Mass dependence of nitride sputtering

A molecular dynamics simulation was performed to study the sputtering yield Y for BN, AlN and GaN polycrystals of wurtzite structure as a function of the masses m ₁ of bombarding ions with energies from 200 to 2000 eV. A nonmonotonic behavior of the Y(m ₁) curve was obtained for the irradiation by low-energy ions, the curve having a maximum with a position being dependent on m₂/m₁ (m₂ is the average mass of atoms in a compound). For AlN and GaN the maximum was observed at m₂/m₁ = 2, and for BN at m₂/m₁ = 1. The effect of the mass of bombarding ions on the mean energies and energy spectra of sputtered particles, the depth of sputtering origin, and the generation of emitted atoms for nitrides was also investigated and discussed.     

Energies of Cu1+ ions sputtered from Cu by very low energy (50 eV < E < 1 keV) Inert gas ions

He⁺, Ne⁺ and Ar⁺ ions with energies E₁ between 50 and 1000 eV were used to bombard a polycrystalline Cu target at an angle of 45°. The energies, E₂, of the Cu₁⁺ ions sputtered at 90° to the primary beam were investigated using a UHV magnetic sector mass spectrometer. The maxima of the energy distributions as measured by the instrument, were at values of E₂ of about 4 eV (±1 eV), nearly independent of e₁ and primary ion mass. Plots of log N(E₂) versus log E₂ displayed limited linear portions over which the functional dependence of N(E₂) is proportional to E₂^?0.5. Plots of the average secondary ion energy, ē₂, versus the energy transferred by the primary ion to a Cu atom in a direct collision $\text{([}\text{4m}{}_1\text{m}{}_2\text{(m}{}_1\text{+ m}{}_2\text{)}{}^2\text{]E}{}_1\text{)}$, indicate that ē₂ increases linearly with transfer energy up to a transferred energy of about 200 eV, independent of primary ion mass. Above about 200 eV transferred energy, ē₂ asymptotically approaches values which depend upon primary ion mass. At transferred energies below about 200 eV, the collision kinematics in the fust few collisions appears to dominate the emission process.     

Photomodulated reflectance study on optical property of InN thin films grown by reactive gas-timing rf magnetron sputtering

The photoreflectance (PR) spectroscopy has been applied to investigate the band-gap energy (E_g) of indium nitride (InN) thin films grown by rf magnetron sputtering. A novel reactive gas-timing technique applied for the sputtering process has been successfully employed to grow InN thin films without neither substrate heating nor post annealing. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns exhibit strong peaks in the orientation along (0 0 2) and (1 0 1) planes, corresponding to the polycrystalline hexagonal-InN structure. The band-gap transition energy of InN was determined by fitting the PR spectra to a theoretical line shape. The PR results show the band-gap energy at 1.18 eV for hexagonal-InN thin films deposited at the rf powers of 100 and 200 W. The high rf sputtering powers in combination with the gas-timing technique should lead to a high concentration of highly excited nitrogen ions in the plasma, which enables the formation of InN without substrate heating. Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) measurements further reveal traces of oxygen in these InN films. This should explain the elevated band-gap energy, in reference to the band-gap value of 0.7 eV for pristine InN films.     

低能原子沉积在Pt(111)表面的分子动力学模拟

采用嵌入原子方法的原子间相互作用势,利用分子动力学方法模拟了六种贵金属原子(Ni,Pd,Pt,Cu,Ag,Au)分别在Pt(111)表面低能沉积的动力学过程.结果表明:随着入射能量从0.1eV升高到200eV,基体表面原子是按层迁移的,沉积过程对基体表面的影响和沉积原子在基体表层的作用均存在两个转变能量(ET1≈5eV,ET2≈70eV).当入射能量低于5eV时,基体表面几乎没有吸附原子和空位形成,沉积原子在基体表层几乎没有注入产生;当入射能量在5—70eV范围内时,沉积原子在基体表层有注入产生,其注入深度小于两个原子层,即为亚注入,此时吸附原子主要由基体表层原子形成,基体表面第三层以下没有空位形成;当入射能量高于70eV时,沉积原子的注入深度大于两个原子层,将会导致表面以下第三层形成空位,并且空位产额随入射能量的升高而急剧增加.基于分子动力学模拟的结果,对低能沉积作用下的薄膜生长以及最优沉积参数的选择进行了讨论.     

