Slow positron beam study of corrosion-related defects in pure iron

Corrosion-related defects of pure iron were investigated by measuring Doppler broadening energy spectra (DBES) of positron annihilation and positron annihilation lifetime (PAL). Defect profiles of the S-parameter from DBES as a function of positron incident energy up to 30 keV (i.e. ∼1 μm depth) were analyzed. The DBES data show that S-parameter increases as a function of positron incident energy (mean depth) after corrosion, and the increase in the S-parameter is larger near the surface than in the bulk due to corrosion. Furthermore, information on defect size from PAL data as a function of positron incident energy up to 10 keV (i.e. ∼0.2 μm depth) was analyzed. In the two-state trapping model, the lifetime τ₂ = 500 ps is ascribed to annihilation of positrons in voids with a size of the order of nanometer. τ₁, which decreases with depth from the surface to the bulk, is ascribed to the annihilation of positrons in dislocations and three-dimensional vacancy clusters. The corroded samples show a significant increase in τ₁ and the intensity I₂, and near the surface the corroded iron introduces both voids and large-size three-dimensional vacancy clusters. The size of vacancy clusters decreases with depth.     

锆离子注入锆-4合金缺陷的慢正电子研究

采用慢正电子束多普勒展宽谱研究了Zr离子注入Zr-4合金产生的缺陷及其退火回复行为，发现经过大于离子注入剂量为1×10¹⁶cm^-2的样品所产生的缺陷在注入过程中已经回复，而对剂量为1×10¹⁵cm^-2样品做300℃退火处理，其缺陷基本回复，得出合金缺陷回复能较低的结论. 考虑到材料的缺陷含量越高，其抗腐蚀性能越差，在辐照环境下通过给材料保持一定温度，即可使其缺陷得到较好回复，从而提高材料的抗腐蚀性能.     

Positron annihilation studies of mesoporous silica films using a slow positron beam

Positron annihilation lifetime spectra were measured for mesoporous silica films, which were synthesized using triblock copolymer (EO₁₀₆PO₇₀EO₁₀₆) as a structure-directing agent. Different positron lifetime spectra for the deposited and calcined films indicated the formation of meso-structure after calcination, which was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra and field emission-scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) observation. Open porosity or pore interconnectivity of a silica film might be evaluated by a two-dimensional positron annihilation lifetime spectrum of an uncapped film. Pore sizes and their distributions in the silica films were found to be affected by thermal treatments.     

Mesoporous titania films investigated by positron annihilation based on a slow positron beam

Tunable mesoporous titania (TiO₂) thin films were synthesized via a sol-gel method using an amphiphilic triblock copolymer F38 as the structural template. The dependence of crystalization, pore morphology and interconnectivity of TiO₂ films on the weight ratio of F38 was studied by wide-angle X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy and Doppler broadening of positron annihilation radiation spectroscopy based on a slow positron beam. By loading more F38, the crystallization of TiO₂ films is enhanced, accompanied by a decrement in oxygen vacancies/grain boundaries. Smaller and isolated mesopores are formed in the films prepared with F38 less than 15?wt%. The pore percolation occurs when the weight ratio of F38 is up to 20?wt% and larger and interconnected worm-like pores are formed.     

TEM study of ion implanted GaAs after pulsed electron beam annealing

Abstract

(001) GaAs single crystals were implanted with 150 keV Cr⁺ ions using a dose of 5 × 10¹⁵ ions cm^?2. The amorphized surface layers were subjected to pulsed electron beam annealing at energy densities in the range 0–1.3 J cm^?2. A detailed TEM investigation of the damaged and annealed surface layer was conducted. These observations were correlated with backscattering results.     

Design of a new type positron beam system

A new type positron beam system is being constructed in Wuhan university. The goal of this project is to build a positron beam which can measure positron lifetimes and has high moderation efficiency. The system utilizes a magnetically guided incident positron beam and the sample is biased to a high negative potential to achieve the desired implantation energies. A conventional tungsten moderator is replaced by a solid Ne moderator with high moderation efficiency (about 1%). A multi-functional target chamber for slow beam studies is designed, which can be used for positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS), Doppler broadening (DB) and coincidence Doppler broadening (CDB) measurements.     

Electrical properties of MOS structures on nitrogen-doped Czochralski-grown silicon: A positron annihilation study

Measurements of interface trap density, effective generation lifetime (GL) and effective surface generation velocity have been performed using different methods on selected MOS structures prepared on nitrogen-doped Czochralski-grown (NCz) silicon. The application of the positron annihilation technique using a pulsed low energy positron system (PLEPS) focused on the detection of nitrogen-related defects in NCz silicon in the near surface region. In the case of p-type Cz silicon, all the results could be used for the testing of homogeneity. In n-type Cz silicon, positron annihilation was found insensitive to nitrogen doping.     

