Do oxygen molecules contribute to oxygen diffusion and thermal donor formation in silicon?

In- and out-diffusion experiments of oxygen in silicon indicate the existence of an oxygen-containing species diffusing much faster than interstitial oxygen at temperatures below about 700°C. The formation of oxygen-related thermal donors in the temperature range around 450°C also requires a fast diffusing species. The paper examines the possibility of this fast diffusing species beingmolecular oxygen, as had been suggested earlier. Special emphasis will be placed on experimental results which have become available since that time. These results allow one to relate thermal donor formation to the loss of interstitial oxygen and to oxygen precipitation. The role of carbon is also considered in this context.Paper submitted as contribution to special issue on Molecule-Like Defects in Crystalline Semiconductors. Appl. Phys. 48/1 January 1989     

Unusual oxygen re-equilibration kinetics of TiO2−δ

Oxygen re-equilibration kinetics, along with the equilibrium conductivity, have been measured on undoped, single-crystal TiO_2−δ, by a four-probe d.c. conductivity relaxation technique, against oxygen partial pressure in the range of − 16 < log(P_O2/atm) ≤ 0 at different temperatures in the range of 1173 ≤ T/K ≤ 1373. The isothermal conductivity varies as σ ∝ P_O2^m with m ≈ − 1/4, − 1/5 and − 1/6 in turn with increasing P_O2 up to 1 atm, suggesting a sequential variation of the majority ionic disorder types from Ti_i to Ti_i to V_O, respectively. Contrary to the conventional knowledge that due to the local (defect) equilibrium postulate there should be one and only one chemical diffusivity or single relaxation time for a binary oxide, the oxygen re-equilibration kinetics has turned out to be twofold with two different relaxation times depending on oxygen activities. This is interpreted as being due to the independent relaxation of each sublattice of TiO₂ in an oxygen activity gradient applied, indicating a failure of local equilibrium during oxygen re-equilibration. From the two different relaxation times the chemical diffusion coefficients of component Ti and O are separately evaluated and subsequently, their self-diffusion coefficients. The latter are found to be in a good agreement with the literature data.     

Mechanism of oxygen adsorption on surfaces of γ-TiAl

We studied the adsorption behavior of oxygen on low index surfaces of γ-TiAl via first principles to investigate the mechanism that drives the adsorption behavior. The (100) surface is the most stable surface energetically followed by the (111), (110) and (001) surfaces. A study of the adsorption of a single oxygen atom on surfaces of TiAl showed that the O atom prefers the Ti-rich environment that has a high potential of generating TiO₂. Competition between O-Al bonding and O-Ti bonding was observed in the O adsorbed surface regions. However, the O-Ti interaction dominates the adsorption behavior in all considered systems except when O is adsorbed on an Al-terminated (001) surface as the O–Al bond is stronger than O–Ti bond. A linear relationship between adsorption energy and integration of orbital overlaps between the O atom and the metals is obtained, which indicates that the electronic structure controls the adsorption behavior of an O atom on a γ-TiAl surface — an opportunity to improve the oxidation resistance of γ-TiAl based alloys.     

Accelerated oxygen precipitation in fast neutron irradiated Czochralski silicon

Annealing effect of the oxygen precipitation and the induced defects have been investigated on the fast neutron irradiated Czochralski silicon （CZ-Si） by infrared absorption spectrum and the optical microscopy. It is found that the fast neutron irradiation greatly accelerates the oxygen precipitation that leads to a sharp decrease of the interstitial oxygen with the annealing time. At room temperature （RT）, the 1107cm^-1 infrared absorption band of interstitial oxygen becomes weak and broadens to low energy side. At low temperature, the infrared absorption peaks appear at 1078cm^-1, 1096cm^-1, and 1182cm^-1, related to different shapes of the oxygen precipitates. The bulk microdefects, including stacking faults, dislocations and dislocation loops, were observed by the optical microscopy. New or large stacking faults grow up when the silicon self-interstitial atoms are created and aggregate with oxygen precipitation.     

