Growth of Structured Non—crystalline Boron—Oxygen—Nitrogen Films and Measurement of Their Electrical Properties

The boron-oxygen-nitrogen(BON) films have been grown on Si wafer by the low-frequency rf-plasma-enhanced metal-organic chemical vapour deposition method.The homogeneous film structure of completely amorphous BON is first fabricated on a low-temperature-made buffer at 500℃ with N2 plasma and is observed with a highresolution-electron microscope by the transmission-electron diffraction.The results show that the interfaces among substrate/buffer/film are clear and straight in the structured film.A heterogeneous film containing nano-sized crystalline particles is also grown by a routine growth procedure as a referential structure,The C-V characteristic is measured on both the amprphous and crystal-containing films by using the metal-oxidesemiconductor structure,The dielectric constants of the films are,therefore,deduced to be 5.9 and 10.5 for the amorphous and crystal-containing films,respectively,The C-V results also indicate that more trapped charges exist in the amorphous film.The binding energy of the B,O.and N atoms in the amprphous film is higher than that in the crystal-containing one,and the N-content in the latter is found to be higher than that in the former by x-ray photo-electron spectroscopy.The different electrical Property of the films is thought to originate from the energy state of the covalent electrons.     

The influence of an SixNy interlayer on a GaN film grown on an Si（lll） substrate

<正>A method to drastically reduce dislocation density in a GaN film grown on an Si(111) substrate is newly developed. In this method,the Si_xN_y interlayer which is deposited on an A1N buffer layer in situ is introduced to grow the GaN film laterally.The crack-free GaN film with thickness over 1.7 micron is successfully grown on an Si(111) substrate. A synthesized GaN epilayer is characterized by X-ray diffraction(XRD),atomic force microscope(AFM),and Raman spectrum.The test results show that the GaN crystal reveals a wurtzite structure with the(0001) crystal orientation and the full width at half maximum of the X-ray diffraction curve in the(0002) plane is as low as 403 arcsec for the GaN film grown on the Si substrate with an Si_xN_y interlayer.In addition,Raman scattering is used to study the stress in the sample.The results indicate that the Si_xN_y interlayer can more effectively accommodate the strain energy.So the dislocation density can be reduced drastically,and the crystal quality of GaN film can be greatly improved by introducing an Si_xN_y interlayer.     

Growth of Semi-Insulating GaN by Using Two-Step AIN Buffer Layer

Semi-insulating GaN is grown by using a two-step A1N buffer layer by metalorganic chemical vapour deposition. The sheet resistance of as-grown semi-insulating GaN is dramatically increased to 10^13 Ω/sq by using two-step A1N buffer instead of the traditional low-temperature GaN buffer. The high sheet resistance of as-grown GaN over 10^13 Ω/sq is due to inserting an insulating buffer layer （two-step A1N buffer） between the high-temperature GaN layer and a sapphire substrate which blocks diffusion of oxygen and overcomes the weakness of generating high density carrier near interface of GaN and sapphire when a low-temperature GaN buffer is used. The result suggests that the high conductive feature of unintentionally doped GaN is mainly contributed from the highly conductive channel near interface between GaN and the sapphire substrate, which is indirectly manifested by room-temperature photoluminescence excited by an incident laser beam radiating on growth surface and on the substrate. The functions of the two-step A1N buffer layer in reducing screw dislocation and improving crystal quality of GaN are also discussed.     

ZnO Nanostructures Grown on A1N/Sapphire Substrates by MOCVD

ZnO nanorods and nanotubes are successful synthesized on A1N/sapphire substrates by metal-organic chemical vapour deposition （MOGVD）. The different morphology and structure properties of ZnO nanorods and nanotubes are found to be affected by the A1N under-layer. The photoluminescence spectra show the optical properties of the ZnO nanorods and nanotubes, in which a blueshift of UV emission is observed and is attributed to the surface effect.[第一段]     

Stimulated photoluminescence emission and trap states in Si/SiO2 interface formed by irradiation of laser

Stimulated photoluminescence （PL） emission has been observed from an oxide structure of silicon when optically excited by a radiation of 514nm laser. Sharp twin peaks at 694 and 692nm are dominated by stimulated emission, which can be demonstrated by its threshold behaviour and linear transition of emission intensity as a function of pump power. The oxide structure is formed by laser irradiation on silicon and its annealing treatment. A model for explaining the stimulated emission is proposed, in which the trap states of the interface between an oxide of silicon and porous nanocrystal play an important role.     

