Magnetostatic Coupling in Ba0.8Sr0.2TiO3/CoFe2O4 Magnetoelectric Composite Thin Films of 2-2-Type Structure

Ba0.8Sr0.2 TiO3/CoFe2O4 （BST/CFO） magnetoelectric composite thin films of 2-2-type structures are prepared onto Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates by a sol-gel process and spin coating technique. The structure of the prepared thin film is substrate/BST/CFO/. . ./CFO/BST. Three CFO ferromagnetic layers are separated from each other by a thin BST layer. The upper CFO layer is magnetostatically coupled with the lower CFO layer. Subsequent scanning electron microscopy investigations show that the prepared thin films exhibit good morphologies and have a compact structure, and the cross-sectional mierographs clearly display a multilayered nanostructure of multilayered thin films. The composite thin films exhibit good magnetic and ferroelectric properties. The spacing between ferromagnetic layers can be varied by adjusting the thickness of intermediate BST layer. It is found that the strength of magnetostatic coupling has a great impact on magnetoelectric properties of composite thin film; that is, the magnetoelectric voltage coefficient of the composite thin film tends to increase with the decrease of pacing between two neighboring CFO ferromagnetic layers as a result of magnetostatic coupling effect.     

Tunable Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 film bulk acoustic resonators using SiO2/Mo Bragg reflectors

Tunable and switchable Ba 0.5 Sr 0.5 TiO 3 film bulk acoustic resonators（FBARs） based on SiO 2 /Mo Bragg reflectors are explored,which can withstand high temperature for the deposition of Ba x Sr 1 x TiO 3（BST） films at 800 C.The dc bias-dependent resonance may be attributed to the piezoelectricity of the BST film induced by an electrostrictive effect.The series resonant frequency is strongly dc bias-dependent and shifts downwards with dc bias increasing,while the parallel resonant frequency is only weakly dc bias-dependent and slightly shifts upwards at low dc bias（ 45 V） while downwards at higher dc bias.The calculated relative tunability of shifts at series resonance frequency is around 2.3% and the electromechanical coupling coefficient is up to approximately 8.09% at 60-V dc bias,which can be comparable to AlN FBARs.This suggests that a high-quality tunable BST FBAR device can be achieved through the use of molybdenum（Mo） as the high acoustic impedance layer in a Bragg reflector,which not only provides excellent acoustic isolation from the substrate,but also improves the crystallinity of BST films withstanding higher deposition temperature.     

Tunable Ba_0.5 Sr_0.5 TiO₃ film bulk acoustic resonators using SiO₂ /Mo Bragg reflectors

Tunable and switchable Ba 0.5 Sr 0.5 TiO 3 film bulk acoustic resonators(FBARs) based on SiO 2 /Mo Bragg reflectors are explored,which can withstand high temperature for the deposition of Ba x Sr 1 x TiO 3(BST) films at 800 C.The dc bias-dependent resonance may be attributed to the piezoelectricity of the BST film induced by an electrostrictive effect.The series resonant frequency is strongly dc bias-dependent and shifts downwards with dc bias increasing,while the parallel resonant frequency is only weakly dc bias-dependent and slightly shifts upwards at low dc bias(< 45 V) while downwards at higher dc bias.The calculated relative tunability of shifts at series resonance frequency is around 2.3% and the electromechanical coupling coefficient is up to approximately 8.09% at 60-V dc bias,which can be comparable to AlN FBARs.This suggests that a high-quality tunable BST FBAR device can be achieved through the use of molybdenum(Mo) as the high acoustic impedance layer in a Bragg reflector,which not only provides excellent acoustic isolation from the substrate,but also improves the crystallinity of BST films withstanding higher deposition temperature.     

White Light Emission from ZnS:Mn Thin Films Deposited on GaN Substrates by Pulsed Laser Deposition

ZnS:Mn thin films are grown on GaN substrates by pulsed laser deposition.The structure,morphology and optical properties are investigated by x-ray diffraction,scanning electron microscopy and photoluminescence(PL).The obtained ZnS:Mn thin films are grown in preferred orientation along β-ZnS(111) direction corresponding to crystalline structure of cubic phase.The deposition temperature has an obvious effect on the structure,surface morphology and optical properties of ZnS:Mn thin films.PL measurements show that there are two emission bands located at 440 nm and 595 nm when the films are deposited at temperatures from 100℃ to 500℃.The relative integrated intensity of the blue emission and orange-red emission is determined by the deposition conditions.At the proper deposition temperature of 300℃,the color coordinate is closest to(0.33,0.33).The ZnS:Mn films on GaN substrates can exhibit white fight emission.     