Methane–oxygen detonation characteristics at elevated pre-detonation pressures

The detonation characteristics of methane–oxygen mixtures at pre-detonation pressures of 101–1,013 kPa were investigated in a detonation tube. Both pure methane–oxygen mixtures and mixtures with argon dilution were explored. Measurements made include cell sizes via soot foil, wave speed via high speed ion probes / pressure transducers, and temperature / H₂O molar concentration profiles via 100 kHz absorption spectroscopy. Measured cell widths agreed with predicted cell widths based on a ZND length correlation. In addition, the power law fit of cell width with pre-detonation pressure agreed with previous data at less than 101 kPa. Measured detonation wave speeds agreed within 3% of Chapmen-Jouguet for all cases. H₂O molar density and temperature were successfully captured up to 507 kPa. However, above 507 kPa pre-detonation pressure, low signal to noise ratio and poor spectral fits at the extreme conditions of the von Neumann spike resulted in unacceptable uncertainty. These results provide a unique dataset to validate kinetics models and high-fidelity computation fluid dynamics codes for methane-oxygen detonations at elevated pre-detonation pressures relevant to rotating detonation rocket engines.     

New trends along hydrogen polyoxides: unusually long oxygen–oxygen bonds in H2O6 and H2O7

By means of coupled cluster, G4 and B3LYP calculations, we characterised polyoxides H₂O₆ and H₂O₇. These two molecules behave very differently from lower polyoxides, given that some isomers present unusual bonding. In the case of H₂O₆, the central OO bond is predicted, to be 1.909 Å, at the CCSD(T)/cc-pVTZ level. Two conformational isomers of H₂O₆ display nearly the same enthalpy of formation, but only one of them has extremely long OO bonds. For H₂O₇, the most stable isomer also has two unusually long OO bonds. At the CCSD(T) level, and after extrapolation to the complete basis set limit, this isomer is predicted to be 5.37 kcal mol^–1 more stable than the one with short OO bonds, and the longest OO bond distance is expected to be close to 1.96 Å. Analysis of correlation energies indicated that the new isomers found for H₂O₆ and H₂O₇ are among the most strongly correlated molecules that can be formed with first-row atoms.     

The effects of interstitial oxygen on superconducting electronic phases in strontium and oxygen co-doped La1.937Sr0.063CuO4＋δ

Strontium and oxygen co-doped La1.937Sr0.063CuO4＋δ superconductor with Tc≈ 40K, which is obtained by oxidizing strontium-doped starting ceramic sample La1.937Sr0.063CuO4 in NaC10 solution, is annealed under different conditions to allow interstitial oxygen to redistribute. The evolution of the intrinsic superconducting property with the oxygen redistribution is studied in detail by magnetic measurements in various fields. It is found that there occurs the electronic phase separation from the single superconducting phase with Tc ≈ 40 K into two coexisting superconducting states with values of Tc： 15 and 40K or of 15 and 35 K in this system, depending on annealing condition. Our results indicate that the 15, 35 and 40 K superconducting phases associated with the excess oxygen redistribution are all thermodynamically meta-stable intrinsic states in this Sr/O co-doped cuprate.     

Kerr effect of molecular oxygen at λ=1064 nm

We report a new measurement of the Kerr effect of molecular oxygen at λ= 1064 nm. The experimental value reported for the anisotropy of the index of refraction Δ n_u^l, (3.15±0.85)×10^-25 m² V^-2 atm^-1, is in good agreement with the value of 3.4×10^-25 m² V^-2 atm^-1 obtained via an ab initio calculation. We show that the dependence of the effect on the pressure is not linear because of the presence of a collision-induced absorption band around 1060 nm due to the transition from the X³ Σ^-_g ground state to the ¹Δ_g state. We also give the value of the quadratic anisotropy Δn_u^q (-1.03±0.68)×10^-25 m² V^-2 atm^-2. We finally compare our ab initio theoretical and experimental results with previous existing data.     

Trap spectrum of the “new oxygen donor” in silicon

Electronic properties of thenew oxygen donor generated in phosphorus-doped Czochralski-silicon at 650C are investigated by deep level transient spectroscopy. A continuous distribution of trap states (10¹⁴–10¹⁶ cm^–3 eV^–1) is detected in the upper half of the band gap with increasing values towards the conduction band. The magnitude of the state density observed increases with the oxygen content, the heat duration, and a preanneal at temperatures lower than 650C. The continuous trap spectrum of thenew donor is explained by interface states occuring at the surface of SiO _x precipitates.     

