Laser-induced etching of polycrystalline Al2O3TiC in KOH aqueous solution

Laser-induced etching of polycrystalline Al₂–O₃TiC material by a tightly-focused cw Ar ion laser has been investigated in a KOH solution with different concentrations. It is found that the KOH concentration can strongly affect the etching quality where low KOH concentration can result in rough and irregular patterns. Laser-induced etching of polycrystalline Al₂O₃TiC in a KOH solution is found to be a photothermal reaction in which a threshold laser power exists. With an appropriate set of etching parameters, well-defined grooves can be obtained with clean side walls and with an etching rate up to several hundred micrometers per second. The etching behavior is also found to depend on laser scanning direction. It is also found that the grains in the polycrystalline Al₂O₃TiC material play an important role in the etching dynamics and etching quality. This etching process is believed to be applicable to the formation of a slider surface of magnetic heads in the future.     

External-field-controlled laser wet etching of polycrystalline Al2O3TiC

Laser-induced etching of polycrystalline Al₂O₃TiC material by tightly focused CW Ar ion laser has been investigated in both H₃PO₄ and KOH solutions with influence of an external electric field. It is found that a weak external electric field will change the ions distribution in chemical solutions and cause obvious change in etching behavior. The laser etching in a H₃PO₄ solution can be enhanced by both positive and negative biases of the substrate. While etching in a KOH solution, a positive bias can enhance the etching reaction, whereas a negative bias can suppress the etching process. It is also found that the external electric field can always enhance the mass transfer between reaction products and fresh etchant in a H₃PO₄ solution. It is revealed that the supply of H⁺ ions contributes to the etching process in a H₃PO₄ solution, while the supply of OH^– ions contributes to the etching process in a KOH solution. The electric field can be used to control the etching process to achieve fast tuning and higher accuracy.     

Working Pressure Dependence of Properties of Al2O3 Thin Films Prepared by Electron Beam Evaporation

The effects of working pressure on properties of Al2O3 thin films are investigated. Transmittance of the Al2O3 thin film is measured by a Lambda 900 spectrometer. Laser-induced damage threshold （LIDT） is measured by a Nd：YAG laser at 355 nm with a pulse width of 7ns. Microdefects were observed under a Nomarski microscope. The samples are characterized by optical properties and defect, as well as LIDT under the 355 nm Nd：YAG laser radiation. It is found that the working pressure has fundamental effect on the LIDT. It is the absorption rather than the microdefect that plays an important role on the LIDT of Al2O3 thin film.     

Improvement of Atomic-Layer-Deposited Al2O3/GaAs Interface Property by Sulfuration and NH3 Thermal Nitridation

Fermi level pinning at the interface between high-h gate dielectric and GaAs induced by unstable native oxides is a major obstacle for high performance GaAs-based metal-oxide-semiconductor （MOS） devices. We demonstrate the improved Al2O3/GaAs interracial characteristics by （NH4）2S immersion and NH3 thermal pretreatment prior to A1203 deposition. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy （XPS） analysis confirms that sulfuration of GaAs surface by （NH4 ）2S solution can effectively reduce As-O bonds while Ga-O bonds and elemental As still exist at Al2O3 /GaAs interface. However, it is found that N incorporation during the further thermal nitridation on sulfurated GaAs can effectively suppress the native oxides and elemental As in the sequent deposition of Al2O3. Atomic force microscopy （AFM） shows that the further thermal nitridation on sulfurated GaAs surface can also improve the surface roughness.     

Simulation of KrF laser ablation of Al2O3-TiC

Previous work by the authors on micromachining of Al₂O₃-TiC ceramics using excimer laser radiation revealed that a columnar surface topography forms under certain experimental conditions. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) observations show that the columns develop from small globules of TiC, which appear at the surface of the material during the first laser pulses. To understand the mechanism of formation of these globules, a 2D finite element ablation model was developed and used to simulate the time evolution of the temperature field and of the surface topography when a sample of Al₂O₃-TiC composite is treated with KrF laser radiation. Application of the model showed that the surface temperature of TiC rises much faster than that of Al₂O₃, but since TiC has a very high boiling temperature, its vaporization is significant only for a short time. By contrast, the surface temperature of Al₂O₃ rises above its boiling temperature for a much longer period, leading to a greater ablation depth than TiC. As a result, a small TiC globule stands above the Al₂O₃ surface. The results of the model are compared with experimental measurements performed by AFM. After three pulses, the height of the globules predicted by the model is about 340 nm, in good agreement with the height measured experimentally, about 400 nm.     

