Sputtering yield of chromium by argon and xenon ions with energies from 50 to 500 eV

A radioactive tracer technique is described for the quantitative measurement of the sputtering yield of a target material electroplated on a copper substrate. Sputtering yields of chromium by argon and xenon ions with energies from 50 to 500 eV are reported. The ion beams, having a current density ranging from 0.01 to 0.1 mA/cm² at an operating pressure of 2×10^–5 Torr, were produced by a low-energy ion gun. The sputtered atoms were collected on an aluminum foil surrounding the target. ⁵¹Cr was used as the tracer isotope. The results indicate that the radioactive tracer technique is sensitive enough in measuring the extremely small amount of sputtered material at low ion currents and low ion energies.     

Tip-induced local anodic oxidation on p-GaAs surface with non-contact atomic force microscopy

Nano-sized oxide structures resulted from localized electrochemical oxidation induced by a negatively biased atomic force microscopy (AFM) tip operated with the non-contact mode were fabricated on p-GaAs(1 0 0) surface. The geometrical characteristics of the oxide patterns and their dependences on various fabrication parameters, e.g., the anodization time, the biased voltages, the tip scanning rates, as well as the formation mechanism and relevant growth kinetics are investigated. Results indicate that the height of the protruded oxide dots grow exponentially as a function of time in the initial stage of oxidation and soon reaches a maximum height depending linearly with the anodized voltages, in according with the behaviors predicted by space charge limited local oxidation mechanism. In addition, selective micro-Auger analysis of the anodized region reveals the formation of Ga(As)O_x, indicating the prominent role played by the field-induced nanometer-size water meniscus in producing the nanometer-scale oxide dots and bumps on p-GaAs(1 0 0) surface.     

Effect of Reactor Pressure on Qualities of GaN Layers Grown by Hydride Vapour Phase Epitaxy

The influence of reactor pressure on GaN layers grown by hydride vapour phase epitaxy （HVPE） is investigated. By decreasing the reactor pressure from0. 7 to 0.5 mm, the GaN layer growth mode changes from the island-like one to the step flow. The improvements in structural and optical properties and surface morphology of GaN layers are observed in the step flow growth mode. The results clearly indicate that the reactor pressure, similarly to the growth temperature, is One of the important parameters to influence the qualities of GaN epilayers grown by HVPE, due to the change of growth mode.     

Synthesis and Raman scattering of GaN nanorings, nanoribbons and nanowires

Low-dimensional GaN materials, including nanorings, nanoribbons and smooth nanowires have been synthesized by reacting gallium and ammonia using Ag particles as a catalyst on the substrate of MgO single crystals. They were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). EDX, XRD indicated that the low-dimensional nanomaterials were wurtzite GaN. New features are found in Raman scatterings for these low-dimensional GaN materials, which are different from the previous observations of GaN materials. Received: 16 November 2000 / Accepted: 17 November 2000 / Published online: 21 March 2001     

Multispectrum analysis of the ν9 band of C2H6: Positions, intensities, self- and N2-broadened half-width coefficients

Line positions, intensities, Lorentz self- and N₂-broadened half-width coefficients have been measured for ^PQ₃, ^PQ₂, ^PQ₁, ^RQ₀, ^RQ₁, ^RQ₂, and ^RQ₃ sub-band transitions in the ν₉ fundamental band of ¹²C₂H₆. A multispectrum nonlinear least-squares fitting technique was used to fit up to 17 high-resolution (∼0.00156 cm⁻¹), room temperature absorption spectra of pure (99.99% chemical purity) natural sample of ethane and lean mixtures of the high-purity ethane diluted with N₂. A Bruker IFS 120HR Fourier transform spectrometer located at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), in Richland, Washington was used to record the data. A standard Voigt line shape was assumed to fit all the data since no line mixing or other non Voigt line shapes were required to fit any of the spectra used in the analysis. Short spectral intervals (∼2-2.5 cm⁻¹) of all 17 spectra covering a specific ^PQ or ^RQ sub-band were fit simultaneously. For the first time in an ethane band, pressure-broadened half-width coefficients were determined for the torsional-split components. However, for better reliability of the retrieved coefficients for the weaker components (transitions with large intensity ratios of 4:1 or 3:1 for most K levels between the strong and weak components), constraints were used such that the half-width coefficients of both torsional-split components for a given J were identical for a specific broadening gas. No pressure-induced shift coefficients were necessary to fit the spectra to their noise level. The present study revealed for the first time the dependence of self- and N₂-broadened half-width coefficients upon the J, K quantum numbers of the transitions in ethane. A number of transitions belonging to the ν₉+ν₄−ν₄ and the ν₉+2ν₄−2ν₄ hot bands were also observed in the fitted regions and measurements were made when possible.     