Effect of thermal annealing on nitrogen implanted epitaxial Fe films

Nitridated iron is a promising material for potential applications in permanent magnets. Recent work on stabilization of nitridated iron in a foil form through nitrogen ion implantation and annealing motivates to study effect of thermal annealing on the surface of nitrogen-implanted iron. In this work, we show effect of annealing on chemical state and magnetism of nitrogen implanted epitaxial iron films. It is observed that nitrogen in the lattices only stays at the lower temperatures than 450 °C. In addition, significant reduction and lattice modification are taken placed, when the film is annealed at 450 °C. The increases of saturation magnetization and coercivity, where it is annealed at 450 °C, are likely to be triggered by reduction of oxygen contents at the surface and thinning of Fe₂O₃.     

SIMION simulation of a slow pulsed positron beam

A new slow pulsed positron beam, including a positron source, a moderator, a chopper, a pre-buncher, a main-buncher and a sample chamber, etc, has been installed and tested. It is necessary to simulate the acceleration, transportation and space focusing of positrons to meet the needs of beam debugging and further positron annihilation experiments. The result from SIMION simulations shows that the radius of the focused positron beam is less than 5 mm, which is further confirmed in our practical debugging process.     

Formation of niobium oxynitrides by rapid thermal processing (RTP)

The potential of rapid thermal processing (RTP) for the preparation of thin films of niobium oxynitrides was investigated. The 200 and 500 nm niobium films were deposited via sputtering on oxidized silicon(1 0 0)- and on sapphire(1 −1 0 2)-substrates. At first, oxidation of niobium films in molecular oxygen and then nitridation in ammonia using an RTP-system was performed. The films were characterized before and after the oxidation and nitridation processes by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). The influence of the two different substrates, amorphous SiO₂ and single crystalline sapphire on the reactivity of the niobium films was studied in dependence of temperature, time of reaction and film thickness. The existence of niobium oxynitride formation was verified for some of the films. In some of the experiments, crack formation in the films or even delamination of the Nb-films from the substrates was observed.     

Annealing studies of Ti/Al multilayer film by slow positron beam

Single detector and coincidence Doppler broadening (CDB) spectroscopy measurements using slow positron beam were carried out to study as-deposited and annealed Ti/Al multilayer films. The changes of the film structure and defects in each layer by heat treatment have been investigated through the analysis of Doppler broadening lineshape variation. The coincidence Doppler broadening measurements revealed that Ti is the dominant diffusion species during the alloying process of Ti/Al by high temperature annealing. These results highlight the potential of slow positron beam in characterizing the vacancy-type defects evolution and mechanism of interlayer diffusion in Ti/Al multilayer film.     

JRQ and JPA irradiated and annealed reactor pressure vessel steels studied by positron annihilation

The paper is focused on a comprehensive study of JRQ and JPA reactor pressure vessel steels from the positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS) point of view. Based on our more than 20 years’ experience with characterization of irradiated reactor steels, we confirmed that defects after irradiation start to grow and/or merge into bigger clusters. Experimental results shown that JPA steel is more sensitive to the creation of irradiation-induced defects than JRQ steel. It is most probably due to high copper content (0.29?wt.% in JPA) and copper precipitation has a major impact on neutron-induced defect creation at the beginning of the irradiation. Based on current PALS results, no large vacancy clusters were formed during irradiation, which could cause dangerous embrittlement concerning operation safety of nuclear power plant. The combined PALS, small angle neutron scattering and atomic probe tomography studies support the model for JRQ and JPA steels describing the structure of irradiation-induced clusters as agglomerations of vacancy clusters (consisting of 2–6 vacancies each) and are separated from each other by a distribution of atoms.     

Simulation of time bunching for a pulsed positron beam

Simulate anneal arithmetic has been used to settle the problem of time bunching on a pulsed slow-positron beam device. This paper has searched for the parameters of the device in a large scope and achieved the time resolution within 150ps at the target with accelerating voltage in a range of 0.5-30kV.     

Hydrogen-induced buckling of Pd films studied by positron annihilation

Hydrogen loading of thin films introduces very high compressive stresses which grow in magnitude with increasing hydrogen concentration. When the hydrogen-induced stresses exceed a certain critical in-plane stress value, the loaded film starts to detach from the substrate. This results in the formation of buckles of various morphologies in the film layer. Defect studies of a hydrogen loaded Pd film which undergoes a buckling process are presented, using slow positron implantation spectroscopy, in situ acoustic emission, and direct observations of the film structure by transmission electron and optical microscopies. It is found that buckling of the film occurs at hydrogen concentrations x_H ≥ 0.1 and causes a significant increase of the dislocation density in the film.     