Growth of TlBa_2Ca_2Cu_3O_9 Epitaxial Thin Films by Two-Step Method in Argon

TlBa_2 Ca_2 Cu_3 O_9(Tl-1223) films have promising applications due to their high critical temperature and strong magnetic flux pinning. Nevertheless, the preparation of pure phase Tl-1223 film is still a challenge. We successfully fabricate Tl-1223 thin films on LaAlO_3(001) substrates using dc magnetic sputtering and a post annealing two-step method in argon atmosphere. The crystallization temperature of Tl-1223 films in argon is reduced by 100℃ compared to that in oxygen. This greatly reduces the volatilization of Tl and improves the surface morphology of films. The lower annealing temperature can effectively improve the repeatability of the Tl-1223 film preparation. In addition, pure Tl-1223 phase can be obtained in a broad temperature zone,from 790℃ to 830℃. In our study, the films show homogenous and dense surface morphology using the presented method. The best critical temperature of Tl-1223 films is characterized to be 110 K, and the critical current J_c(77 K, 0 T) is up to 2.13 × 106 A/cm~2.     

Growth of Mn5Ge3 ultrathin film on Ge（111）

The growth of Mn5Ge3 ultrathin films with different thicknesses, prepared by solid phase epitaxy, is studied. The results of scanning tunnelling microscopy and low energy electron diffraction studies show that the film can be formed and it is terminated with a （√3 × √3） R30° surface reconstruction when the thickness of Mn exceeds 3 monolayers. The magnetic properties show that the Curie temperature is about 300 K and the T^2-dependent behaviour is observed to remain up to 220 K.     

Effect of microstructure on the thermoelectric properties of CSD-grown Bi2Sr2Co2Oy thin films

Three Bi2Sr2Co2Oy thin films with different microstructures have been prepared by chemical solution deposition on LaAlO 3(001) through varying the annealing temperature.With the decrease in the annealing temperature,both the size and c-axis alignment degree of grains in the film decrease as well,leading to an increase in the film resistivity.In addition,the decrease in the annealing temperature also results in a slight increase in the Seebeck coefficient due to the enhanced energy filtering effect of the small-grain film.The nanostructured Bi2Sr2Co2Oy film with an average grain size of about 100 nm shows a power factor comparable to that of films with larger grains.Since the thermal conductivity of the nanostructured films can be depressed due to the enhanced phonon scattering by grain boundary,a higher figure of merit is expected in Bi2Sr2Co2Oy thin film with grains in nanometer size.     

Compositional and Structural Properties of TiO2-xNx Thin Films Deposited by Radio-Frequency Magnetron Sputtering

TiO2-xNx thin films are deposited onto Si（100） and quartz substrates by arf magnetron sputtering method using a titanium metal disc as a target in Ar, N2, and 02 atmospheres. The substrate temperature is kept at 300℃. The O2 and Ar gas flow rates are kept to be constants and the N gas flow rate is varied. TiO2-xNx films with different N contents are characterized by x-ray diffraction and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results indicate that the TiO2-xNx thin films can be obtained at 13% N and 15% N contents in the film, and the films with mixed TiO2 and TiN crystal can be obtained at 13% N and 15% N contents in the film. In terms of the results of x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, N ls of β-N （396 eV） is the main component in the TiO2-xNx thin films. Because the energy level of β-N is positioned above the valence-band maximum of TiO2, an effective optical-energy gap decreases from 2.8 eV （for pure TiO2 film deposited by the same rf sputtering system） to 2.3 eV, which is verified by the optical-absorption spectra.     

