Copper diffusion in Ti-Si-N layers formed by inductively coupled plasma implantation

Ternary Ti-Si-N refractory barrier films of 15 nm thick was prepared by low frequency, high density, inductively coupled plasma implantation of N into Ti_xSi_y substrate. This leads to the formation of Ti-N and Si-N compounds in the ternary film. Diffusion of copper in the barrier layer after annealing treatment at various temperatures was investigated using time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometer (ToF-SIMS) depth profiling, X-ray diffractometer (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and sheet resistance measurement. The current study found that barrier failure did not occur until 650 °C annealing for 30 min. The failure occurs by the diffusion of copper into the Ti-Si-N film to form Cu-Ti and Cu-N compounds. FESEM surface morphology and EDX show that copper compounds were formed on the ridge areas of the Ti-Si-N film. The sheet resistance verifies the diffusion of Cu into the Ti-Si-N film; there is a sudden drop in the resistance with Cu compound formation. This finding provides a simple and effective method of monitoring Cu diffusion in TiN-based diffusion barriers.     

Structural, morphological, wettability and thermal resistance properties of hydro-oleophobic thin films prepared by a wet chemical process

The structural properties of fluorine containing polymer compounds make them highly attractive materials for hydro-oleophobic applications. However, most of these exhibit low surface energy and poor adhesion on the substrates. In the present investigation, crack free, smooth and uniform thin films of poly[4,5-difluoro-2,2-bis(trifluoromethyl)-1,3-dioxole]-co-tetrafluoroethylene (TFD-co-TFE) with good adhesion have been deposited by wet chemical spin-coating technique on polished AISI 440C steel substrates. The as-deposited films (xerogel films) have been subjected to annealing for 1 h at different temperatures ranging from 100 to 500 °C in an argon atmosphere. The size growth of the nano-hemispheres increased from 8 nm for xerogel film to 28 nm for film annealed at 400 °C. It was found that as the annealing temperature increased from 100 to 400 °C, nano-hemisphere-like structures were formed, which in turn have shown increase in the water contact angle from 122° to 147° and oil (peanut) contact angle from 85° to 96°. No change in the water contact angle (122°) has been observed when the films deposited at room temperature were heated in air from 30 to 80 °C as well as exposed to steam for 8 days for 8 h/day indicating thermal stability of the film.     

Hidden structure in the randomness of the prime number sequence?

We report a rigorous theory to show the origin of the unexpected periodic behavior seen in the consecutive differences between prime numbers. We also check numerically our findings to ensure that they hold for finite sequences of primes, that would eventually appear in applications. Finally, our theory allows us to link with three different but important topics: the Hardy–Littlewood conjecture, the statistical mechanics of spin systems, and the celebrated Sierpinski fractal.     

Moisture sorption, transport, and hydrolytic degradation in polylactide

Management of moisture penetration and hydrolytic degradation of polylactide (PLA) is extremely important during the manufacturing, shipping, storage, and end-use of PLA products. Moisture transport, crystallization, and degradation, in PLA have been measured through a variety of experimental techniques including size-exclusion chromatography, differential scanning calorimetry, and X-ray diffraction. Quartz crystal microbalance and dynamic vapor sorption experiments have also been used to measure moisture sorption isotherms in PLA films with varying crystallinity. A surprising result is that, within the accuracy of the experiments, crystalline and amorphous PLA films exhibit identical sorption isotherms.     

频率受随机过程调制的体系中的光谱扩散

通过在Bloch方程中增加描述对频率微扰的随机过程项{ω(t)},我们讨论了系统在窄谱带的光激发后的光谱扩散。特别是以下两种情况:1)如果ω以相同的概率变化为系综中的任一ω’,光谱是一个指数式衰减的定域峰和指数式增长的动态非均匀背底的叠加。2)如果ω'到ω的概率仅与|ω’-ω|有关,非定域峰随时间变宽。作为一个例子,我们讨论了频率受多个独立随机电报过程调制的系统中的光谱扩散。     

Dispersion relations and the spin polarizabilities of the nucleon

A forward dispersion calculation is implemented for the spin polarizabilities γ₁,,γ₄ of the proton and the neutron. These polarizabilities are related to the spin structure of the nucleon at low energies and are structure-constants of the Compton scattering amplitude at . In the absence of a direct experimental measurement of these quantities, a dispersion calculation serves the purpose of constraining the model building, and of comparing with recent calculations in heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory.     

低密度聚乙烯光引发交联机理——Ⅱ.BNB自旋捕捉ESR研究

在光引发剂二苯甲酮(BP)存在下,紫外光辐照低密度聚乙烯(LDPE)所形成的自由基中间体已被自旋捕捉剂2,4,6-三特丁基亚硝基苯(BNB)所捕捉,其自旋加合物自由基已为电子自旋共振(ESR)所特征。现已检测和鉴定到二种自旋加合物:一种是叔碳自由基;另一种是仲碳自由基。它们分别是由BP的激发三重态从LDPE链的支化点和亚甲基团上夺氢所形成的自由基中间体同自旋捕捉剂BNB反应生成的。上述的证据表明:LDPE的光引发交联点主要发生在叔碳和仲碳原子上,且H-型交联点占主导地位。     

Diffusion in three-dimensional random systems at their percolation thresholds

Extensive Monte Carlo simulations of theant-in-the-labyrinth problem on randomL* L* L simple cubic lattices are performed, forL up to 960 on a CRAY-YMP supercomputer. The exponentk for the rms displacementr witht inrt ^k is found to bek=0.190±0.003. As a second approach, large percolation clusters with chemical shells up to 300 are generated on a simple cubic lattice at criticality. The diffusion equation is then solved by using the exact enumeration technique. The corresponding critical exponentd ^w is found to be 1/d ^w =0.250±0.003.On leave from I. Institut für Theoretische für Physik, Universität Hamburg, D-2000 Hamburg, Federal Republic of Germany.     

A new class of long-tailed pausing time densities for the CTRW

We present some asymptotic results for the family of pausing time densities having the asymptotic (t) property(t) [t ln¹⁺(t/T)]^–1. In particular, we show that for this class of pausing time densities the mean-squared displacement r ²(t) is asymptotically proportional to ln(t/T), and the asymptotic distribution of the displacement has a negative exponential form.