O that is adsorbed or implanted at the Si surface with the measured peak intensities of a calibrated ¹⁸O ion implant used as a reference standard. Sputtered ion yields can thereby be related to surface oxygen levels. In the present work the dependences of the partial silicon sputter yield Y and of the positive and negative secondary ion useful yields UY(X^±) (X = B, O, Al, Si, P) on the oxygen/silicon ratio, O/Si, in the sputtered flux are studied for ⁴⁰Ar⁺ bombardment of Si with simultaneous O₂ flooding. The silicon sputter yield is found to decrease with increasing flood pressure and O/Si ratio by up to a factor of 3. Both positive and negative secondary ion yields are enhanced by the presence of oxygen at the silicon surface. The useful ion yield of Si⁺ scales non-linearly with the atom fraction of surface oxygen; this behavior is shown to invalidate models that suggest that Si⁺ ion yield enhancement is dominated either by isolated oxygen atoms or by formation of SiO₂ precipitates. In contrast a microscopic statistical model that assumes that local Si⁺ ion formation depends only on the number of oxygen atoms coordinated to the Si atom to be ejected fits the ion yield data quantitatively.     

The oxidation of calcium implanted titanium in water: A depth profiling study

Ion implantation of calcium has been proposed previously as a route to bioactive titanium surfaces and has been shown to stimulate promising cell and tissue responses. While the precise reasons for this behaviour remain poorly understood, it is clear that the nature of the Ca implanted surface changes rapidly on exposure to body fluids. In order to understand the processes taking place more clearly, the current work examined the simple interaction of Ca implanted Ti with water. The surface chemistry and compositional changes within the sub-surface region of the modified Ti were examined. On immersion in water, the concentration of implanted Ca ions was found to decrease both at the surface and throughout the implanted region. At the same time, the sub-surface oxygen concentration was found to increase dramatically. Although Ca implantation into Ti results in a thicker oxide layer at the surface, it appears that this layer no longer affords the underlying Ti the same protection from further oxidation provided by the native oxide. By examining samples implanted with O, Ti or Ar it was possible to conclude that this was specific to Ca implantation and not a result of the ion implantation process itself.     

Work function, valence band and secondary ion intensity variations noted during the initial stages of SIMS depth profiling of Si and SiO2 by Cs

Work function, valence band and ²⁸Si⁻ secondary ion intensity variations from various Si substrates sputtered by 1 keV Cs⁺ at 60° were measured. Oxide free Si wafers and native oxide terminated wafers did not reveal any appreciable valence band variations close to the Fermi edge. Their work functions however, decreased substantially with an exponential trend noted between this and Si⁻ secondary ion intensities from the O free Si wafer. This is consistent with the electron tunneling model which assumes a resonance charge transfer process. Native oxide terminated wafers exhibited deviations from this exponential trend, while Si wafers with thicker oxides revealed the growth of sub-band features in the valence band spectra on sputtering with Cs⁺. These features, may partially, if not fully, explain the Cs⁺ induced enhancement effect noted on SiO₂ substrates where work function based models are not applicable.     

Sharp n-type doping profiles in Si/SiGe heterostructures produced by atomic hydrogen etching

Surface segregation of group V dopant during thin film epitaxy of Si/SiGe heterostructures causes severe limitation on the sharpness of n-type doping profiles in pn junctions. Existing techniques for removal of surface segregated arsenic suffer from either high thermal budget or aggressive (ex situ) wet chemical etching. An in situ low temperature method is clearly desirable, particularly for device structures with high Ge content such as resonant tunnelling diodes, in order to minimize diffusion of the matrix elements as well as maintain structural integrity. In situ etching by atomic hydrogen is shown to be ideal for this purpose. The reaction mechanism ensures that this can only be a low temperature process and the method is shown to be highly effective and selective in the removal of surface segregated As. In comparison with other techniques, atomic hydrogen etching is also shown to be less aggressive and has a smaller impact on the surface/interface quality.     

A network approach for analysis of silencers with/without absorbent material

The object of this work is to establish a general approach that can analyze the performance of most of the silencers with/without sound absorbent material. Under the assumption of plane wave propagation, the transfer matrices between the two ends of straight pipe and two-duct perforated section are derived and taken as the basic elements. Based on the conditions of continuity of pressure and of mass velocity, the silencer is modeled as a network formed by the two basic elements. Then the sound attenuation characteristic of the silencers can be investigated. With this scheme the multiply connected acoustic filters can also be analyzed. Further, the porous sound absorbent material is also included in this scheme. The effect of sound absorption material on the performance of silencers is analyzed and discussed.     

