Homoepitaxial growth and electrical characterization of GaN-based Schottky and light-emitting diodes

Homoepitaxial growth of GaN epilayers on free-standing hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) GaN substrates offered a better control over surface morphology, defect density, and doping concentration compared to conventional heteroepitaxial growth. The FWHM of the (0 0 0 2) X-ray diffraction (XRD) rocking curve from homoepitaxial GaN was measured to be as low as 79 arcsec, much smaller than 230 arcsec for GaN grown on sapphire. Schottky diodes grown on GaN substrates exhibited sharper breakdown characteristics and much lower reverse leakage than diodes on sapphire. However, the homoepitaxial devices had poor scalability due to the presence of yield-killing defects originating from the substrate surface. Vertical InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs) on GaN substrates showed reduced series resistance and reverse leakage compared to lateral LEDs on sapphire. Wafer mapping demonstrated that the distribution of leaky homoepitaxial devices correlated well with that of macroscopic defects in the GaN substrates.     

Crystal growth and transport rates of GeSe and GeTe in micro-gravity environment

Six vapor transport experiments on the systems GeSe-GeI₄ and GeTe-GeI₄ were performed on Skylab to determine the effects of micro-gravity on crystal growth and transport rates. Based on a direct comparison of crystals and transport data obtained on earth and in space, employing X-ray diffraction, microscopic and etching techniques, the results demonstrate a considerable improvement of the space grown crystals in terms of growth morphology and bulk perfection. The observation of greater mass transport rates than expected in micro-gravity for diffusion-controlled transport could indicate the existence of other transport modes in a reactive solid-gas phase system. The combined results show that the interference of gravity-driven convection with the transport process causes negative effects on crystal growth as observed on earth for otherwise identical conditions. This points to the unique environment of weightlessness for the observation of basic transport phenomena.     

Three-dimensional thermocapillary and buoyancy convections and interface shape in horizontal Bridgman crystal growth

Computer simulation is conducted to study three-dimensional (3D) thermocapillary and buoyancy convections and their effects on the growth interface for horizontal Bridgman crystal growth. The free-boundary model is based on a finite volume approximation of continuity, momentum, and energy equations on a collocated grid. Crystal growth of GaAs is used as an example. From calculated results, it is observed that the effect of buoyancy convection on the growth interface is significant. With the thermocapillary effect, the 3D flow structures are not changed much, but its effect on the growth interface is not trivial. Due to the convections, the growth interface is always concave, and its deflection is affected significantly by the growth rate and thermal environment. A simple strategy of interface control is illustrated. Furthermore, slight crucible tilting can also affect the 3D flows leading to an asymmetric growth interface.     

Morphological Lattice and Reciprocal Crystal. Remarks on Morphology of Barite and Cerussite

The relationship between partitions of the three-dimensional space into Dirichlet domains of morphological points and the face forms observed on crystals will here be examined. Dirichlet domains, the central points of which are to be found on the exterior net plane, can be connected two or one-dimensionally through face-sharing or they occur as isolated groups. If the crystal faces are arranged according to the proportion of these surface polyeder on the total surface of the net plane, the order of rank of barite and cerussite agree excellently with the experimental observations. The packings of space filling polyeder allow conclusions on growth mechanisms.     

Thirty years trajectory of amorphous and nanocrystalline silicon materials and their optoelectronic devices

A review is given on research trajectory of hydrogenated amorphous and nanocrystalline silicon (a-Si:H and nc-Si) materials with their device applications ongoing since the period of 1970. A brief explanation on the motivation to start amorphous semiconductors research is given to produce a new kind of synthetic semiconductor having continuous energy gap controllability with valency electron controllability. Due to the result of some basic research on the film quality improvement of a-Si:H and nc-Si, some innovative devices had been developed since middle of 1980s in R&D phase such as a-SiC/a-Si heterojunction solar cells, a-Si/a-SiGe and also a-Si/nc-Si tandem type solar cells. Finally, the state of the art on the industrialization of the new devices is introduced and discussed.     

Science for the small and the tall,the young and the old

Public engagement becomes increasingly important for scientists. One reason is the demand of the taxpayer to know what her or his money is being spent on, and why. The other one is that in a world that increasingly relies on technology, student engagement even at a very young age becomes a target to assure the needed supply of well-educated and especially motivated scientists for the decades to come. And it falls on the older generation of current researchers to leave the comfort of their lab once in a while, to awaken the interest for science among the population. Many people may know that there is a ‘liquid crystal’ in their mobile (cell) phone display, but when prompted, no one really knows what that liquid crystal actually is, let alone how the display they use many times every day, actually works in principle. It is part of our job to change this. In this contribution Valentina Domenici and Ingo Dierking would like to report on two recent Science Festival events in which they took part, one held in Genoa, Italy, and the other in Manchester, UK.     

