On Debye temperature anomaly observed in Ge-Se-Ag glasses

Anomalous values of Debye temperature have been obtained from recoil free factor measurements Ge-Se-Ag glasses recently [B. Arcondo, M.A. Urena, A. Piarristeguy, A. Pradel, M. Fontana, Physica B 389 (2007) 77]. In the present paper we show that this anomaly may arise due to the presence of anharmonic potential at the high spin ferrous site. We use q Lamb Mossbauer factor and anharmonic Lamb Mossbauer factor to study this anharmonicity.     

Nonradiative relaxation processes in molecular crystals

Internal conversion is the dominant relaxation channel from higher lying excited states in molecular crystals and involves the transfer of energy from the electronic system to the lattice. In this work, we present results from simulations of the nonradiative relaxation process with an emphasis on both intra- and interband transitions. We find the internal conversion process to be strongly nonadiabatic and the associated relaxation time in the case of large energy excitations to be limited by the transitions made between states of different bands.     

Studies of the collision frequency of ideal gas particles with the surfaces of the objects created using the ballistic deposition technique

This paper is a continuation of our studies of the collision frequency of ideal gas particles with the rough/fractal surfaces. Here, we applied a more realistic surface growth model, i.e. ballistic deposition for creation of fractal objects. We found that the collision frequency with irregular surfaces is the linear function of pressure and this frequency per unit pressure is quite a complicated function of the surface fractal dimension as well as the diameter of colliding particle. The collision frequency with rough surfaces cannot be exactly described by the analytical formula called the Langmuir-Hertz equation. However, we have stated that the deviations of the true collision frequency from the Langmuir-Hertz prediction are not huge and in typical catalytic studies the error introduced by replacing the true frequency by the Langmuir-Hertz prediction can be safely neglected. We have also studied the probability of finding on the surface an atom which has been hit a certain number of times by a gas particle. This probability reveals an interesting behaviour for small gas particles, i.e. it perfectly correlates with the number of directions from which the surface atom is accessible from the gas phase. We have also estimated the evolution of the adsorption energy distribution with the increasing fractal dimension of the surface in the ballistic deposition.     

Study of Ni/Si(1 0 0) solid-state reaction with Al addition

The characteristics of Ni/Si(1 0 0) solid-state reaction with Al addition (Ni/Al/Si(1 0 0), Ni/Al/Ni/Si(1 0 0) and Al/Ni/Si(1 0 0)) is studied. Ni and Al films were deposited on Si(1 0 0) substrate by ion beam sputtering. The solid-state reaction between metal films and Si was performed by rapid thermal annealing. The sheet resistance of the formed silicide film was measured by four-point probe method. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) was employed to detect the phases in the silicide film. The Auger electron spectroscopy was applied to reveal the element profiles in depth. The influence of Al addition on the Schottky barrier heights of the formed silicide/Si diodes was investigated by current-voltage measurements. The experimental results show that NiSi forms even with the addition of Al, although the formation temperature correspondingly changes. It is revealed that Ni silicidation is accompanied with Al diffusion in Ni film toward the film top surface and Al is the dominant diffusion species in Ni/Al system. However, no Ni_xAl_y phase is detected in the films and no significant Schottky barrier height modulation by the addition of Al is observed.     

Solvent effect on the formation of self-assembled monolayer on DLC surface between n-hexane and Vertrel XF

Self-assembled monolayers of 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltrichloro-silane (FDTS) have been deposited on the diamond-like carbon (DLC) film-coated magnetic heads with two different solvents, n-hexane and Vertrel XF. In order to investigate the solvent effect on the monolayer formation, a series of FDTS monolayers were prepared by varying the solution concentrations which were respectively characterized by time-of-flight mass spectroscopy, contact angle measurements and atomic force microscopy. Results showed that high density of aggregations were present for the FDTS monolayers using the n-hexane solvent, while the monolayer formed on the DLC surface using the Vertrel XF solvent exhibited excellent quality and reproducibility and no aggregations were observed.     

