Combined TEM-AFM study of “transrotational” spherulites growing in thin amorphous films

“Transrotational” Se and α-Fe₂O₃ spherulites have been investigated by transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. Combination of these two microscopic methods made it possible to reveal structural peculiarities and the character of the spherulite surface, as well as to compare these data. It is established that, along with the regularly changing lattice orientation at the crystallization front, there is a regular relief of the crystal surface. Inheritance of the globular structure of the amorphous matrix by a growing crystal is revealed. In this case, the structure remains homogeneous, independent of the differences in the lattice orientation and imperfection of the regions crystallized.     

Poling of liquid crystals in thin films

We examine the effect of a strong DC electric field on the molecular orientational order and the nonlinear optical response of liquid crystals in thin films. We compare the results of second-harmonic generation measurements with the predictions of two models, one assuming that the dipoles carried by the molecules have no interactions (the isotropic model), and the other assuming that the dipoles evolve in a Maier-Saupe orienting field responsible for the liquid-crystalline order (the Maier-Saupe model). In both cases, we take into account the effect of surfaces and confinement on the behavior of the molecules. We find that the molecular dipoles behave as predicted by the isotropic model, but that their reorientation is correlated in such a way that the apparent dipole moment of the reorienting units is one order of magnitude larger than the molecular dipole moment. Received: 13 December 2002 / Accepted: 22 April 2003 / Published online: 21 May 2003 RID="a" ID="a"Also at FOM-Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics, Kruislaan 407, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands. RID="a" ID="a"Also at FOM-Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics, Kruislaan 407, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands. RID="b" ID="b"e-mail: jerome@science.uva.nl     

Solid state solvation in amorphous organic thin films

The photoluminescence (PL) of the red laser dye DCM2, doped into blended thin films of polystyrene (PS) and the polar small molecule camphoric anhydride (CA), redshifts as the CA concentration increases. The DCM2 PL peaks at 2.20 eV (lambda=563 nm) for pure PS films and shifts to 2.05 eV (lambda=605 nm) for films with 24.5% CA (by mass). The capacitively measured electronic permittivity also increases from epsilon=2.4 to epsilon=5.6 with CA concentration. These results are consistent with the theory of solvatochromism developed for organic molecules in liquid solvents. To our knowledge, this work is the first application of a quantitative theory of solvation to organic molecules in amorphous thin films with continuously controllable permittivity, and demonstrates that "solid state solvation" can be used to predictably tune exciton energies in organic thin film structures.     

Stress investigations of thin amorphous Ge-Se-Ga films

Thin chalcogenide films from the systems (GeSe₄)_1-xGa_x and (GeSe₅)_1-xGa_x with gallium contents up to 20 at. % have been prepared by vacuum evaporation and their stress has been investigated by a cantilever technique. The addition of gallium to the Ge-Se matrix plays an important role in stress formation in the films: films without gallium possess negligible stress, while all gallium-containing films are under compressive stress. The increase of the gallium content leads to structural changes and an increase in the density, which results in higher stress values. For all films, stress reduction with time is observed due to spontaneous relaxation. Received: 2 October 2002 / Accepted: 22 November 2002 / Published online: 28 March 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +49-561/8044-136, E-mail: popov@schottky.physik.uni-kassel.de     

Dynamics of Skyrmion crystals in metallic thin films

We study the collective dynamics of the Skyrmion crystal in thin films of ferromagnetic metals resulting from the nontrivial Skyrmion topology. It is shown that the current-driven motion of the crystal reduces the topological Hall effect and the Skyrmion trajectories bend away from the direction of the electric current (the Skyrmion Hall effect). We find a new dissipation mechanism in noncollinear spin textures that can lead to a much faster spin relaxation than Gilbert damping, calculate the dispersion of phonons in the Skyrmion crystal, and discuss the effects of impurity pinning of Skyrmions.     

Modeling of exciton diffusion in amorphous organic thin films

Time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy of amorphous organic thin films of aluminum tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline) show emission spectra that redshift with time following excitation by ultrafast laser pulses. Based on reports of similar phenomena in other materials, we attribute this effect to the exciton diffusion between energetically dissimilar molecules by means of F?rster transfer. In analyzing results at 295, 180, 75, and 35 K, we show that existing theoretical treatments of exciton diffusion require two modifications to self-consistently fit our data: one must include spatial disorder in the model, and the energy dependence of F?rster transfer must be calculated using the donor-acceptor spectral overlap, instead of a Boltzman distribution. Monte Carlo simulations utilizing these changes yield results that are self-consistent with the observed spectral shifts.     