XPS and SIMS investigation on the role of nitrogen in Si nanocrystals formation

Since the demonstration of optical gain in silicon nanocrystals, in the last few years several papers appeared in the literature reporting gain measurements in silicon nanocrystals embedded in a silica matrix produced by different techniques. However, it is still unclear which are the structural, physical and chemical factors that contribute to enhance photoluminescence and gain in this type of samples. In particular, the presence and the role of nitrogen in the SiO₂ matrix are in fact supposed to be essential factors in understanding the gain mechanism.In fact it is possible to obtain similar samples with very different nitrogen content in the silica matrix changing one of the precursor gases used in the deposition process, thus evidencing the structural and chemical differences introduced by the presence of nitrogen. In this paper SIMS and XPS analysis of two series of similar samples, but with a very different nitrogen content, will be presented and compared. The data collected at different annealing temperatures, together with ellipsometric measurements, give important information on the role played by the nitrogen present in the matrix in the process of silicon nanocrystal formation. Moreover, we demonstrate that the annealing process causes always some oxidation of the sample surface and that nitrogen is incorporated in the material from the annealing atmosphere in nitrogen free samples.     

A new approach of binary addition and subtraction by non-linear material based switching technique

Here, we refer a new proposal of binary addition as well as subtraction in all-optical domain by exploitation of proper non-linear material-based switching technique. In this communication, the authors extend this technique for both adder and subtractor accommodating the spatial input encoding system.     

Changes in surface stress, morphology and chemical composition of silica and silicon nitride surfaces during the etching by gaseous HF acid

HF acid attack of SiO₂ and Si₃N₄ substrates is analyzed to improve the sensitivity of a sensor based on microcantilever. Ex situ analysis of the etching using XPS, SIMS and AFM show significant changes in the anisotropy and the rate of the etching of the oxides on SiO₂ and Si₃N₄ surface. Those differences influence the kinetic evolution of the plastic bending deflection of the cantilever coated with SiO₂ and Si₃N₄ layer, respectively. The linear dependence between the HF concentration and the Si₃N₄ cantilever bending corresponds to a deep attack of the layer whereas the non-linear behavior observed for SiO₂ layer can be explained by a combination of deep and lateral etching. The cantilever bending is discussed in terms of free surface energy, layer thickness and grain size.     

A new type of sample tube for reducing convection effects in PGSE-NMR measurements of self-diffusion coefficients of liquid samples

Pulsed gradient spin-echo (PGSE) NMR measurements of the self-diffusion coefficients of low viscosity liquids are greatly hampered by the effects of convection especially away from ambient temperature. Here we report on a new NMR tube designed to minimize the deleterious effects of convection. In this tube, which derives from a Shigemi symmetrical NMR tube, the sample is contained in an annulus formed from a concentric cylinder of susceptibility matched glass. The performance of this tube was demonstrated by conducting measurements on the electrochemically important LiN(SO3CF3)2 (LiTFSI)-diglyme (DG) system. Calibrations were first made using DG at column heights of 2, 3, and 4-mm in the temperature range between -40 and 100 degrees C. Measurements of the diffusion coefficients of the lithium, anion, and DG were then performed to probe the solvent-ion and ion-ion interactions in the DG doped with LiTFSI. Changes in the 1H, 7Li, and 19F PGSE-NMR attenuation curves at -40 degrees C provided clear evidence of interactions between the DG and lithium ion.     

A new high P-T cell for neutron diffraction up to 7 GPa and 2000 K with measurement of temperature by neutron radiography

Abstract

This paper reports developments to enable neutron diffraction at simultaneous high temperatures and pressures using the Paris-Edinburgh cell. These include a new design of a cell assembly with internal heating. One of the novel features of our system is the use of neutron radiographic methods for measurement of temperature. Fully refinable neutron diffraction patterns obtained by time of flight technique with our apparatus are found to be of comparable quality to previous high-pressure studies at ambient temperatures. In this paper we describe the procedures for the generation and measurement of pressure and temperature and illustrate the quality of the data which can be obtained. The present system may be used on a routine basis for experiments up to 7 GPa and temperature approaching 2000 K. Current attempts are discussed for extending these measurements to a wider domain of pressures and temperatures.