Dry etch damage and its effect on electronic and optical nanostructures

The creation of nano-structures in 3–5 semiconductors is currently of great interest. If the conventional route of pattern definition in a resist followed by pattern transfer is used, this implies in most cases electron beam lithography and some form of dry etching. Using electron beam lithography, patterns of 10nm width on 40nm centre to centre spacing can be transfered to metal lines on thin substrates; even on normal wafers, linewidths of 25nm on 60nm spacing are achievable with state of the art machines.If the creation of a raised structure is necessary because of the physics of the situation, it is important to consider the damage which may be introduced by dry etching. The methods by which dry etch damage can be revealed are discussed, and the ways in which it can be reduced mentioned. Progress towards understanding the microscopic nature of the damage will be reviewed. Examples are drawn from etching of GaAs/GaAlAs in Silicon tetrachloride and methane/hydrogen.     

Pronounced negative thermal expansion from a simple structure: cubic ScF(3)

Scandium trifluoride maintains a cubic ReO(3) type structure down to at least 10 K, although the pressure at which its cubic to rhombohedral phase transition occurs drops from >0.5 GPa at ～300 K to 0.1-0.2 GPa at 50 K. At low temperatures it shows strong negative thermal expansion (NTE) (60-110 K, α(l) ≈ -14 ppm K(-1)). On heating, its coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) smoothly increases, leading to a room temperature CTE that is similar to that of ZrW(2)O(8) and positive thermal expansion above ～1100 K. While the cubic ReO(3) structure type is often used as a simple illustration of how negative thermal expansion can arise from the thermally induced rocking of rigid structural units, ScF(3) is the first material with this structure to provide a clear experimental illustration of this mechanism for NTE.     

Diffuse reflectance laser flash photolysis of adsorbed molecules

Recent progress which allows laser flash photolysis investigation of opaque materials by using diffuse reflectance from analysing sources for the detection of laser induced transient species is described. Experimental details of nanosecond and picosecond diffuse reflectance laser photolysis systems are presented and methods of analysis of data are discussed. The potential of the technique for studying elementary reactions at interfaces is demonstrated with particular reference to bimolecular reactions of (a) the triplet state of acridine adsorbed on various porous silica surfaces and (b) ion-electron recombination following multi-photon ionisation of diphenyl polyenes adsorbed on γ-alumina. The mechanisms of formation and decay of these transient adsorbed species are discussed.     

Wetting, mixing, and phase transitions in Langmuir-Gibbs films

Millimolar bulk concentrations of the surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) induce spreading of alkanes, H(CH(2))(n)H (denoted C(n)) 12< or =n< or =21, on the water surface, which is not otherwise wet by these alkanes. The novel Langmuir-Gibbs film (LGF) formed is a liquidlike monolayer comprising both alkanes and CTAB tails. Upon cooling, an ordering transition occurs, yielding a hexagonally packed, quasi-2D crystal. For 11< or =n< or =17 this surface-frozen LGF is a crystalline monolayer. For 18< or =n< or =21 the LGF is a bilayer with a crystalline, pure-alkane, upper monolayer, and a liquidlike lower monolayer. The phase diagram and film structure were determined by x-ray, ellipsometry, and surface tension measurements. A thermodynamic theory accounts quantitatively for the observations.     

Fusing multiple Bayesian knowledge sources

We address the problem of information fusion in uncertain environments. Imagine there are multiple experts building probabilistic models of the same situation and we wish to aggregate the information they provide. There are several problems we may run into by naively merging the information from each. For example, the experts may disagree on the probability of a certain event or they may disagree on the direction of causality between two events (e.g., one thinks A causes B while another thinks B causes A). They may even disagree on the entire structure of dependencies among a set of variables in a probabilistic network. In our proposed solution to this problem, we represent the probabilistic models as Bayesian Knowledge Bases (BKBs) and propose an algorithm called Bayesian knowledge fusion that allows the fusion of multiple BKBs into a single BKB that retains the information from all input sources. This allows for easy aggregation and de-aggregation of information from multiple expert sources and facilitates multi-expert decision making by providing a framework in which all opinions can be preserved and reasoned over.     

Effect of inter-miniband tunneling on current resonances due to the formation of stochastic conduction networks in superlattices

We study the effects of inter-miniband electron tunneling and electric field domains on the current–voltage and conductance–voltage curves of biased semiconductor superlattices under the action of a magnetic field that is tilted relative to the plane of the layers. For this geometry, electrons in the superlattice minibands exhibit a unique type of stochastic semiclassical motion. At certain critical values of the electric field within the superlattice layers, the stochastic trajectories change abruptly from fully localized to completely unbounded, and map out an intricate web-like mesh of conduction channels in phase space. Delocalization of the electron paths produces a series of strong resonant peaks in the electron drift velocity versus electric field curves. We use these drift velocity characteristics to make self-consistent drift-diffusion calculations of the current–voltage and differential conductance–voltage curves of the superlattices, which reveal strong resonant features originating from the sudden delocalization of the stochastic single-electron paths. We show that this delocalization has a pronounced effect on the distribution of space charge and electric field domains within the superlattices. Inter-miniband tunneling greatly reduces the amount of space-charge buildup, thus enhancing the domain structure and both the strength and number of the current resonances.     

The changing role of physical testing in vehicle development programmes

The role of physical testing in product development is changing due to the requirements for faster new product development, reduced tolerance of failures in the field and the emergence of computer aided engineering (CAE) technologies. To be used most effectively, testing must be seen as an integral part of the process for reducing risks associated with new product introductions. Quality function deployment (QFD) and failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) can be used to establish effective test and development plans that integrate the use of virtual and physical testing. By effectively integrating virtual and physical test technologies significant improvements in product performance can be achieved within shorter times and with reduced development and manufacturing costs. The approach was illustrated by a process of reducing in-cab noise during the design of a new truck.     

Guided modes of integrated optical guides. A mathematical study

A waveguide in integrated optics is defined by its refractiveindex. The guide is assumed to be invariant in the propagationdirection while in the transverse direction it is supposed tobe a compact perturbation of an unbounded stratified medium.We are interested in the modes guided by this device, whichare waves with a transverse energy confined in a neighbourhoodof the perturbation. Our goal is to analyse the existence of such guided modes. Underthe assumptions of weak guidance the problem reduces to a two-dimensionaleigenvalue problem for a scalar field. The associated operatoris unbounded, selfadjoint, and bounded from below. Its spectrumconsists of the discrete spectrum corresponding to the guidedmodes and of the essential spectrum corresponding to the radiationmodes. We present existence results of guided modes and an asymptoticstudy at high frequencies, which shows that contrarily to thecase of optical fibers, the number of guided modes can remainbounded. The major tools are the min-max principle and comparisonof results between different eigenvalue problems. The originalityof the present study lies in the stratified character of theunbounded reference medium.     

Non-local conductivity and the effective potential in small metal particles

We discuss the absorption of electromagnetic radiation in small conducting particles, in the case where the electron motion is diffusive. We refine an earlier theory in which we calculated the absorption coefficient using an effective potential describing the screened electric field. Our new theory incorporates the effects of non-locality in the electrical conductivity, and shows how the two limiting behaviours of the effective potential at high and low frequencies can be derived from a unified theory. Our results are in full agreement with our earlier calculation. Received: 3 November 1997 / Accepted: 29 January 1998