Electrochromic colour centres in amorphous tungsten trioxide thin films

Amorphous tungsten trioxide films, investigated by the Raman scattering method, are shown to be composed of a spatial network of tightly bound (WO₆)_n·mH₂O clusters with a large number of terminal oxygen W=O and W-O-W bonds between clusters. The injected electrons in an amorphous tungsten trioxide film are localized in the tungsten 5d orbitals in an axially distorted octahedron, as is shown by ESR analysis. The optical absorption of a coloured amorphous tungsten trioxide film, as has previously been proposed, can be satisfactorily described by an intervalence charge-transfer transition between localized W⁵⁺ and W⁶⁺ states.     

Origins of growth stresses in amorphous semiconductor thin films

Stress evolution during deposition of amorphous Si and Ge thin films is remarkably similar to that observed for polycrystalline films. Amorphous semiconductors were used as model materials to study the origins of deposition stresses in continuous films, where suppression of both strain relaxation and epitaxial strain inheritance provides considerable simplification. Our data show that bulk compression is established by surface stress, while a subsequent return to tensile stress arises from elastic coalescence processes occurring on the kinetically roughened surface.     

Zero-bias anomalies in tunneling to amorphous Co-Gd thin films

Electron tunneling spectroscopy has been applied to investigation of amorphous Co-Gd thin films. Dynamic resistivities dV/dI of Al/Al₂O₃/ Co-Gd junctions have been measured at liquid helium temperatures. All dV/dI characteristics exhibit strong peaks at V = 0 (zero-bias anomalies). These peaks have been interpreted as due to the anomalies in the electronic density of states indicating the metal-insulator transition.     

Hopping conduction in GeCr amorphous thin films

Thin amorphous films of germanium and GeCr alloys have been prepared by vacuum evaporation. Their electrical resistivity is studied in function of temperature for concentrations of chromium up to 13.5%. The results are analysed and compared to Mott and Ambegaokar theories of electrical conduction in amorphous materials.     

Surface smoothening mechanism of amorphous silicon thin films

An important concern in the deposition of thin hydrogenated amorphous silicon () films is to obtain smooth surfaces. Herein, we combine molecular-dynamics simulations with first-principles density functional theory calculations to elucidate the smoothening mechanism of plasma deposited thin films. We show that the deposition precursor may diffuse rapidly on the film surface via overcoordinated surface Si atoms and incorporate into the film preferentially in surface valleys, with activation barriers for incorporation dependent on the local surface morphology. Experimental data on smoothening and precursor diffusion are accounted for.     

Nanomechanical characterization of amorphous hydrogenated carbon thin films

Amorphous hydrogenated carbon (a-C:H) thin films deposited on a silicon substrate under various mixtures of methane-hydrogen gas by electron cyclotron resonance microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (ECR-MPCVD) was investigated. Microstructure, surface morphology and mechanical characterizations of the a-C:H films were analyzed using Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and nanoindentation technique, respectively. The results indicated there was an increase of the hydrogen content, the ratio of the D-peak to the G-peak (I_D/I_G) increased but the surface roughness of the films was reduced. Both hardness and Young's modulus increased as the hydrogen content was increased. In addition, the contact stress-strain analysis is reported. The results confirmed that the mechanical properties of the amorphous hydrogenated carbon thin films improved using a higher H₂ content in the source gas.     

Microwave-induced low-temperature crystallization of amorphous Si thin films

Microwave heating was utilized for low-temperature crystallization of amorphous Si (a-Si) films. Microwave heating lowered the annealing temperature and reduced the annealing time. By microwave heating the hydrogen in the amorphous films was diffused out long before the nucleation of polycrystalline Si (poly-Si). The combination of NiCl₂ coating on a-Si and microwave heating greatly reduced crystallization temperature. The combination of metal-induced crystallization and microwave-induced crystallization might be a useful technique to develop high-quality poly-Si films at low temperature.     