Passivation of defect states in Si-based and GaAs structures

Formation of defect states on semiconductor surfaces, at its interfaces with thin films and in semiconductor volumes is usually predetermined by such parameters as semiconductor growth process, surface treatment procedures, passivation, thin film growth kinetics, etc. This paper presents relation between processes leading to formation of defect states and their passivation in Si and GaAs related semiconductors and structures. Special focus is on oxidation kinetics of yttrium stabilized zirconium/SiO₂/Si and Sm/GaAs structures. Plasma anodic oxidation of yttrium stabilized zirconium based structures reduced size of polycrystalline silicon blocks localised at thin film/Si interface. Samarium deposited before oxidation on GaAs surface led to elimination of EL2 and/or ELO defects in MOS structures. Consequently, results of successful passivation of deep traps of interface region by CN⁻ atomic group using HCN solutions on oxynitride/Si and double oxide layer/Si structures are presented and discussed. By our knowledge, we are presenting for the first time the utilization of X-ray reflectivity method for determination of both density of SiO₂ based multilayer structure and corresponding roughnesses (interfaces and surfaces), respectively.     

Influence of surface cleaning effects on properties of Schottky diodes on 4H-SiC

Ir/4H-SiC and IrO₂/4H-SiC Schottky diodes are reported in terms of different methods of surface pretreatment before contact deposition. In order to find the effect of surface preparation processes on Schottky characteristics the SiC wafers were respectively cleaned using the following processes: (1) RCA method followed by buffered HF dip. Next, the surface was oxidized (5.5 nm oxide) using a rapid thermal processing reactor chamber and circular geometry windows were opened in the oxide layer before metallization deposition; (2) the same as sequence (1) but with an additional in situ sputter etching step before metallization deposition; (3) cleaning in organic solvents followed by buffered HF dip. The I-V characteristics of Schottky diodes were analyzed to find a correlation between extracted parameters and surface treatment. The best results were obtained for the sequence (1) taking into account theoretical value of Schottky barrier height. The contacts showed excellent Schottky behavior with ideality factors below 1.08 and barrier heights of 1.46 eV and 1.64 eV for Ir and IrO₂, respectively. Very promising results were obtained for samples prepared using the sequence (2) taking into account the total static power losses because the modified surface preparation results in a decrease in the forward voltage drop and reverse leakage current simultaneously. The contacts with ideality factor below 1.09 and barrier height of 1.02 eV were fabricated for Ir/4H-SiC diodes in sequence (2).     

Magnetic and Distribution of Magnetic Moments in Amorphous Fe89.7P10.3 Alloy Nanowire Arrays

Binary amorphous Fe89.7P10.3 alloy nanowire arrays in been fabricated in an anodic aluminium oxide template diameter of about 40nm and length of about 3μm have by electrodeposition. Magnetic properties of the samples are investigated by mean of vibrating sample magnetometer, transmission Mossbauer spectroscopy and conversion electron Mossbauer spectroscopy at room temperature. It is found that the nanowire arrays have obvious perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, and are ferromagnetic at room temperature, with its Mossbauer spectra consisting of six broad lines. The average angles between the Fe and 28° at the end of the amorphous Fe89.7P10.3 alloy magnetic moment and the wire axis are about 14°inside nanowire arrays, respectively. The magnetic behaviour is decided by the shape anisotropy and the dipolar interaction between wires. In addition, the magnetic moments distribution is theoretically demonstrated by using the symmetric fanning mechanism of the spheres chain model.     

Suprathreshold Stochastic Resonance in Mechanoelectrical Transduction of Hair Cells

Hair cell, the sound signal sensor in the auditory system, works in an environment full of noise. This noise has been demonstrated before to be a factor beneficial to the transfer of subthreshold weak signal. We further theoretically demonstrate that in suprathreshold signal situation, noise can still be a beneficial factor and enhance the haircell nonlinear transfer of suprathreshoM signal. This reveals an additional constructive function of noise in hearing and provides theoretic foundation for relevant applications.     

Numerical simulation of magnetic interactions in polycrystalline YFeO3

The magnetic behavior of polycrystalline yttrium orthoferrite was studied from the experimental and theoretical points of view. Magnetization measurements up to 170 kOe were carried out on a single-phase YFeO₃ sample synthesized from heterobimetallic alkoxides. The complex interplay between weak-ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions, observed in the experimental M(H) curves, was successfully simulated by locally minimizing the magnetic energy of two interacting Fe sublattices. The resulting values of exchange field (H_E=5590 kOe), anisotropy field (H_A=0.5 kOe) and Dzyaloshinsky–Moriya antisymmetric field (H_D=149 kOe) are in good agreement with previous reports on this system.