Study on defects associated with interstitial oxygen in PbWO4 crystal

The defects associated with interstitial oxygen in lead tungstate crystals (PbWO4) are investigated by the relativistic self-consistent discrete variational embedded cluster method. The research work is focused on the density of states of interstitial oxygen defects and relational Frankel defects. The transition state method is used to calculate excitation energy of different electron orbits. Simulation results show that the existence of defects related to interstitial oxygen can diminish the bandwidth of the WO4^2- group, and it might produce the green luminescence, Frankel defects associated with interstitial oxygen could result in the absorption at 420nm.     

Ab initio calculations on oxygen vacancy defects in strained amorphous silica

The effects of uniaxial tensile strain on the structural and electronic properties of positively charged oxygen vacancy defects in amorphous silica(a-SiO2)are systematically investigated using ab-initio calculation based on density functional theory.Four types of positively charged oxygen vacancy defects,namely the dimer,unpuckered,and puckered four-fold(4×),and puckered five-fold(5×)configurations have been investigated.It is shown by the calculations that applying uniaxial tensile strain can lead to irreversible transitions of defect structures,which can be identified from the fluctuations of the curves of relative total energy versus strain.Driven by strain,a positively charged dimer configuration may relax into a puckered 5×configuration,and an unpuckered configuration may relax into either a puckered 4×configuration or a forward-oriented configuration.Accordingly,the Fermi contacts of the defects remarkably increase and the defect levels shift under strain.The Fermi contacts of the puckered configurations also increase under strain to the values close to that of Eα′center in a-SiO2.In addition,it is shown by the calculations that the relaxation channels of the puckered configurations after electron recombination are sensitive to strain,that is,those configurations are more likely to relax into a two-fold coordinated Si structure or to hold a puckered structure under strain,both of which may raise up the thermodynamic charge-state transition levels of the defects into Si band gap.As strain induces more puckered configurations with the transition levels in Si band gap,it may facilitate directly the development of oxide charge accumulation and indirectly that of interface charge accumulation by promoting proton generation under ionization radiation.This work sheds a light on understanding the strain effect on ionization damage at an atomic scale.     

Magnetically tunable nonlinear current–voltage characteristics in oxygen deficient manganite perovskites

La_0.667Ca_0.333Mn_1−xM_xO_3−δ (M=Mg, Li or Re) exhibit insulating behaviour and nonlinear current–voltage (J–E) relationship with voltage-limiting characteristics at temperatures below the ferromagnetic transition (T_c). The high current region is set in at field strengths <60 V/cm. Nonlinearity exponent, α in the relation J=kE^α increases inversely with temperature. In presence of an external magnetic field, the J–E curves show higher current density at lower field strengths. Microstructural studies indicate that there is no segregation of secondary phases in the grain boundary regions. There is remarkable changes in ρ(T) as well as J–E curves with the grain size. Annealing studies in lower p_O2 atmospheres indicate that there is significant out-diffusion of oxygen ions through the grain boundary layer (GBL) regions creating oxygen vacancies in the GBL regions. The concentration of Mn⁴⁺ ions is lowered at the GBL due to oxygen vacancies, reducing the probability of hopping and resulting in insulating behaviour. Therefore an insulating barrier is introduced between two conducting grains and the carrier motion between the grains is inhibited. Thus below T_c, where sufficient increase in resistivity is observed the conduction may be arising as a result of spin dependent tunneling across the barrier. External electric field lowers the barrier height and establishes carrier transport across the barrier. Above certain field strength, barrier height diminishes significantly and thereby allowing large number of carriers for conduction, giving rise to highly nonlinear conductivity.     