Nucleating heterogeneities and glass formation

The kinetic treatment of glass formation is extended by the introduction of continuous cooling (CT) curves to estimate the cooling rates required to form glasses of various materials. The CT curves may be constructed from isothermal time-temperature-transformation curves following the approach originally suggested by Grange and Kiefer. The modified analysis is used to evaluate the effects of nucleating heterogeneities on glass formation. It is found that for the concentrations of such heterogeneities found in most liquids, those characterized by contact angles greater than about 100° have a negligible effect on the cooling rate required to form glasses. Heterogeneities with smaller contact angles, can, however, have a significant effect on glass formation, with the critical cooling rate increasing with decreasing contact angle. The effects on glass formation of changes in the contact angle of nucleating heterogeneities are also compared with the effects of changes in the thermodynamic barrier to nucleation (in the crystal-liquid surface energy).     

Electrolytic Oxidation of Thiocyanate and Selenocyanate Salts and the Photoelectrochemical Effect.

New photosensitive materials can be obtained by electrochemical oxidation of thiocyanate and selenocyanate salts. Using (K,Na)SCN eutectic melt, the formation of an electrodic deposit, with photoelectrochemical properties, has already been reported by us. To improve the photoelectrochemical characteristics of the deposit, futher investigations were carried out in the following sistems: selenocyanate ammoniate, KSCH-Acetamide eutectic mixture and KSCN ethylene carbonate solution:. Attempts to obtain a massive deposit in the ammoniate solution were unsuccessful due to ammonia oxidation. Measurements performed on the other KSCN systems show that temperature is a parameter of remarkable importance. In fact, lowering the temperature one obtains a decrease on formation of parathiocyanogen on behalf of the polytrithiocyanogen, the species that gives rise to the photoeffect.     

Physical and chemical evolutions occurring in glass formation from alkoxides of silicon,aluminum and sodium

A multicomponent glass was obtained on using the new method of glass preparation from gel. The reactions occurring in the ethanolic solution of the parent alkoxides give condensation of the monomers so that hydrolysis of the remaining alkoxides groups followed by polycondensation appears to proceed on preformed oligomers. DTA, TGA, density and chemical durability measurements indicate that the transition from gel to the final glass is a continuous process. During the gel to glass conversion, scanning electron microscopy results show considerable compacting of the material.     

Relation of defects and grain boundaries to transport and photo-transport: Solved and unsolved problems in microcrystalline silicon

Defects and grain boundaries play a crucial role in the dark and photo-transport of charge carriers. Surprisingly, the transport (trapping and recombination) in microcrystalline silicon is better understood at low temperatures, while room-temperature operation is of interest for real-life devices. In the first part of this review, the advantages of photo-transport techniques, used for the defect density evaluation, will be recapitulated and commented on. The second part is devoted to the present understanding of the specific features of transport in microcrystalline silicon like anisotropy, dominant transport path and the role of H and O in the grain boundary formation. The results of macroscopic measurements on series of samples will be confronted with the results of local conductivity studies on a nanometer scale and finally, the influence of oxygen and the ability to explain it by our model of transport will be illustrated.     

Metal-Assisted and Microwave-Accelerated Evaporative Crystallization

We describe a platform technology, called metal-assisted and microwave-assisted evaporative crystallization (MA-MAEC), based on the combined use of silver nanoparticles and microwave heating for selective and rapid crystallization of small molecules. In this regard, the crystallization of a model small molecule (glycine) was achieved in several seconds. Glycine crystals grown on silver nanostructures with and without microwave heating were found to be larger than those grown on blank glass slides. The MA-MAEC technique has the potential to selectively grow the desired polymorphs of small molecules "on-demand" in a fraction of the time as compared to the conventional evaporative crystallization.     

不同工艺参数及喷淋板结构下PECVD热流场分析

建立了PECVD腔室的连续流体和传热模型,通过仿真实验来分析工艺参数和喷淋板结构对PECVD腔室热流场的影响.在典型工艺的基础上,根据单变量原则设计不同的仿真实验来研究工艺参数对晶圆片上方流速、压力及温度分布的影响,结果显示在不同的工艺参数下,流速分布都能够保持线性分布;温度分布波动很小,表现良好的稳定性;压力随径向近似抛物线分布,中心压力高边缘压力低.另外本文设计了两组仿真实验,研究喷淋板不同的流阻分布对热流场的影响,结果显示喷淋板流阻的分布对流速分布有明显的影响,在不同的流阻分布下,加热盘边缘处的流速保持不变,但是流速分布存在一个拐点,拐点前和拐点后流速都近似于直线分布;结果说明能够通过改变喷淋板流阻的分布来调控晶圆上方流速的分布从而获得更高的薄膜工艺均匀性.     

Binary Systems of Swallow-Tailed and Laterally Branched Liquid Crystals and their Dielectric Behaviour

Swallow-tailed liquid crystals were mixted with four laterally branched substances in order to investigate the influence of molecular geometry on the correlations of molecules in the short range order. Besides the isobaric phase diagrams the results of dielectric measurements on oriented probes in the frequency range from 10 Hz to 100 kHz are discussed. Microscopic as well as dielectric investigations show that laterally branched molecules destroy the antiparallel arrangement of swallow-tailed substances and in this way destabilize the smetic A phase. It is possible to put in order laterally branched substances according to its “destroying” influence.     