Improvement of dielectric （Ba,Sr）TiO3 thin tunability and loss tangent of films with K doping

Ba0.6Sr0.4 TiO3 thin films doped with K were deposited on Pt/Ti/SiO2 /Si substrates by the chemical solution deposition method. The structure, surface morphology and the dielectric and tunable properties of Ba0.6Sr0.4 TiO 3 thin films have been studied in detail. The K content in Ba0.6Sr0.4TiO3 thin films has a strong influence on the material’s properties including surface morphology and the dielectric and tunable properties. It was found that the Curie temperature of K-doped Ba0.6Sr0.4 TiO3 films shifts to a higher value compared with that of undoped Ba0.6Sr0.4TiO3 thin films, which leads to a dielectric enhancement of K-doped Ba0.6Sr0.4 TiO3 films at room temperature. At the optimized content of 0.02 mol, the dielectric loss tangent is reduced significantly from 0.057 to 0.020. Meanwhile, the tunability is enhanced obviously from 26% to 48% at the measured frequency of 1 MHz and the maximum value of the figure of merit is 23.8. This suggests that such films have potential applications for tunable devices.     

Enhancement of ferromagnetism in polycrystalline Si0.965Mn0.035:B films by boron plasma treatment

This paper reports that the polycrystalline Si0.965Mn0.035:B films have been prepared by cosputtering deposition followed by rapid thermal annealing for crystallization. The polycrystalline thin films consist of two ferromagnetic phases. The low temperature ferromagnetic phase with Curie temperature (Tc) of about 50 K is due to the Mn4Si7 phase in the films, while the high temperature one (Tc～250 K) is resulted from the incorporation of Mn into silicon. The films are treated by boron plasma excited with the approach of microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition for 40 minutes. After plasma treatment, it is observed that no extra magnetic phases or magnetic complexes exist in the films, while both the high temperature saturation magnetization and the hole concentration in the films increase. The obvious correlation between the magnetic properties and the electrical properties of the polycrystalline Si0.965Mn0.035:B films suggests that the hole carriers play an important role in Si:Mn diluted magnetic semiconductors.     

Perpendicularly oriented barium ferrite thin films with low microwave loss,prepared by pulsed laser deposition

Barium ferrite(Ba M) thin films are deposited on platinum coated silicon wafers by pulsed laser deposition(PLD).The effects of deposition substrate temperature on the microstructure,magnetic and microwave properties of Ba M thin films are investigated in detail.It is found that microstructure,magnetic and microwave properties of Ba M thin film are very sensitive to deposition substrate temperature,and excellent Ba M thin film is obtained when deposition temperature is 910℃ and oxygen pressure is 300 m Torr(1 Torr = 1.3332×10~2Pa).X-ray diffraction patterns and atomic force microscopy images show that the best thin film has perpendicular orientation and hexagonal morphology,and the crystallographic alignment degree can be calculated to be 0.94.Hysteresis loops reveal that the squareness ratio(M_r/M_s) is as high as 0.93,the saturated magnetization is 4004 Gs(1 Gs = 10~4T),and the anisotropy field is 16.5 kOe(1 Oe = 79.5775 A·m~(-1)).Ferromagnetic resonance measurements reveal that the gyromagnetic ratio is 2.8 GHz/kOe,and the ferromagnetic resonance linewith is108 Oe at 50 GHz,which means that this thin film has low microwave loss.These properties make the Ba M thin films have potential applications in microwave devices.     

Room-Temperature Ferromagnetism in Zn1-xMnxO Thin Films Deposited by Pulsed Laser Deposition

Zn1-xMnxO （x = O.Olq3.1） thin films with a Curie temperature above 300K are deposited on Al2O3 （0001） substrates by pulsed laser deposition. X-ray diffraction （XRD）, ultraviolet （UV）-visible transmission and Raman spectroscopy are employed to characterize the microstructural properties of these films. Room temperature ferromagnetism is observed by superconducting quantum interference device （SQUID）. The results indicate that Mn doping introduces the incorporation of Mn^2＋ ions into the ZnO host matrix and the insertion of Mn^2＋ ions increases the lattice defects, which is correlated with the ferromagnetism of the obtained films. The doping concentration is also proven to be a crucial factor for obtaining highly ferromagnetic Zn1-xMnxO films.     