GaAs Based InAs/GaSb Superlattice Short Wavelength Infrared Detectors Grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy

InAs/GaSb superlattice （SL） short wavelength infrared photoconduction detectors are grown by molecular beam epitaxy on GaAs（O01） semi-insulating substrates. An interfacal misfit mode AISb quantum dot layer and a thick GaSb layer are grown as buffer layers. The detectors containing a 200-period 2 ML/S ML InAs/GaSb SL active layer are fabricated with a pixel area of 800×800 μm^2 without using passivation or antirefleetion coatings. Corresponding to the 50% cutoff wavelengths of 2.05μm at 77K and 2.25 μm at 300 K, the peak detectivities of the detectors are 4 × 10^9 cm·Hz^1/2/W at 77K and 2 × 10^8 cm·Hz1/2/W at 300K, respectively.     

Elimination of surface scratch/texture on the surface of single crystal Si substrate in chemo-mechanical grinding (CMG) process

Si wafers are widely used as a substrate material for fabricating ICs. The quality of ICs depends on the quality of Si wafers. The chemo-mechanical grinding (CMG) with soft abrasive grinding wheels (SAGW) has been recently found to be a great potential process for machining Si wafers to generate superior surface quality at low cost. However, there have been very few studies on observing variation of topography of scratch/texture and understanding basic eliminating process of scratch/texture on the ground Si wafer. Furthermore, few reports on the variation of surface roughness and material removal rate (MRR) during CMG process and relationship between MRR and surface roughness during CMG process are presented. In this paper, a series of CMG experiments have been conducted to study the elimination process of artificial scratches created on etched Si surfaces and residual textures induced by SD1500 diamond wheel in CMG process, and to understand the topography variations of Si surfaces and some basic grinding characteristics during CMG process.     

Catalytic synthesis of single-crystalline gallium nitride nanobelts

Single-crystalline gallium nitride nanobelts have been synthesized through the reaction of gallium vapor with flowing ammonia using nickel as a catalyst. The as-synthesized products were characterized using X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and selected-area electron diffraction (SAED). XRD and SAED results revealed that the products are pure, single-crystalline GaN with hexagonal structure. The widths and thickness of the nanobelts ranged from 80 to 200 nm, and 10 to 30 nm, respectively. The lengths were up to several tens of micrometers. The nanobelts had smooth surface with no amorphous sheath, and a sharp-tip end. The growth mechanism of nanobelts was discussed.     

Polar oscillation and dispersion properties of quasi-confined optical phonon modes in a wurtzite GaN/AlxGa1−xN nanowire

Under the dielectric continuum model and Loudon’s uniaxial crystal model, the properties of the quasi-confined (QC) optical phonon dispersions and the electron-QC phonons coupling functions in a cylindrical wurtzite nanowire are deduced via the method of electrostatic potential expanding. Numerical computations on a GaN/Al_0.15Ga_0.85N wurtzite nanowire are performed. Results reveal that, for a definite axial wave number k_z and a certain azimuthal quantum number m, there are infinite branches of QC modes. The frequencies of these QC modes fall into two regions, i.e. a high frequency region and a low frequency region. The dispersion of the QC modes are quite apparant only when k_z and m are small. The lower-order QC modes in the higher frequency region play more important role in the electron-QC phonon interactions. Moreover, for the higher-order QC modes in the high frequency region, the electrostatic potentials “escaping” out of the well-layer material nearly could be ignored.     

Epitaxial growth of InN on nearly lattice-matched (Mn,Zn)Fe2O4

We have grown InN films on nearly lattice-matched (Mn,Zn)Fe₂O₄ (111) substrates at low temperatures by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and investigated their structural properties. InN films grown at substrate temperatures above 400 °C show poor crystallinity, and their in-plane epitaxial relationship is [10-10]InN//[11-2](Mn,Zn)Fe₂O₄, which means that their lattice mismatch is quite large (11%). By contrast, high quality InN films with flat surfaces can be grown at growth temperatures lower than 150 °C with the ideal in-plane epitaxial relationship of [11-20]InN//[11-2](Mn,Zn)Fe₂O₄, which produces lattice mismatches of as low as 2.0%. X-ray reflectivity measurements have revealed that the thickness of the interfacial layer between the InN and the substrates is reduced from 14 to 8.4 nm when the growth temperature is decreased from 400 °C to room temperature. This suppression of the interface reactions by reducing the growth temperature is probably responsible for the improvement in crystalline quality. These results indicate that the use of (Mn,Zn)Fe₂O₄ (111) substrates at low growth temperatures allows us to achieve nearly lattice matched epitaxial growth of InN.