Properties of ZnO thin films grown on Si substrates by photo-assisted MOCVD

ZnO thin films were grown on (1 0 0) p-Si substrates by Photo-assisted Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (PA-MOCVD) using diethylzinc (DEZn) and O₂ as source materials and tungsten-halogen lamp as a light source. The effects of tungsten-halogen lamp irradiation on the surface morphology, structural and optical properties of the deposited ZnO films have been investigated by means of atomic force microscope (AFM), X-ray diffraction and photoluminescence (PL) spectra measurements. Compared with the samples without irradiation, the several characteristics of ZnO films with irradiation are improved, including an improvement in the crystallinity of c-axis orientation, an increase in the grain size and an improvement in optical quality of ZnO films. These results indicated that light irradiation played an important role in the growth of ZnO films by PA-MOCVD.     

Realization of MMI Power Splitter by UV-light Imprinting Technique Using Hybrid Sol-Gel SiO2 Materials

An efficient fabrication scheme of buried ridge waveguide devices is demonstrated by UV-light imprinting technique using organic-inorganic hybrid sol-gel Zr-doped SiO2 materials. The refractive indices of a guiding layer and a cladding layer for the buried ridge waveguide structure are 1.537 and 1.492 measured at 1550nm, respectively. The tested results show more circular mode profiles due to existence of the cladding layer. A buried ridge single-mode waveguide operating at 1550 nm has a low propagation loss （0.088 dB/cm） and the 1× 2 MMI power splitter exhibits uniform outputs, with a very iow splitting loss of 0.029 dB at 1549nm.     

Strong Band-Edge Emission from ZnS Quantum Dots Stabilized by Gum Arabic

ZnS quantum dots （QDs）, prepared by soft-condensation, exhibit robust structure of a quantum size equal 3.13 nm mediated two-dimensional gum Arabic surfactant as characterized by scan tunnelling microscope （STM）. Strong blue-shifted absorption and emission bands are depicted by optical characterization even for the sample stored under ambient condition for two weeks. These enhancements can be attributed to the completely passivated surface trap states by Gum Arabic.     

Structural and luminescent characteristics of non-stoichiometric ZnO films by various sputtering and annealing temperatures

ZnO thin films were prepared by reactive RF magnetron sputtering at various deposition temperatures. They were annealed in oxygen ambient at various annealing temperatures. The microstructures and photoluminescence characteristics of ZnO films were investigated. The grain size of the ZnO thin film that was deposited at room temperature (RT) after annealing exceeded that of the film that was deposited at . Excess Zn atoms were considered to be present in the ZnO film that was deposited at RT, so the film was non-stoichiometric ZnO. No visible emission of either of the ZnO films deposited at the two temperatures was observed before annealing. Following annealing at high temperature, the green emission from the ZnO film that was deposited at RT was stronger than that of the film that was deposited at . The relationship between the non-stoichiometry of the thin film and the visible emission was discussed. The luminescent centers that correspond to green emission are defects; the concentration of defects was higher in the ZnO thin film that was deposited at RT than in the film that was deposited at .     

Effect of surface preparation on the morphology of ZnO nanorods

The effects of Si substrate orientation and surface treatment on the morphology and density of Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods were investigated. The size and density of ZnO nanorods were influenced by Si substrate orientation and surface preparation. ZnO nanorods synthesized on the ideally H-terminated Si(1 1 1) prepared with an NH₄F solution resulted in the biggest size and the lowest density. It is suggested that the smoother surface of the Si substrate and lattice shape match with a larger atomic distance result in the increase of the ZnO seedlayer's grain size, which in turn enhances the size of ZnO nanorods grown on it. The optical properties of the ZnO nanorods were affected by their size and crystallinity. The smallest ZnO nanorods with a preferential c-axis orientation synthesized on the HF-treated Si(1 1 1) surface showed the highest intensity ratio of UV to visible emission, and the biggest ZnO nanorods synthesized on the N₂-sparged NH₄F-treated Si(1 1 1) surface showed the lowest intensity ratio of UV to visible emission. Therefore, it can be concluded that Si substrate orientation and surface preparation significantly affect the optical properties of ZnO nanorods.     