Bubbles engulfment and entrapment by cellular and dendritic interfaces during directional solidification

The purpose of this work was to investigate bubbles engulfment and entrapment by cellular and dendritic interfaces during directional solidification. The experiments were performed in succinonitrile-based transparent alloys (SCN-1.5 wt%ACE). While the solid–liquid interface is cellular, the solid–liquid interface is separated into two layers by the bubble. Experimental results show that a cellular–planar–cellular transition for solid–liquid interface occurs on the lower layer and the stability of the tubular bubble is determined by local microstructure on the upper layer. When the interface is dendritic, morphological instability occurs on the solid thin film attached to the bubble after the solid–liquid interface hits the bubble. We analyzed the evolution of such cells (some cells become dendrites with time) as a function of the angle between the opposite growth direction of dendritic array and the small cell growth direction. It is demonstrated that the relative position between the existing bubble and the dendritic tip influences on the local growth pattern of dendritic array.     

Fluid-dynamics during vapor epitaxy and modeling

Epitaxial deposition of thin or thick solid films is one of the most important growth processes in opto- and micro-electronic device production. The performance of growth apparatuses depend strongly on the physical and chemical aspects involved in the deposition process, such as the fluid dynamic features and the deposition chemistry. These phenomena can be well described through a macroscale modeling approach based on fundamental conservation equations. These models can be successfully adopted to optimize existing processes and to design new reactors where the “flat area” matching industrial needs is always increasing in time. Here, a macroscale model for deposition reactors has been derived highlighting the hypotheses necessary to fit the general conservation equations for these systems. Moreover, attention has been placed on the estimation of the necessary physical and chemical parameters. Macroscale aspects have been addressed with particular emphasis on the role of fluid flow within the reactor to reveal desired or undesired flow paths and their effect on process performance parameters. In particular, horizontal, vertical and barrel reactor types have been examined.     

Heat transfer and mass transport in a multiwafer MOVPE reactor: modelling and experimental studies

An improved detailed model for the calculation of the temperature distribution in a multiwafer Planetary Reactor™ has been developed. The temperature field of the reactor has been calculated in dependence of the reactor parameters for (Al,Ga)As growth as well as on the kind and the thickness of the wall and susceptor deposits. The amount of parasitic wall deposits can be minimized by a proper tuning of the reactor temperature distribution. Calculated GaAs growth rate profiles on 3 inch wafers show a strong dependence on the temperature field in the reactor and the amount of parasitic deposits. These predicted relationships have been used to optimize the reactor temperature distribution in order to minimize parasitic wall depositions. By this procedure a growth rate uniformity of < 1% on 3 inch wafers can be reproducibly achieved.     

Terrestrial and space-grown HAP and OCP crystals: effect of growth conditions on perfection and morphology

This paper reports comparative characterizations of calcium phosphate crystals grown on earth and in space. At the CaCl2 and KH2PO4 + K2HPO4 solution concentrations and the pH used, only hydroxyapatite (HAP) crystals grow under terrestrial condition while both HAP and octacalcium phosphate (OCP) crystals grew during the space experiment. The space-grown OCP crystals reach 3 mm in size, the space-grown HAP crystals reach sizes up to 100 times larger than the earth-grown crystallites. It was found also that the space-grown crystallites are more perfect than the terrestrial ones, being more stable under electron beam during HRTEM examination. Spherolites of hydroxyapatite consist of small and thin HAP crystals with different orientations. Space-grown OCP crystals containing almost pure OCP phase show strong striations along the c direction due to thickness variations. Terrestrial OCP crystals grown at lowest supersaturation on earth may be almost as large as the space-grown ones, possess a regular habit and are homogeneous in thickness. However, they always contain substantial regions of HAP structure. Also, in these crystals electron irradiation induces phase transformation from crystalline to amorphous (disordered) state during transmission electron microscopy observations. In the space-grown crystals, such transformation needs longer radiation time. We believe that the differences described above come from much lower supersaturation and different pH for crystals nucleating and growing in space compared to those formed on earth.     

Study of ZnSe and CdSe thin film epitaxy on germanium and silicon substrates

The parameters of vaporization, mass-transfer, condensation, and epitaxial growth by hot wall technique (HWT) of ZnSe and CdSe thin films on monocrystalline Ge and Si substrates are studied (Bubnov et al.). It is shown, that the layers structure is improved as the mass transfer mechanism approaches to gasodinamical vapor flow. The influence of condensation temperature of the layers on their crystallographic structure is shown. The increase of the temperature gradient from the source towards the substrate as well as the substrate temperature conditions for growing layers of hexagonal modification. The decrease of the temperature gradient leads to cubic modification. The electron diffraction study revealed the stepwise character of the zinc selenide and cadmium selenide film growth. The knowledge of the parameters of ZnSe and CdSe thin films on monocrystalline Ge and Si by hot wall technique at relatively low substrate temperatures allows to obtain layers, suitable for formation of solid state devices for registration and reflection of optical information.