Influences of annealing temperature on properties of Fe~(2+):ZnSe thin films deposited by electron beam evaporation and their applications to Q-switched fiber laser

Fe~(2+):ZnSe thin films are prepared on sapphire substrate at room temperature by electron beam evaporation and then annealed in vacuum(about 1 × 10~(-4) Pa) at different temperatures. The influences of thermal annealing on the structural and optical properties of these films such as grain size and optical transmittance are investigated. The x-ray diffraction patterns show that the Fe~(2+):ZnSe thin film is preferred to be oriented along the(111) plane at different annealing temperatures.After the film is annealed, the full-width-at-half-maximum( FWHM) of the x-ray diffraction peak profile(111) of the film decreases and its crystal quality is improved. Scanning electron microscope images show that the films are more dense after being annealed. Finally, the sample is used as a saturable absorber in ZBLAN fiber laser. The annealed Fe~(2+):ZnSe thin films can be used to realize stable Q-switching modulation on ZBLAN fiber laser. The results demonstrate that the Fe~(2+):ZnSe thin film is a promising material for generating the high-power pulses of mid-infrared Q-switched fiber lasers.     

Write-Once Medium with Fe-Doped BiOx Thin Films for Blue Laser Recording

Fe：BiOx films are fabricated on K9 glass substrates by rf-magnetron sputtering of a BiFeO target under argon atmosphere with increasing sputtering power from 80 to 200 W at room temperature. It is found that the thin films grown at the sputtering power of 160 W can be formed at an appropriate deposition rate and have an improved surface morphology. The XPS result reveals that the films investigated are comprised of Bi, Fe and O elements. A typical XRD pattern shows that no phase transition occurs in the films up to 400℃. The results of the blue laser recording test demonstrate that the Fe：BiOx films have good writing sensitivity for blue laser beam （406.7nm） and good stability after reading 10000 times. The recording marks of 200nm or less are obtained. These results indicate that the introduction of Fe into BiOx films can reduce the mark size and improve the stability of the films.     

Tunable Anisotropic Absorption of Ag-Embedded SiO2 Thin Films by Oblique Angle Deposition

Ag-embedded SiO2 thin films are prepared by oblique angle deposition. Through field emission scanning electron microscopy （SEM）, an orientated slanted columnar structure is observed. Energy-dispersive x-ray （EDX） analysis shows the Ag concentration is about 3% in the anisotropic SiO2 matrix. Anisotropic surface plasma resonance （SPR） absorption is observed in the Ag-embedded SiO2 thin films, which is dependent on polarization state and incidence angle of two orthogonal polarized lights and the deposition angle. This means that optical properties and anisotropic SPR absorption can be tunable in Ag-embedded SiO2 thin films. Broadband polarization splitting is also observed and the transmission ratio Tp/Ts between p- and s-polarized lights is up to 2.7 for thin films deposited at a = 70°, which means that Ag-embedded SiO2 thin films are a promising candidate for thin film polarizers.     

Preparation, structure and ferromagnetic properties of the nanocrystalline Ti1-xMnxO2 thin films grown by radio frequency magnetron co-sputtering

This paper reported that the Mn-doped TiO2 films were prepared by radio frequency （RF） magnetron cosputtering. X-ray diffraction measurements indicate that the samples are easy to form the futile structure, and the sizes of the crystal grains grow big and big as the Mn concentration increases. X-ray photoemlssion spectroscopy measurements and high resolution transmission electron microscope photographs confirm that the manganese ions have been effectively doped into the TiO2 crystal when the Mn concentration is lower than 21%. The magnetic property measurements show that the Ti1-xMnxO2 （x = 0.21） films are ferromagnetic at room temperature, and the saturation magnetization, coercivity, and saturation field are 16.0 emu/cm^3, 167.5 × 80 A/m and 3740 × 80 A/m at room temperature, respectively. The room-temperature ferromagnetism of the films can be attributed to the new futile Ti1-xMnxO2 structure formed by the substitution of Mn^4＋ for Ti^4＋ into the TiO2 crystal .lattice, and could be explained by O vacancy （Vo）-enhanced ferromagnetism model.     