Performance of the plugged-in 22Na based slow positron beam facility

The Beijing intense slow positron beam facility is based on the 1.3 GeV linac of Beijing ElectronPositron CoUider (BEPC) aiming to produce mono-energetic intense slow positron beam for material science investigation. The plugged-in 22Na based slow positron beam section has been newly constructed to supply continuous beam time for the debugging of positron annihilation measurement stations and improve the Beijing intense slow positron beam time using efficiency. Performance testing result of the plugged-in 22Na based slow positron beam facility are reviewed in this paper, with the measurement of the beam transport efficiency, the view of beam spot, the adjustment of beam position, the measurement of beam intensity and energy spread etc. included.     

离子束修形中光学元件表面热量沉积数值模拟

根据Sigmund溅射能量沉积理论建立了低能离子入射光学元件引起的能量扰动层厚度模型．理论推导了离子束倾斜入射时光学元件表面的束流密度,并建立了低能离子束对光学元件的热量沉积模型．采用MonteCarlo方法模拟了低能离子与熔石英光学表面的相互作用．分析了离子能量、离子类型、入射角度等参数对光学元件热量沉积和扰动层深度的影响规律．以离子束沉积在工件的能量作为热源,采用有限元分析软件ANSYS模拟了离子束入射工件的温度场分布、温度梯度场分布和温度应力分布．入射表面温度和热梯度呈高斯分布,束斑中心最高并向工件边缘逐渐减小．入射表面束斑区域受热膨胀,其膨胀受到外环区域的制约,从中心区域到大约束斑半峰值半径的区域,所受环向应力为压应力,在大致束斑半峰值半径以外区域为拉应力．     

Structural properties of polycrystalline silicon films formed by pulsed rapid thermal processing

A novel pulsed rapid thermal processing (PRTP) method has been used for realizing solid-phase crystallization of amorphous silicon films prepared by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition.The microstructure and surface morphology of the crystallized films were investigated using x-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy.The results indicate that PRTP is a suitable post-crystallization technique for fabricating large-area polycrystalline silicon films with good structural quality,such as large grain size,small lattice microstrain and smooth surface morphology on low-cost glass substrates.     

外延生长La0.7Sr0.3MnO3薄膜厚度对缺陷影响的慢正电子分析

采用脉冲激光沉积方法在(LaAlO₃)_0:3(Sr₂AlTaO₆)_0:7衬底上外延生长了La_0.7Sr_0.3MnO₃薄膜,并采用慢正电子束方法分析了薄膜在不同厚度和不同退火气氛下参数S的变化. 分析表明,薄膜中包含两种机制引入的氧空位,分别是薄膜生长气氛中氧压偏低造成薄膜的氧缺乏和由于薄膜应变引入空位型缺陷. 当薄膜厚度较薄时,应变造成的晶格畸变化比较大,当薄膜的厚度大于11 nm时,薄膜的应变驰豫已经比较完全. 原位退火的样品中正电子主要是被氧缺乏引起的氧空位捕获. 在氧气中退火的样品,S随厚度的变化反映了应变对薄膜微结构的影响.     

单晶硅片中的位错在快速热处理过程中的滑移

研究了单晶硅片中维氏压痕诱生的位错在不同气氛下高温快速热处理中的滑移行为.研究表明: 在快速热处理时, 位错在压痕残余应力的弛豫过程中能发生快速滑移; 当快速热处理温度高于1100℃时, 在氮气氛下处理的硅片比在氩气氛下处理的硅片有更小的位错滑移距离. 我们认为这是由于氮气氛下的高温快速热处理在压痕处注入的氮原子钉扎了位错, 增加了位错的临界滑移应力, 从而在相当程度上抑制了位错的滑移. 可以推断氮气氛下的高温快速热处理注入的氮原子增强了硅片的机械强度. 关键词： 快速热处理 位错滑移 机械性能 单晶硅     

质子辐照铝膜反射镜的慢正电子湮没研究

采用分光光度计测定了60keV质子辐照后铝膜反射镜反射光谱的变化规律.用慢正电子湮没等分析技术研究了辐照损伤的微观机制.结果表明，当质子辐照主要作用于反射镜铝膜层中时反射镜在200—800nm波长范围内反射率随辐照剂量增加而下降.入射质子可对铝膜中的缺陷产生填充作用，减小铝膜中电子密度，增加弱束缚电子带间跃迁.紫外至可见光能量较高的波段可引起带间激发跃迁，使相应的谱段反射率下降，导致反射镜光学性能的退化. 关键词： 反射镜 光学性能 质子辐照 慢正电子湮没