Chemical etching investigation of polycrystalline p-type 6H-SiC in HF/Na2O2 solutions

In this work, an experimental study on the chemical etching reaction of polycrystalline p-type 6H-SiC was carried out in HF/Na₂O₂ solutions. The morphology of the etched surface was examined with varying Na₂O₂ concentration, etching time, agitation speed and temperature. The surfaces of the etched samples were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and photoluminescence. The surface morphology of samples etched in HF/Na₂O₂ is shown to depend on the solution composition and bath temperature. The investigation of the HF/Na₂O₂ solutions on 6H-SiC surface shows that as Na₂O₂ concentration increases, the etch rate increases to reach a maximum value at about 0.5 M and then decreases. A similar behaviour has been observed when temperature of the solution is increased. The maximum etch rate is found for 80 °C. In addition, a new polishing etching solution of 6H-SiC has been developed. This result is very interesting since to date no chemical polishing solution has been developed on the material.     

Realization of controllable etching for ZnO film by NH4Cl aqueous solution and its influence on optical and electrical properties

ZnO films were deposited on c-plane Al₂O₃ substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The etching treatments for as-grown ZnO films were performed in NH₄Cl aqueous solution as a function of NH₄Cl concentration and etching time. It was found that NH₄Cl solution is an appropriate candidate for ZnO wet etching because of its controllable and moderate etching rate. The influence of etching treatment on the morphology, optical and electrical properties of the ZnO films has been investigated systematically by means of X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscope, photoluminescence and Hall effect. The results indicated that the surface morphology and optical properties of the films were highly influenced by etching treatment.     

改性VOx/Al2O3催化剂催化氧化甲醇的固体核磁共振研究

采用固体核磁共振研究了NaOH 和HNO₃改性的VO_x/Al₂O₃上甲醇选择性催化氧化反应. 实验结果表明: 在甲醇的氧化反应中, 酸位对二甲氧基甲烷的生成起了重要作用. 与VO_x/Al₂O₃催化剂相比, 酸改性的VO_x/Al₂O₃上的强的Bronsted酸位对二甲氧基甲烷的选择性较高, 没有Bronsted酸位的碱改性的VO_x/Al₂O₃上生成的不是二甲氧基甲烷而是甲酸盐.     

Nanocrystalline growth and diagnostics of TiC and TiB2 hard coatings by pulsed laser deposition

Nanocrystalline coatings of TiC and TiB₂ were grown by pulsed laser deposition on Si(100) and on X155 steel at low substrate temperatures ranging from 40 °C to 650 °C. A pulsed KrF excimer laser was used with the deposition chamber at a base pressure of 10^-6 mbar. The morphology and structure of the films, studied with SEM, XRD, and TEM, showed that nanocrystalline films with a fine morphology of TiC and TiB₂ were deposited with a grain size of 10 nm-70 nm at all substrate temperatures. The growth of the polycrystalline coatings possessed a columnar morphology with a 𘜄¢ preferred orientation. The hardness of the coatings was determined to be 40 GPa and the elastic modulus, 240 GPa. The composition and the kinetics of the plume produced during the pulsed laser deposition of TiC and TiB₂ was studied under film growth conditions. The mass analysis of ions of the ejected material was performed by time-of-flight mass spectroscopy (TOF-MS) and showed the presence of Ti⁺ and C⁺ during TiC ablation and B⁺, B₂⁺, and Ti⁺ during TiB₂ ablation. The kinetic energies (KE) of the ions depended on the laser fluence which was between 0.5 eV and 340 eV. The kinetic energy and the evolution of the plasma was studied with a streak camera. The velocity of the plasma was of the order of 10⁶ cm/sec and was linearly dependent on the energy fluence of the laser. The emission spectroscopy of the plasma plume confirmed the atomic neutral and single excited species of Ti. These results show that coating growth basically occurs by the recombination of the ionic species at the surface of the substrate.     