“Forbidden” reflections in resonant diffraction of synchrotron radiation in yttrium aluminum garnet Y<Subscript>3</Subscript>Al<Subscript>5</Subscript>O<Subscript>12</Subscript>

The purely resonant Bragg reflections (13, 13, 0) and (14, 0, 0) in yttrium aluminum garnet Y₃Al₅O₁₂ at energies near the K absorption edge of yttrium have been studied experimentally and theoretically. The anisotropic tensor atomic factor of yttrium corresponding to dipole-dipole resonance transitions depends on three independent parameters changing with energy. The intensities of the reflections (14, 0, 0) and (13, 13, 0) are shown to depend on the parameter difference f ₁(E) − f ₂(E) and the parameter f ₃(E), respectively, which are attributable to distortions of the wave functions of the excited atoms and change greatly with photon energy E. Studying various reflections has allowed one to determine the various components of the tensor atomic factor and to compare them with the results of numerical calculations.     

Stability of subatomic carbon films on metal surfaces against low-energy gas ion bombardment

The earlier developed original experimental technique for measuring and analyzing the parameters of low-frequency fluctuations of the field-emission current in metal film systems is used to measure the sputtering yield Y _f of carbon films (with a coverage Θ ranging from 1 to 4) applied on Fe, Nb, Ta, and U substrates. The value of Y _f is calculated by an expression derived within a theoretical model developed. The sputtering ratios were measured for the case when the carbon films are sputtered by H⁺ and He⁺ ions with an energy E _i between 2 and 10 keV. With Θ fixed, the energy dependences of Y _f are obtained for each of the ions. In addition, for each of the ions, the Θ dependences of Y _f are found for several values of E _i. In all the cases, the measured values of Y _f far exceed those for pure carbon. With another original technique that combines field-ion microscopy (FIM) and precise measurement of current and/or luminous properties of local regions in FIM images, the energy thresholds E _th of sputtering carbon films applied on the metal surfaces are found. The energy distributions of Y _f in the near-threshold energy range for various Θ are obtained.     

The density of quenched gold

A precision hydrostatic differential method for measuring small density differences of solid bodies was used to determine the activation energy of vacancy formation and migration in quenched gold. The values were found to beE _f =0·76 eV, andE _m =0·51 eV.E _f is substantially lower than the well established value 0·96 eV, whereasE _m is close to the value 0·56 eV determined by Jeannette and Machlin for oxygen-free gold.The concentration of vacancies determined from our measurement is of the same order as the absolute calorimetric determination by DeSorbo.A short communication was read at the Conference on Point Defects in Quenched Metals, ANL, June 1964.     

Low-energy sputtering events at free surfaces near anti-phase and grain boundaries in Ni3Al

Atomic recoil events on free surfaces orthogonal to two different anti-phase boundaries (APBs) and two grain boundaries (GBs) in Ni₃Al are simulated using molecular dynamics methods. The threshold energy for sputtering, E _sp, and adatom creation, E _ad, are determined as a function of recoil direction. The study is relevant to FEG STEM (a scanning transmission electron microscope fitted with a field emission gun) experiments on preferential Al sputtering and/or enhancement of the Ni–Al ratio near boundaries. Surfaces intersected by {110} and {111} APBs have minimum E _sp of 6.5?eV for an Al atom on the Ni–Al mixed (M) surface, which is close to the value of 6.0?eV for a perfect M surface. High values of E _sp of an Al atom generally occur at a large angle to the surface normal and depend strongly on the detailed atomic configuration of the surface. The mean E _sp, averaged over all recoil directions, reveals that APBs have a small effect on the threshold sputtering. However, the results for E _ad imply that an electron beam could create more Al adatoms on surfaces intersected by APBs than on those without. The equilibrium, minimum energy structures for a (001) surface intersected by either Σ5[001](210) or Σ25[001](340) symmetric tilt grain boundaries are computed. E _sp for surface Al atoms near these GBs increases monotonically with increasing recoil angle to the surface normal, with a minimum value, which is only about 1?eV different from that obtained for a perfect surface. Temperature up to 300?K has no effect on this result. It is concluded that the experimental observations of preferential sputtering are due to effects beyond those for E _sp studied here. Possible reasons for this are discussed.     