Enhancing the thermal conductivity of polymer-assisted deposited Al2O3 film by nitrogen doping

<正>Polymer-assisted deposition technique has been used to deposit Al₂O₃ and N-doped Al₂O₃（AlON） thin films on Si（100） substrates.The chemical compositions,crystallinity,and thermal conductivity of the as-grown films have been characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy（XPS）,X-ray diffraction（XRD）,and 3-omega method,respectively. Amorphous and polycrystalline Al₂O₃ and AlON thin films have been formed at 700℃and 1000℃.The thermal conductivity results indicated that the effect of nitrogen doping on the thermal conductivity is determined by the competition of the increase of Al-N bonding and the suppression of crystallinity.A 67%enhancement in thermal conductivity has been achieved for the samples grown at 700℃,demonstrating that the nitrogen doping is an effective way to improve the thermal performance of polymer-assisted-deposited Al₂O₃ thin films at a relatively low growth temperature.     

The electric and magnetic properties of epitaxially grown A0.5-xLaxSr0.5MnO3 （A=Pr, Nd） thin film

The epitaxial （single crystal-like） Pr0.4La0.1Sr0.5MnO3 （PLSMO） and Nd0.35La0.15Sr0.5MnO3 （NLSMO） thin films are prepared and characterized, and the electric and magnetic properties are examined. We find that both PLSMO and NLSMO have their own optimum deposition temperature （To） in their growing into epitaxial thin films. When the deposition temperature is higher than To, a c-axis oriented but polycrystalline thin film grows; when the deposition temperature is lower than To, the thin film tends to be a-axis oriented and also polycrystalline. The most important point is that for the epitaxial PLSMO and NLSMO thin films the electronic phase transitions are closely consistent with the magnetic phase transitions, i.e. an antiferromagnetic phase corresponds to an insulating state, a ferromagnetic phase corresponds to a metallic state and a paramagnetic phase corresponds to a semiconducting state, while for the polycrystalline thin films the electronic phase transitions are always not consistent with the magnetic transitions.     

Effects of doping concentration on properties of Mn-doped ZnO thin films

This paper reports that the radio frequency magnetron sputtering is used to fabricate ZnO and Mn-doped ZnO thin films on glass substrates at 500~°C. The Mn-doped ZnO thin films present wurtzite structure of ZnO and have a smoother surface, better conductivity but no ferromagnetism. The x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results show that the binding energy of Mn_2p3 / 2 increases with increasing Mn content slightly, and the state of Mn in the Mn-doped ZnO thin films is divalent. The chemisorbed oxygen in the Mn-doped ZnO thin films increases with increasing Mn doping concentration. The photoluminescence spectra of ZnO and Mn-doped ZnO thin films have a similar ultraviolet emission. The yellow green emissions of 4~wt.% and 10~wt.% Mn-doped thin films are quenched, whereas the yellow green emission occurs because of abundant oxygen vacancies in the Mn-doped ZnO thin films after 20~wt.% Mn doping. Compared with pure ZnO thin film, the bandgap of the Mn-doped ZnO thin films increases with increasing Mn content.     

Field-induced insulator-metal-insulator transitions in low-energy H_2~+ ion-irradiated epitaxial La_(2/3)Ca_(1/3)MnO_3 thin films

Epitaxial La 2/3 Ca 1/3 MnO 3 thin films grown on LaAlO 3 (001) substrates were irradiated with low-energy 120-keV H 2 + ions over doses ranging from 10 12 ions/cm 2 to 10 17 ions/cm 2 . The irradiation suppresses the intrinsic insulator-metal (I-M) transition temperature and increases the resistance by reducing the crystallographic symmetry of the films. No irradiation-induced columnar defects were observed in any of the samples. The specific film irradiated at a critical dose around 8 × 10 15 ions/cm 2 is in a threshold state of the electric insulator where the I-M transition is absent. In an external field of 4 T or higher, the I-M transition is restored and thus an enormous magnetoresistance is observed, while a negative temperature coefficient resumes as the temperature is reduced further. Magnetic relaxation behavior is confirmed in this and other heavily irradiated samples. The results are interpreted in terms of the displacement of oxygen atoms provoked by ion irradiation and the resulting magnetic glassy state, which can be driven into a phase coexistence of metallic ferromagnetic droplets and the insulating glass matrix in a magnetic field.