Vibrational non-equilibrium in the hydrogen–oxygen reaction. Comparison with experiment

A theoretical model is proposed for the chemical and vibrational kinetics of hydrogen oxidation based on consistent accounting of the vibrational non-equilibrium of the HO₂ radical that forms as a result of the bimolecular recombination H+O₂ → HO₂. In the proposed model, the chain branching H+O₂ = O+OH and inhibiting H+O₂+M = HO₂+M formal reactions are treated (in the terms of elementary processes) as a single multi-channel process of forming, intramolecular energy redistribution between modes, relaxation, and unimolecular decay of the comparatively long-lived vibrationally excited HO₂ radical, which is able to react and exchange energy with the other components of the mixture. The model takes into account the vibrational non-equilibrium of the starting (primary) H₂ and O₂ molecules, as well as the most important molecular intermediates HO₂, OH, O₂(¹Δ), and the main reaction product H₂O. It is shown that the hydrogen–oxygen reaction proceeds in the absence of vibrational equilibrium, and the vibrationally excited HO₂(v) radical acts as a key intermediate in a fundamentally important chain branching process and in the generation of electronically excited species O₂(¹Δ), O(¹D), and OH(²Σ⁺). The calculated results are compared with the shock tube experimental data for strongly diluted H₂–O₂ mixtures at 1000 < T < 2500 K, 0.5 < p < 4 atm. It is demonstrated that this approach is promising from the standpoint of reconciling the predictions of the theoretical model with experimental data obtained by different authors for various compositions and conditions using different methods. For T < 1500 K, the nature of the hydrogen–oxygen reaction is especially non-equilibrium, and the vibrational non-equilibrium of the HO₂ radical is the essence of this process. The quantitative estimation of the vibrational relaxation characteristic time of the HO₂ radical in its collisions with H₂ molecules has been obtained as a result of the comparison of different experimental data on induction time measurements with the relevant calculations.     

Mössbauer study of MnZn ferrite formation under low oxygen pressure conditions

The solid state reaction of ferrite formation was studied under low oxygen partial pressure (10^-3% O₂) by Mössbauer spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and density measurements. At temperatures below 500°C, a Mn ferrite was formed, whereas the Zn ferrite formation starts later at the same temperature than in air sintering. The appearance of an intermediate Mn ferrite is caused by the low valency state of Mn ions under such strong reducing conditions. The MnZn ferrite formation is completed by 800°C.No direct correlation was found between ferrite formation and densification.     

Quenching of ππ* triplet states of vaporous polycyclic aromatic compounds by oxygen

The oxygen quenching rate constants k _T ^O2 of the triplet state T ₁ of vapors of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with strongly different oxidation potentials 0.44 eV < E _OX < 1.61 eV and energies of the triplet levels 14800 cm^?1 < E _T < 24500 cm^?1 (anthracene, 2-aminoanthracene, 9-nitroanthracene, chrysene, phenanthrene, fluoranthene, and carbazole) are estimated from the measured dependences of the decay rates and intensities of delayed fluorescence on the oxygen pressure P _O2. It is found that the rate constants k _T ^O2 vary from 4 × 10³ (9-nitroanthracene) to 4 × 10⁵ s^?1 Torr^?1 (2-aminoanthracene) and increase with decreasing oxidation potentials E _OX of PAHs. The rate constants k _T ^O2 for vapors and solutions are compared. The dependences of k _T ^O2 on the free energy of two intermolecular processes, namely, triplet energy transfer to oxygen and electron transfer, are analyzed. It is shown that the rate constants k _T ^O2 increase with decreasing electron transfer free energy, which proves that, along with energy transfer, charge-transfer interactions contribute to the quenching of the triplet states of PAH vapors.     

Experimental observations of methane–oxygen diffusion flame structure in a sub-millimetre microburner

We examine the structure of confined, laminar methane–oxygen diffusion flames in an alumina microburner with a sub-millimetre dimension. To minimize termination of gas-phase combustion via surface radical quenching, the reactor walls are chemically treated and annealed. We show, through chemiluminescent images, that gas-phase methane–oxygen diffusion flames exist in the microburner without the need for catalytic reaction. However, their structure differs from the continuous laminar diffusion flame profiles that we would expect in a similar burner configuration on a macroscopic scale. Instead, we observe a sequence of isolated reaction zones structures (flame cells) that form along the length of the microburner combustion channel aligned in the direction of the gas flow. This form of cellular diffusion flame instability appears to be unique to wall-confined combustion in microscale devices. The number of flame cells observed depends on the inlet gas velocities and initial mixture strengths.