Cr3+:Al2O3透明多晶陶瓷光谱特性分析

对透光性良好的Cr³⁺:Al₂O₃透明多晶陶瓷的光谱性能 进行了研究，其吸收光谱中吸收峰与单晶红宝石相一致，按吸收光谱和Tanabe-Sugano能级 图，算出其晶场强度参数D_q及Racah参数B分别为1792cm^-1， 689cm ^-1，D_q/B=2.6，陶瓷中Cr³⁺离子所处格位的晶体场强 比单晶弱一些，但Cr³⁺:Al₂O₃透明陶瓷仍属于强场晶 体材料；当Cr³⁺掺杂浓度到达0.8wt%时，陶瓷的发射谱仍保持较好的R线发射 ；随Cr³⁺掺杂浓度的增大，激发峰位发生“红移”.在Cr³⁺:Al₂O₃透明多晶陶瓷的荧光谱上，发现一个波长为670nm的发射峰，经激发 谱确认为Cr³⁺的发射峰. 关键词： 氧化铝 透明陶瓷 离子格位 光谱性质     

Structural and electrical properties of La0.5Sr0.5CoO3 films on SrTiO3 and porous a-Al2O3 substrates

Films of La_0.5Sr_0.5CoO₃ (LSCO) have been deposited on specially treated TiO₂-terminated (001) SrTiO₃ substrate surfaces and on macroporous polycrystalline !-Al₂O₃ substrates, having a mean pore diameter of 80 nm, by pulsed laser deposition. The films deposited on SrTiO₃ are good conducting, (001) textured, and exceptionally smooth (1-2 Å for 100 nm thick films). LSCO films deposited on porous !-Al₂O₃ are polycrystalline and exhibit good crystallographic and electrical properties despite the large substrate roughness and the differences in lattice parameters and crystal structure between the film and the substrate. Different growth modes have been observed on the porous !-Al₂O₃ substrates depending on the oxygen pressure during film deposition. Films grown at an oxygen pressure of 10^-1 mbar are macroporous, whereas films grown at 10^-2 mbar completely cover the substrate pores. In the latter case, strain effects lead to film cracking.     

Sol-gel法制备Er3+-Yb3+共掺杂Al2O3粉末光致发光特性

采用异丙醇铝[Al(OC₃H₇)₃]为前驱体,溶胶-凝胶(Sol-gel)法制备Er³⁺-Yb³⁺共掺杂Al₂O₃粉末.实验结果表明:900 ℃烧结的粉末为固溶Er³⁺、Yb³⁺的γ-(Al,Er,Yb)₂O₃相和少量θ-(Al,Er,Yb)₂O₃相的混合物.Er³⁺-Yb³⁺共掺杂Al₂O₃粉末具有中心波长为1.533 μm的光致发光(PL)特性.1 mol % Er³⁺和1 mol% Yb³⁺共掺杂的Al₂O₃粉末的PL强度较1 mol % Er³⁺掺杂提高2倍,半峰宽从53 nm增加到63 nm.随泵浦功率的提高,PL强度呈线性增加后渐呈饱和趋势.     

Space-Selective Precipitation of Ba2TiSi2O8 Crystals in Sm3^＋-Doped BaO-TiO2-SiO2 Glass by Femtosecond Laser Irradiation

The ferroelectric crystal Ba2TiSi2O8 with high second-order optical nonlinearity is precipitated in Sm^3＋-doped BaO-TiO2-SiO2 glass by a focused 800hm, 250 kHz and 150fs femtosecond laser irradiation. No apparent blue and red emissions are observed at the beginning, while strong blue emission due to second harmonic generation and red emission due to the f-f transitions of Sm^3＋ are observed near the focal point of the laser beam after irradiation for 25s. Micro-Raman spectra confirm that Ba2 TiSi2O8 crystalline dots and lines are formed after laser irradiation. The mechanism of the phenomenon is discussed.     

Memory Effect of Metal--Insulator--Silicon Capacitors with SiO2/HfO2/Al2O3 Dielectrics

Charge trapping characteristics of the metal-insulator-silicon （MIS） capacitors with Si02/HfO2//A12O3 stacked dielectrics are investigated for memory applications＇. A capacitance-voltage hysteresis memory window as large as 7.3 V is achieved for the gate voltage sweeping of ±12 V, and a fiat-band voltage shift of 1.5 V is observed in terms of programming under 5 V and I ms. Furthermore, the time- and voltage-dependent charge trapping characteristics are also demonstrated, the former is related to charge trapping saturation and the latter is ascribed to variable tunnelling barriers for electron injecting and discharging under different voltages.     

Effects of Different Plasma Energy Treatments on n-Type Al0.4Ga0.6N Material

El3ctronic properties, surface chemistry and surface morphology of plasma-treated n-Al0.4Ga0.6N material are studied by electrical contact measurements, atomic force microscopy and x-ray photoemission spectroscopy. Although excessive etching can cause the surface roughness to significantly increase, the nitrogen vacancies VN produced by the excessive etching can be compensated for by the negative effects of the rougher surface. Thus, VN produced by excessive etching plays a key role in Ohmic contact of high-A1 content AIGaN and it can reduce Ohmic contact resistance. The effect of rapid thermal annealing on the performance of n-Al0.4Ga0.6N can significantly reduce the etching damage caused by excessive etching.     

