Effects of sputter deposition parameters and post-deposition annealing on the electrical characteristics of LaAlO3 dielectric films on Si

The influence of processing parameters on the electrical characteristics of RuO₂/LaAlO₃/Si metal-oxide-semiconductor structures was investigated. In particular, the sputtering regime during deposition of LaAlO₃ on Si and the atmosphere used in the post-deposition annealing step were addressed by determining capacitance-voltage and gate current-voltage characteristics. These results were correlated with compositional information obtained by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and nuclear reaction analysis. A post-deposition annealing step in oxygen at 600 °C resulted in better electrical characteristics of the final structure as compared to the same treatment performed in nitrogen. This result is explained by oxygen ability to heal oxygen vacancies in the LaAlO₃ film, especially at the dielectric/semiconductor interface region. A thermalized sputtering regime during deposition of LaAlO₃ on Si leads to capacitors with electrical characteristics superior to those deposited in ballistic regime. PACS 77.84.Dy; 81.15.Cd; 81.40.Gh; 73.40.Qv; 82.80.Yc     

Some Estimates for the Derivative of a Quasiconformal Reflection Spiral-Shaped Domains

Some estimates of derivatives are sharpened for quasiconformal reflections of a special class of simply connected plane domains. Bibliography: 2 titles.     

Attractors and Dimensions for Discretizations of a Dissipative Zakharov Equations

Abstract In this paper, a dissipative Zakharov equations are discretized by difference method.We make priorestimates for the algebric system of equations. It is proved that for each mesh size,there exist attractors forthe discretized system.The bounds of the Hausdorff dimensions of the discrete attractors are obtained,and thevarious bounds are dependent of the mesh sizes.     

Structural evolution in amorphous silicon and germanium thin films.

The structural evolution in amorphous silicon and germanium thin films has been investigated by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) in conjunction with autocorrelation function (ACF) analysis. The results established that the structure of as-deposited semiconductor films is of a high density of nanocrystallites embedded in the amorphous matrix. In addition, from ACF analysis, the structure of a-Ge is more ordered than that of a-Si. The density of embedded nanocrystallites in amorphous films was found to diminish with annealing temperature first, then to increase. The conclusions also corroborate well with the results of diminished medium-range order in annealed amorphous films determined previously by a variable coherence microscopy method.     

Magnetic properties of oxygenated carbon nitride films from RF-discharge in an acetylene, nitrogen, and oxygen mixture environments

Properties of oxygenated carbon nitride films have attracted the attention of physics researchers due to their magnetic and physical properties, as well as for their usefulness in the industry. The free radicals were investigated using electron paramagnetic resonance applied in the study of spin concentration due to the different mechanism of preparation of carbon nitride films by RF-discharge with different kinds of plasma. Unpaired spin concentrations, in the order of 10²⁰ per cm³, were measured and their time recombination dependency was important in those films. The films were grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition using mixtures of hydrocarbons, N₂ and O₂ in different proportions.     

Three-dimensional radiative transfer in an anisotropically scattering, semi-infinite medium: generalized reflection function

Three-dimensional radiative transfer in an anisotropic scattering medium exposed to spatially varying, collimated radiation is studied. The generalized reflection function for a semi-infinite medium with a very general scattering phase function is the focus of this investigation. An integral transform is used to reduce the three-dimensional transport equation to a one-dimensional form, and a modified Ambarzumian's method is applied to formulate a nonlinear integral equation for the generalized reflection function. The integration is over both the polar and azimuthal angles; hence, the integral equation is said to be in the double-integral form. The double-integral, reflection function formulation can handle a variety of anisotropic phase functions and does not require an expansion of the phase function in a Legendre polynomial series. Complicated kernel transformations of previous single-integral studies are eliminated. Single and double scattering approximations are developed. Numerical results are presented for a Rayleigh phase function to illustrate the computational characteristics of the method and are compared to results obtained with the single-integral method. Agreement between the two approaches is excellent; however, as the transform variable increases beyond five the number of quadrature points required for the double-integral method to produce accurate solutions significantly increases. A new interpolation scheme produces accurate results when the transform variable is large.     

Isolation of mitogenic substance from sclerotia of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum IFO 9395 extracted with phosphate buffer.

The buffer extracts (3S) of sclerotia of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum IFO 9395 contained mitogenic substance(s) to murine splenocytes (Shinohara et al. Chem. Pharm. Bull., 38, 2219 (1990)). Although the native 3S was slightly mitogenic, heating of 3S induced significant mitogenic activity. To isolate the mitogen, we separated 3S by ion-exchange and gel filtration chromatographies. The isolated mitogen, named sclerogen, has a molecular mass of 32 kilodaltons (kDa) on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and the isoelectric point (pI) of 5.9 by chromatofocusing. Sclerogen was significantly mitogenic in vitro against murine splenocytes after heat denaturation, and also showed the augmentation of the primary mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) in vitro. However, sclerogen did not show the activation of an alternative pathway of complement and hemagglutination activity. These results suggest that sclerogen is a unique mitogen which differs from lectins and shows mitogenicity after heat denaturation.     

Comparisons between model equations for long waves

Summary Considered here are model equations for weakly nonlinear and dispersive long waves, which feature general forms of dispersion and pure power nonlinearity. Two variants of such equations are introduced, one of Korteweg-de Vries type and one of regularized long-wave type. It is proven that solutions of the pure initial-value problem for these two types of model equations are the same, to within the order of accuracy attributable to either, on the long time scale during which nonlinear and dispersive effects may accumulate to make an order-one relative difference to the wave profiles.This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation. A considerable portion of the project was completed while the first author was resident at the Institute for Mathematics and Its Applications, University of Minnesota.