Non-homogeneous SiGe-on-insulator formed by germanium condensation process

Ge condensation process of a sandwiched structure of Si/SiGe/Si on silicon-on-insulator （SOI） to form SiGe-on- insulator （SGOI） substrate is investigated. The non-homogeneity of SiGe on insulator is observed after a long time oxidation and annealing due to an increased consumption of silicon at the inflection points of the corrugated SiGe film morphology, which happens in the case of the rough surface morphology, with lateral Si atoms diffusing to the inflection points of the corrugated SiGe film. The transmission electron microscopy measurements show that the non-homogeneous SiGe layer exhibits a single crystalline nature with perfect atom lattice. Possible formation mechanism of the non-homogeneity SiGe layer is presented by discussing the highly nonuniform oxidation rate that is spatially dependent in the Ge condensation process. The results are of guiding significance for fabricating the SGOI by Ge condensation process.     

Effect of Trimethyl Aluminium Surface Pretreatment on Atomic Layer Deposition Al2O3 Ultra-Thin Film on Si Substrate

Ultra-thin Al2O3 dielectric films have been deposited on Si substrates by using trimethyl aluminium （TMA） and water as precursors in an atomic layer deposition （ALD） system. Growth of the interracial layer between ultra-thin Al2O3 and the Si substrate is effectively suppressed by a long-time TMA surface pretreatment of the Si substrate prior to A1203 atomic layer deposition. High resolution transmission electron microscopy （TEM） images show that the thickness of the interracial layer is reduced to be 0.5nm for the sample with TMA pretreatment lasting 3600s. The x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results indicate that the A1203 film deposited on the TMApretreated Si surface exhibits very good thermal stability. However, a hysteresis of about 50mV is observed in the C- V curve of the samples with the TMA pretreatment.     

Reply to ＂Comment on ＇Electrical Conductivity and Current-Voltage Characteristics of Individual Conducting Polymer PEDOT Nanowires＇＂

Recently we reported electrical properties of an individual PEDOT nanowire .Ohlckers and Pipinys suggested that the temperature-behavior of I- V curves and resistance can be described in the framework of a phonon-assisted tunneling （PhAT） model. However, there are two points which need to be addressed. First, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 of Ohlckers and Pipinys＇s Comment, obvious deviations have been observed between the experimental data and the fitting curves obtained from this model especially at low temperatures. Second, the PhAT model is based on the assumption that a source of charge carriers is the local electronic traps in the electrode-nanowire interface layer, the carriers enter the conduction band of the nanowire due to the PhAT through the barrier from these traps. This model has not considered the structure characteristics and conduction mechanism in polymer nanowires.     

Growth of a Novel Periodic Structure of SiC/AIN Multilayers by Low Pressure Chemical Vapour Deposition

A novel lO-period SiC/A1N multilayered structure with a SiC cap layer is prepared by low pressure chemical vapour deposition （LPCVD）. The structure with total film thickness of about 1.45~m is deposited on a Si （111） substrate and shows good surface morphology with a smaller rms surface roughness of f.3 nm. According to the secondary ion mass spectroscopy results, good interface of the 10 period SiC/A1N structure and periodic changes of depth profiles of C, Si, A1, N components are obtained by controlling the growth procedure. The structure exhibits the peak reflectivity close to 30% near the wavelength of 322 nm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of growth of the SiC/AIN periodic structure using the home-made LPCVD system.     

Substrate-induced stress in silicon nanocrystal/SiO₂ multilayer structures

A Raman frequency upshift in the nc-Si phonon mode is observed at room temperature, which is attributed to a strong compressive stress in the Si nanocrystals. The 10-period amorphous-Si(3 nm)/amorphous-SiO2 (3 nm) layers are deposited by high-vacuum radio-frequency magnetron sputtering on quartz and sapphire substrates at different temperatures. The samples are then annealed in N2 atmosphere at 1100°C for 1 h for Si crystallization. It is demonstrated that the presence of a supporting substrate at the high growth temperature can induce different types of stresses in the Si nanocrystal layers. The strain is attributed to the difference in the thermal expansion coefficient between the substrate and the Si/SiO2 SL film. Such a substrate-induced stress indicates a new method for tuning the optical and electronic properties of Si nanocrystals for strained engineering.     