Crystallization of sputter deposited amorphous metal thin films

We have studied the crystallization of DC sputter deposited amorphous W-Si alloys under three separate conditions: free standing films, amorphous films deposited on Si substrates, and films with one of four different overlayers. In the case of the free standing films the crystallization temperature versus composition was measured by differential thermal analysis (DTA) for films with Si contents from 5 at% to 38 at%. Films with Si concentrations of 38% to 22% were amorphous as deposited, while those with less Si were crystalline. The crystallization temperature was a strong function of composition with a maximum T_c of 915°C (at a heating rate of 20 K/min) in alloys with 28% Si. Overlayers of W, Cu, Au and Al were investigated. Both the W and Cu overlayers had little effect on the stability of the underlying W-Si, while both the Au and Al reduced the crystallization temperature by at least 100°C. The results reported here reinforce the observation that the choice of overlayer plays a critical role in determining the overall stability of metallization systems that include amorphous layers as diffusion barriers.     

Excimer laser deposition of thin amorphous carbon films

A new carbon film deposition technique, based upon excimer laser vaporization of graphite in a flowing gas system has been developed. The low temperature vapor (LTV) technique alleviates high temperatures occurring in most other deposition methods. In this technique the UV laser ablation occurs in an inert flowing gas atmosphere. Atoms and molecules evaporated from graphite are cooled by gas entrainment before condensing on a substrate. The resulting films of amorphous carbon or hydrogenated amorphous carbon are free from strain. Measurement of the optical band gap of these films shows that E_g can be controlled by the hydrogen content of the carrier gas.     

The hopping variable range conduction in amorphous InAs thin films

This paper studies the influence of temperature on electrical resistivity in α-InAs thin films between 30 K-2K based on the analysis of Mott VRH model and ES VRH model. The effect of the interactions between electrons at lower temperature must be considered, therefore, ES VRH conduction will dominate mechanism, and the crossover from Mott to ES VRH conduction is observed about 7 K. Based on available experiment data and VRH conduction model, the parameters of VRH conduction are determined. And the calculated values of T_C are consistent with the experimental results. In addition, R_M/ξ, Δ_M/kT, R_ES/ξ and Δ_ES/kT are satisfied with the validity of Mott and ES models. Furthermore, the temperature dependence of resistivity at low temperature obeys a universal scaling law, which well describes the overall temperature range of VRH conduction. However, the values of T^’_M from the universal function are two order of magnitudes lower than T_M deduced from fitting experiment.     

Atomic and electronic processes of switching in amorphous thin films

It is proposed that the conversion of C₃⁰ from C₂⁰ leads to switching. Since C₃⁰ has more connection points, the conductivity of C₃⁰ is higher and large current favours the C₃⁰ species; thus increasing the current increases the C₃⁰ density and less voltage is needed to sustain the same amount of current. This explains the S-shaped negative resistance. The concept is simple and the mathematics for quantitative calculation is manageable.     

Ferromagnetic resonance and relaxation in evaporated GdCo amorphous thin films

Ferromagnetic resonance of amorphous Gd_1?xCo_x films was studied at 36 GHz in order to obtain the dependence of effective anisotropy field, g-factor and relaxation parameters on chemical composiiton in the interval 0.8<x<1.0.     

Power-law scaling of proton conductivity in amorphous silicate thin films

Amorphous hafnium silicate, a-Hf_0.1Si_0.9O_x, thin film with thickness of 32, 41, 55, 80, 110, 120, 180 and 320 nm was prepared by multiple spin-cast process and the proton conductivity across the films was measured at intermediate temperatures (100-400 °C) in dry atmosphere. The morphologically- and compositionally-uniform films were prepared on a substrate as confirmed by SEM, RBS and XPS measurements. a-Hf_0.1Si_0.9O_x thin film clearly revealed the H/D isotope effect on ionic conductivity, indicating that protonic conduction is dominant in the measured temperature range. The films did not reveal thickness-dependent proton conductivity in dry air and the σ at given temperatures is almost constant at any thickness. No increment of σ in a-Hf_0.1Si_0.9O_x thin films by reduction of thickness might be related to the absence of the highly-conductive acid network with mesoscopically-sized length because of the relatively low concentration of Brønsted acid sites inside films.