Structural and optoelectronic properties of amorphous GaN thin films

Amorphous gallium nitride (a-GaN) thin films were deposited on glass substrate by electron beam evaporation technique at room temperature and high vacuum using N ₂ as carrier gas. The structural properties of the films was studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). It was clear from XRD spectra and SEM study that the GaN thin films were amorphous. The absorbance, transmittance and reflectance spectra of these films were measured in the wavelength range of 300–2200 nm. The absorption coefficient spectral analysis in the sharp absorption region revealed a direct band gap of E _g = 3:1 eV. The data analysis allowed the determination of the dispersive optical parameters by calculating the refractive index. The oscillator energy E ₀ and the dispersion energy E _d, which is a measure of the average strength of inter-band optical transition or the oscillator strength, were determined. Electrical conductivity of a-GaN was measured in a different range of temperatures. Then, activation energy of a-GaN thin films was calculated which equalled E _a = 0:434 eV.     

Sputtering yields of PMMA films bombarded by keV C60 ions

A quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) has been used to determine total-mass sputtering yields of PMMA films by 1-16 keV C₆₀^+,2+ ion beams. Quantitative sputtering yields for PMMA are presented as mass loss per incident ion Y_m. Mass-lost rate QCM data show that a 13 keV C₆₀ cluster leads to emission equivalent to 800 PMMA molecules per ion. The power law obtained for the increase in sputtering yield with primary ion energy is in good agreement those predicted by “thermal spike” regime and MD models, when crater sizes are used to estimate sputtering.     

The peculiarities of the low-energy ion scattering by polycrystal targets

In the present work, experimental and computer simulation studies of low-energy (E₀ = 80-500 eV) Cs⁺ ions scattering on Ta, W, Re target surfaces and K⁺ ions scattering on Ti, V, Cr target surfaces have been performed for more accurate definition of mechanism of scattering, with a purpose of evaluation of an opportunity of use of slow ions scattering as a tool of surface layers analysis. The choice of the targets was based on the fact that the ratios of atomic masses of target atoms and ions μ = m₂/m₁ were almost the same for all cases considered and greater than 1 (direct mass ratio) however, the difference of binding energies of target atoms in the cases of Cs⁺ and K⁺ scattering was almost twice as much. It has been noticed that the dependencies of the relative energy retained by scattering ions at the maximum of energy distribution versus the initial energy E_m/E₀ (E₀) have a similar shape in all cases. The relative energy retained by scattering ions increases while the initial energy of incidence ions decreases. The curves are placed above each other relative to the binding energies of target atoms, to show what this says about the influence of binding energy on a process of scattering of low-energy ions. The correlation between value of energy change maintained by an ion for different values of E₀ in the case of scattering by targets with different masses of atoms and its binding energies is experimentally established. The contrary behavior of the E_m/E₀ (E₀) dependencies concerning the target atom binding energy quantity E_b for cases with direct (μ > 1) and inverse (μ < 1) mass ratio of colliding particles is established. The comparison of experimental energy distributions with calculated histograms shows that the binary collision approximation cannot elucidate the abnormally great shift in the maxima of relative energy distributions towards greater energy retained by scattering ions.     

Thickness dependent optical dispersion parameters and nonlinear optical properties of nanostructured Cr doped CdO thin films

Cr doped CdO thin films were deposited on glass substrates by reactive DC magnetron sputtering with varying film thickness from 250 to 400 nm. XRD studies reveal that the films exhibit cubic structure with preferred orientation along the (2 0 0) plane. The optical transmittance of the films decreases from 92 to 72%, whereas the optical energy band gap of the films decreased from 2.88 to 2.78 eV with increasing film thickness. The Wemple–DiDomenico single oscillator model has been used to evaluate the optical dispersion parameters such as dispersion energy (E_d), oscillator energy (E_o), static refractive index (n_o) and high frequency dielectric constant (ε_∞). The nonlinear optical parameters such as optical susceptibility (χ⁽¹⁾), third order nonlinear optical susceptibility (χ⁽³⁾) and nonlinear refractive index (n₂) of the films were also determined.     

Emission of electrons from mim systems: Energy distributions

In this part of our study we measured energy distributionsN(E) andN(E _X ) of electrons emitted from sandwich cathodes, and their basic temperature (at 300, 200 and 80 K) and voltage dependences. From the distributionN(E) at 80 K we calculated the mean free path of electrons in cathode and the effective temperature of distribution. The anomalous emission (beginning at small leakage voltages) was observed and its energy distribution measured, too. From the graphs it can be seen that some electrons acquire energy 2–5 eV during their transition through the sandwich cathode.     