Improved mobility of AIGaN channel heterojunction material using an AIGaN/GaN composite buffer layer

The quality of an A1GaN channel heterojunction on a sapphire substrate is massively improved by using an A1- GaN/GaN composite buffer layer. We demonstrate an A10.4Gao.6N/AI0.18Ga0.82N heterojunction with a state-of-the-art mobility of 815 cm2/（V.s） and a sheet resistance of 890Ω/口 under room temperature. The crystalline quality and the electrical properties of the A1GaN heterojunction material are analyzed by atomic force microscopy, high-resolution X-ray diffraction, and van der Pauw Hall and capacitance-voltage （C-V） measurements. The results indicate that the improved electrical properties should derive from the reduced surface roughness and low dislocation density.     

Improvement of Field Emission Characteristics of Copper Nitride Films with Increasing Copper Content

A copper nitride （Cu3N） thin film is deposited on a Si substrate by the reactive magnetron sputtering method. The XPS measurements of the composite film indicate that the Cu content in the film is increased to 80.82 at. % and the value of the Cu/N ratio to 4.2：1 by introducing 4% 112 into the reactive gas. X-ray diffraction measurements show that the film is composed of Cu3N crystallites with an anti-ReO3 structure. The effects of the increase of copper content on the field emission characteristics of the Cu3N thin film are investigated. Significant improvement in emission current density and emission repeatability could be attributed to the geometric field enhancement, caused by numerous surface nanotips, and the decrease of resistivity of the film.     

Ferroelectricity in hexagonal YFeO3 film at room temperature

In this paper we report the leakage current,ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties of the YFe O3film with hexagonal structure,which was fabricated on Si(111)substrate by a simple sol-gel method.The leakage current test shows good characteristics as the leakage current density is 5.4×10-6A/cm2under 5 V.The dominant leakage mechanism is found to be an Ohmic behavior at low electric field and space-charge-limited conduction at high electric field region.The P–E measurements show ferroelectric hysteresis loops with small remnant polarization and coercive field at room temperature.The distinct and switchable domain structures on the nanometer scale are observed by piezoresponse force microscopy,which testifies to the ferroelectricity of the YFe O3film further.     

Relaxation of Dense Electron Plasma Induced by Femtosecond Laser in Dielectric Materials

Electron plasma induced by a focused femtosecond pulse （130 fs, 800 nm） in dielectric materials （Soda Lime glass, K9 glass, and SiO2 crystal） is investigated by pump-probe shadow imaging technology. The relaxation of the electron plasma in the conduction band is discussed. In SiO2 crystals, a fast self-trapping process with a trapping time of 150fs is observed, which is similar to that in fused silica. However, in Soda Lime glass and K9 glass, no self-trapping occurs, and two decay processes are found： one is the energy relaxation process of conduction electrons within several picoseconds, another is an electron-hole recombination process with a timescale of lOOps. The electron collision time T in the conduction band is also measured to be in the order of 1 fs in all of these materials.     

Field emission characteristics of nano-sheet carbon films deposited by quartz-tube microwave plasma chemical vapour deposition

Nano-sheet carbon films are prepared on Si wafers by means of quartz-tube microwave plasma chemical vapour deposition （MPCVD） in a gas mixture of hydrogen and methane. The structure of the fabricated films is investigated by using field emission scanning electron microscope （FESEM） and Raman spectroscopy. These nano~carbon films are possessed of good field emission （FE） characteristics with a low threshold field of 2.6 V/μm and a high current density of 12.6 mA/cm^2 at an electric field of 9 V/μm. As the FE currents tend to be saturated in a high E region, no simple Fowler-Nordheim （F-N） model is applicable. A modified F N model considering statistic effects of FE tip structures and a space-charge-limited-current （SCLC） effect is applied successfully to explaining the FE data observed at low and high electric fields, respectively.     