CHF3 Dual-Frequency Capacitively Coupled Plasma by Optical Emission Spectroscopy

We investigate the intermediate gas phase in the CHFs 13.56 MHz/2 MHz dual-frequency capacitively couple plasma （CCP） for the SiCOH low dielectric constant （low-k） film etching, and the effect of 2MHz power on radicals concentration. The major dissociation reactions of CHF3 in 13.56MHz CCP are the low dissociation bond energy reactions, which lead to the low F and high CF2 concentrations. The addition of 2MHz power can raise the probability of high dissociation bond energy reactions and lead to the increase of F concentration while keeping the CF2 concentration almost a constant, which is of advantage to the SiCOH low-k films etching. The radical spatial uniformity is dependent on the power coupling of two sources. The increase of 2 MHz power leads to a poor uniformity, however, the uniformity can be improved by increasing 13.56 MHz power.     

Silver macro‐texture substrates fabricated by plasma selective etching for surface‐enhanced Raman scattering

We have demonstrated a novel method to generate the nanostructured substrate that shows a large enhancement with a spatially uniform enhancement factor of approximately 10⁶ in surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). The substrates are fabricated using plasma selective etching. First, the Al₂O₃–TiC template which contains mixed Al₂O₃ and TiC grains with the diameters of ~400 nm is selected as a base plate. The Al₂O₃ and TiC grains have different physical properties, such as hardness, which corresponds to different etching rate in a plasma gas. Then, the Al₂O₃–TiC substrate is selectively etched to generate a random macro‐texture (MT) with different depths using the plasma of mixed gas of Ar and C₂H₄. Third, the MT substrate is deposited with a silver film (Ag). We further demonstrate that by varying the thickness of Ag layer, the EF is different which is confirmed by the plasmonic localized electric fields calculations using finite difference time domain. Finally, we combine this novel Ag MT substrate with ultrathin dielectric film, and the prepared substrates are coated with a 10 Å ta‐C film. The 10 Å ta‐C film can protect the oxygen‐free Ag in air and prevent Ag ionizing in aqueous solutions. More importantly, the ultrathin ta‐C can release the strongest plasmonic electric field to the outside of ta‐C layer and get a higher electric field than the uncoated Ag substrate. We expect that this method has more potential applications in analytic assays using SERS technology. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cr4+在Al2O3多晶体中的光谱性能研究

采用传统无压烧结工艺制备Cr:Al₂O₃透明多晶陶瓷.测定了其退火前后的吸收光谱和荧光光谱，发现在Al₂O₃六配位的八面体结构中，Cr⁴⁺的荧光发射也处在1100—1600nm波段的红外区间，荧光发射峰位于1223nm附近，类似Cr⁴⁺在四面体中的发光行为.同时由于氧化铝晶格常数较小，晶体场强较强，使Cr⁴⁺:Al₂O_{3< 关键词： 4+')" href="#">Cr⁴⁺ 2}O₃透明陶瓷')" href="#">Cr:Al₂O₃透明陶瓷 光谱性质 八面体     

Wet-etching fabrication of multilayer GaAlAs/GaAs microtips for scanning near-field optical microscopy

We propose to fabricate GaAlAs/GaAs multilayer microtips for scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) using anisotropic etching. The etching was performed in a solution of H₃PO₄:H₂O₂:H₂O operating at a temperature of 10 °C. We obtained pyramid-shaped microtips with four etched facets and with a radius of curvature at the apex that was lower than 50 nm.     

Comparison of laser-induced etching behavior of III–V compound semiconductors

Laser-induced maskless etching of III–V compound semiconductors (InSb, GaAs, and InP) in a KOH aqueous solution by irradiation with a focused argon-ion laser has been investigated to obtain high etching rates and aspect ratios of etched grooves. The etching rate at low laser power was found to depend on the carrier density of the sample and its type. With the increase of the laser power, the etching reaction becomes primarily a thermochemical reaction. High etching rates and aspect ratios have been achieved with a single scan of the laser beam. The damage induced by laser wet etching is less than that by laser dry etching, and the damage at the etched side wall is less than that at the etched bottom. Grooves with locally controlled depth and slab structures have been fabricated for application.