Image-potential surface states on Ag(100): A reinvestigation

Employing inverse photoemission we have remeasured the energy dispersionE(k) of the lowest-lying image state on Ag(100) with improved energy resolution (electrons and photons, E=0.35 eV) andk-resolution (k<0.1 Å^–1). In a least-square fit with the binding energyE _B atk=0 and the effective massm ^* as parameters we obtainE _B =E _vac –0.67 eV andm ^*=1.5 m in agreement with our earlier findings but differing from the two-photon photoemission values (0.53 eV and 1.15 m).     

Room-temperature deposition of transparent conductive Al-doped ZnO thin films using low energy ion bombardment

Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) films are prepared on quartz substrates by dual-ion-beam sputtering deposition at room temperature (∼25°C). An assisting argon ion beam (ion energy E _i =0–300 eV) directly bombards the substrate surface to modify the properties of AZO films. The effects of assisted-ion beam energy on the characteristics of AZO films were investigated in terms of X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, Raman spectra, Hall measurement and optical transmittance. With increasing assisting-ion beam bombardment, AZO films have a strong improved crystalline quality and increased radiation damage such as oxygen vacancies and zinc interstitials. The lowest resistivity of 4.9×10⁻³Ω cm and highest transmittance of above 85% in the visible region were obtained under the assisting-ion beam energy 200 eV. It was found that the bandgap of AZO films increased from 3.37 to 3.59 eV when the assisting-ion beam energy increased from 0 to 300 eV.     

UV–visible absorption spectrum determination of optical energy gaps of α and β lithium nitrides

It is well known that a high pressure can induce α–β phase transformation of lithium nitride (Li₃N). However, this work demonstrated that a reverse phase transformation of Li₃N from β to α could occur when it was subjected to heat-treatment at 500 °C in vacuum. Furthermore, the optical properties of α and β lithium nitrides were evaluated by UV–visible spectra. The optical energy gaps (E_g) of α and β lithium nitrides, which were determined from the derivative UV–visible spectra, are 1.81±0.01 and 2.14±0.01 eV, respectively.     

Effect of interband scattering on kinetic coefficients and estimates of the parameters of the band spectrum of Sb2Te3

It has been shown that uncertainties in the interpretation of experimental data on transport phenomena in Sb₂Te₃ are resolved in the two-band model with the consistent inclusion of the interband hole scattering. The performed calculation is in quantitative agreement with the experimental data in the temperature range from 77 to 400 K for the following parameters of the band spectrum: the effective mass of the density of states of light holes m _d1 ≈ 0.6m ₀ (where m ₀ is the free electron mass), the effective mass of the density of states of heavy holes m _d2 ≈ 1.8m ₀, and the energy gap between nonequivalent extrema of the valence band ΔE _v(T) ≈ 0.15–2.5 × 10^?4 T eV.     

Characterization of defects introduced in Sb doped Ge by 3 keV Ar sputtering using deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) and Laplace-DLTS (LDLTS)

We have used deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS), and Laplace-DLTS to investigate the defects created in antimony doped germanium (Ge) by sputtering with 3 keV Ar ions. Hole traps at E_V+0.09 eV and E_V+0.31 eV and an electron trap at E_C−0.38 eV (E-center) were observed soon after the sputtering process. Room temperature annealing of the irradiated samples over a period of a month revealed a hole trap at E_V+0.26 eV. Above room temperature annealing studies revealed new hole traps at E_V+0.27 eV, E_V+0.30 eV and E_V+0.40 eV.     

| m | Partial wave treatment for two-dimensional Coulomb-scattering and Regge pole

The symmetry and |m| partial-wave analysis for two-dimensional (2D) Coulomb-scattering is investigated. As a function of energyE, the |m| partial-wave scattering amplitudef _|m|(θ) is analytically continuated to the, negativeE (complexk) plane, and it is found that the bound state energy eigenvalues (E<0) are just located at the poles off _|m|(θ) on the positive imaginaryk axis as is expected. In addition, as a function of |m|,f _|m|(θ) is analytically continuated to the complex |m| plane, the bound state energy eigenvalues are just located at the poles off _|m|(θ) on the positive real |m| axis.     

Frequency Dependence of the Components of Dielectric Permeability and Characteristic Losses of Fluorite

The ₁(E), –Im^–1, and Re^–1 spectra of the fluorite crystal are calculated on the basis of the experimental (10–35 eV) and theoretical spectra ₂(E) (10–27 and 8–20 eV). They were employed to decompose the ₂(E) and –Im^–1 spectra into elementary components. The most intense transverse and longitudinal components of transitions and their parameters have been determined. The correlation between two types of components of transitions and their distinguishing features have been established.