P-BN/n-Si Heterojunction Prepared by Beryllium ion Implantation

A boron nitride （BN）/silicon p-n heterojunction is fabricated by implanting beryllium （Be） ions into the BN films deposited by rf sputtering on n-type Si （111） substrates. The FTIR observations indicate that the films deposited have a mixed phase composition of 8p^2 - and sp^3 -hybridized BN. Considering the thickness of the BN layer, the ion implantation is conducted at an ion energy of 100keV with the dose of 5×10^15 cm^-2. After annealing at a high temperature, the surface resistance of the BN film decreases significantly by 6 orders down to 1.2×10^5Ω. Space-charge-limited current characteristic, which indicates the existence of shallow traps in the film, is observed. Current-voltage measurements across the BN film and the Si substrate reveal a clear rectification feature, demonstrating the achievement of p-type doping of BN films by Be ion implantation.     

Thermodynamics around magnetic phase transitions in alternating double-chain spin systems

The thermodynamics and quantum phase transitions of two typically alternating double-chain systems are investigated by Green＇s function theory.（i） For the completely antiferromagnetic（AFM） alternating double-chain, the low-temperature antiferromagnetism with gapped behavior is observed, which is in accordance with the experimental result. In a magnetic field, we unveil the ground state phase diagram with zero plateau, 1/2 plateau, and polarized ferromagnetic（FM） phases,as a result of the intra-cluster spin-singlet competition. Furthermore, the Gr ¨uneisen ratio is an excellent tool to identify the quantum criticality and testify various quantum phases.（ii） For the antiferromagnetically coupled FM alternating chains,the 1/2 magnetization plateau and double-peak structure of specific heat appear, which are also observed experimentally.Nevertheless, the M–h curve shows an anomalous behavior in an ultra-low field, which is ascribed to the effectively weak Haldane-like state, demonstrated by the two-site entanglement entropy explicitly.     

Large Storage Window in a-SiNx/nc-Si/a-SiNx Sandwiched Structure for Nanocrystalline Silicon Floating Gate Memory Application

An a-SiNx/nanocrystalline silicon [（nc-Si）/a-SiNx] sandwiched structure is fabricated in a plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition （PECVD） system at low temperature （250℃）. The nc-Si layer is fabricated from a hydrogen-diluted silane mixture gas by using a layer-by-layer deposition technique. Atom force microscopy measurement shows that the density of nc-Si is about 2 ×10^11 cm^-2. By the pretreatment of plasma nitridation, low density of interface states and high-quality interface between the Si substrate and a-SiNs insulator layer are obtained. The density of interface state at the midgap is calculated to be 1 ×10^10 cm^-2eV^-1 from the quasistatic and high frequency C - V data. The charging and discharging property of nc-Si quantum dots is studied by capacitance-voltage （C- V） measurement at room temperature. An ultra-large hysteresis is observed in the C - V characteristics, which is attributed to storage of the electrons and holes into the nc-Si dots. The long-term charge-loss process is studied and ascribed to low density of interface states at SiNx/Si substrate.     

Strain-Driven Formation of Nanostripes on In/Si（113） Surface

Periodic nanostripe arrays are observed on In/Si（113） surface using scanning tunneling microscopy. The stripe superstructures are identified as N × 1 reconstructions elongating in [211] or [121] direction and consisting of one vacancy line, one Si adatom row, and N - 2 In rows, in which N = 5 is predominant. The vacancy line formation relieves the strain induced by the Si adatom row and In rows, and plays an important role in stabilizing the stripe structures. The stability of nanostripe structures is demonstrated by analyzing the strain-mediated interaction of vacancy lines in the framework of the Frenkel-Kontorova model, which indicates that the predominant vacancy line period of N = 5 corresponds to the minimum Frenkel Kontorova energy.     

Direct observation of the f–c hybridization in the ordered uranium films on W(110)

A key issue in metallic uranium and its related actinide compounds is the character of the f electrons, whether it is localized or itinerant.Here we grew well ordered uranium films on a W(110) substrate.The surface topography was investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy.The Fermi surface and band structure of the grown films were studied by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy.Large spectral weight can be observed around the Fermi level, which mainly comes from the f states.Additionally, we provided direct evidence that the f bands hybridize with the conduction bands in the uranium ordered films, which is different from previously reported mechanism of the direct f–f interaction.We propose that the above two mechanisms both exist in this system by manifesting themselves in different momentum spaces.Our results give a comprehensive study of the ordered uranium films and may throw new light on the study of the 5 f-electron character and physical properties of metallic uranium and other related actinide materials.