Directional coupler using gap plasmon waveguides

Here, we demonstrate that efficient nano-optical couplers can be developed using closely spaced gap plasmon waveguides in the form of two parallel nano-sized rectangular slots in a thin metal film or membrane. Using the rigorous numerical finite-difference and finite element algorithms, we investigate the physical mechanisms of coupling between two neighboring gap plasmon waveguides and determine typical coupling lengths for different structural parameters of the coupler. Special attention is focused onto the analysis of the effect of such major coupler parameters, such as thickness of the metal film/membrane, slot width, and separation between the plasmonic waveguides. Detailed physical interpretation of the obtained unusual dependencies of the coupling length on slot width and film thickness is presented based upon the energy consideration. The obtained results will be important for the optimization and experimental development of plasmonic sub-wavelength compact directional couplers and other nano-optical devices for integrated nanophotonics.     

Development of a quality evaluation method for Fructus schisandrae by pressurized capillary electrochromatography

A pressurized CEC (pCEC) method with postcolumn detection cell had been developed for quantifying the lignans from Fructus schisandrae extracts. The effects of different experimental conditions, such as the ACN content of the mobile phase, the concentration and pH of the buffer, the applied voltage, and the supplementary pressure were studied. Five lignans (schisandrin, gomisin A, schisantherin C, deoxyschizandrin, schisandrin B) were baseline separated using a mobile phase of ACN-phosphate buffer (pH 5.4; 5 mM) (40:60 v/v) under -4 kV applied voltage. The method showed the satisfactory retention time and peak area repeatability. The calibration curves were linear in the range 50.0-1000.0 microg/mL for schisandrin, 20.0-500.0 microg/mL for gomisin A, 10.0-200.0 microg/mL for schisantherin C, 20.0-500.0 microg/mL for deoxyschizandrin, and 20.0-500.0 microg/mL for schisandrin B. The correlation coefficients were between 0.9978 and 0.9989. With this pCEC system, fingerprints of F. schisandrae were preliminarily established to distinguish two members S. chinensis (Turcz.) Baill. and S. sphenanthera Rehd. Et Wils. of F. schisandrae by characteristic peaks, and evaluate the quality of various sources of raw materials by determining the contents of the five lignans.     

Effect of thermal undulations on the bending elasticity and spontaneous curvature of fluid membranes

We amplify previous arguments why mean curvature should be used as measure of integration in calculating the effective bending rigidity of fluid membranes subjected to a weak background curvature. The stiffening of the membrane by its fluctuations, recently derived for spherical shapes, is recovered for cylindrical curvature. Employing curvilinear coordinates, we then discuss stiffening for arbitrary shapes, confirm that the elastic modulus of Gaussian curvature is not renormalized in the presence of fluctuations, and show for the first time that any spontaneous curvature also remains unchanged. Received 19 April 1999 and in Received in final form 7 January 2000     

Coexistence of antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic phase for ferromagnetic Kondo lattice model

To study the proposed phase separations in doped manganites, we performed Monte-Carlo calculations for the ferromagnetic Kondo lattice model with strong Hund's coupling between conduction electrons and localized spins. For the practical calculations, we adopted a one dimensional lattice and treated the spins of the localized t_2g electrons semi-classically. A direct evidence of the phase separation is observed from a snapshot of the spatial dependence of localized spins. No indication of the canted or spiral phases is found in the results of simulations. Further, the calculated results of the spin structure factor in the phase separation region are well compared with recent experiments. Received: 1st September 1998 / Revised: 30 October 1998 / Accepted: 27 November 1998     

Magnons localised on surface steps: a theoretical model

We present the solution of the full magnetic problem arising from the absence of magnetic translation symmetry in two dimensions due to an extended magnetic surface step on the surface boundary of an insulating magnetic substrate. The calculation concerns in particular the spin fluctuation dynamics of a magnetic atomic step in the surface of a ferromagnetic simple cubic lattice, the spin order being in the direction normal to surface boundary. Only exchange interactions are considered between the spins in the model. The theoretical approach determines the evanescent spin fluctuation field in the two dimensional plane normal to the direction of the step edge. This field arises owing to the absence of magnetic translation symmetry in this plane, and is completely independent of the form of the surface defect, underlying the general character of the calculation. We show the existence of optical localised magnon modes propagating along the step, their fields being evanescent in the plane normal to the step direction. Received 17 February 1999