Anton Tadich

The Current Performance of the Wide Range (90-2500 eV) Soft X-ray Beamline at the Australian Synchrotron

The Soft X‐ray beamline at the Australian synchrotron has been constructed around a collimated light Plane Grating Monochromator taking light from an Elliptically Polarized Undulator (EPU). The beamline covers a wide photon energy range between 90 to 2500 eV, using two gratings of 250 l/mm and 1200 l/mm. At present the output from the monochromator is directed into one branchline with a dedicated UHV endstation. The measured performance of the beamline in flux and resolution is shown to be very close to that of theoretical calculations.

Creating a Stable Oxide at the Surface of Black Phosphorus.

The stability of the surface of in situ cleaved black phosphorus crystals upon exposure to atmosphere is investigated with synchrotron-based photoelectron spectroscopy. After 2 days atmosphere exposure a stable subnanometer layer of primarily P2O5 forms at the surface. The work function increases by 0.1 eV from 3.9 eV for as-cleaved black phosphorus to 4.0 eV after formation of the 0.4 nm thick oxide, with phosphorus core levels shifting by <0.1 eV. The results indicate minimal charge transfer, suggesting that the oxide layer is suitable for passivation or as an interface layer for further dielectric deposition.

Al2O3 prepared by atomic layer deposition as gate dielectric on 6H-SiC(0001)

Al2O3 films were deposited as alternative gate dielectric on hydrogen-terminated 6H-SiC(0001) by atomic layer chemical vapor deposition and characterized by photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) and admittance measurements. The PES results indicate an abrupt interface free of significant Si–suboxide contributions where the Al2O3 layer is connected to SiC by bridging oxygen atoms. The admittance measurements yield an interface state density which is lower than that of the thermally formed oxide and show in particular no increase toward the conduction band edge. Furthermore, a nearly symmetrical band alignment of Al2O3 on 6H-SiC with offsets of 2.2 and 1.8 eV is determined for the valence and conduction bands, respectively. This makes Al2O3 a serious competitor to thermal oxides as gate insulator in SiC devices.

A graphene field-effect transistor as a molecule-specific probe of DNA nucleobases

Fast and reliable DNA sequencing is a long-standing target in biomedical research. Recent advances in graphene-based electrical sensors have demonstrated their unprecedented sensitivity to adsorbed molecules, which holds great promise for label-free DNA sequencing technology. To date, the proposed sequencing approaches rely on the ability of graphene electric devices to probe molecular-specific interactions with a graphene surface. Here we experimentally demonstrate the use of graphene field-effect transistors (GFETs) as probes of the presence of a layer of individual DNA nucleobases adsorbed on the graphene surface. We show that GFETs are able to measure distinct coverage-dependent conductance signatures upon adsorption of the four different DNA nucleobases; a result that can be attributed to the formation of an interface dipole field. Comparison between experimental GFET results and synchrotron-based material analysis allowed prediction of the ultimate device sensitivity, and assessment of the feasibility of single nucleobase sensing with graphene.

Surface transfer doping of hydrogen-terminated diamond by C60F48: Energy level scheme and doping efficiency

Surface sensitive C1s core level photoelectron spectroscopy was used to examine the electronic properties of C(60)F(48) molecules on the C(100):H surface. An upward band bending of 0.74 eV in response to surface transfer doping by fluorofullerene molecules is measured. Two distinct molecular charge states of C(60)F(48) are identified and their relative concentration determined as a function of coverage. One corresponds to ionized molecules that participate in surface charge transfer and the other to neutral molecules that do not. The position of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital of neutral C(60)F(48) which is the relevant acceptor level for transfer doping lies initially 0.6 eV below the valence band maximum and shifts upwards in the course of transfer doping by up to 0.43 eV due to a doping induced surface dipole. This upward shift in conjunction with the band bending determines the occupation of the acceptor level and limits the ultimately achievable hole concentration with C(60)F(48) as a surface acceptor to values close to 10(13) cm(-2) as reported in the literature.

Quick AS NEXAFS Tool (QANT): a program for NEXAFS loading and analysis developed at the Australian Synchrotron

An analysis program for near-edge X-ray absorption fine-structure (NEXAFS) spectra has been developed and implemented at the soft X-ray beamline of the Australian Synchrotron. The program allows for instant viewing of corrected data channels including normalizations to a standard, double normalizations when the standard itself has an undesired spectral response, and background subtraction. The program performs simple compositional analysis and peak fitting and includes rapid common calculations such as the average tilt angle of molecules with respect to the surface, and the determination of the complex index of refraction, which previously required intensive manual analysis. These functionalities make common manipulations carried out with NEXAFS data quick and straightforward as spectra are collected, greatly increasing the efficiency and overall throughput of NEXAFS experiments.

Tuning the charge carriers in epitaxial graphene on SiC(0001) from electron to hole via molecular doping with C60F48

We demonstrate that the intrinsic electron doping of monolayer epitaxial graphene on SiC(0001) can be tuned in a controlled fashion to holes via molecular doping with the fluorinated fullerene C60F48. In situ angle-resolved photoemission is used to measure an upward shift of (0.6 ± 0.05) eV in the Dirac point from −0.43 eV to +0.17 eV relative to the Fermi level. The carrier density is observed to change from n ∼ (1 × 1013 ± 0.1 × 1013) cm−2 to p ∼ (2 × 1012 ± 1 × 1012) cm−2. We introduce a doping model employing Fermi-Dirac statistics which explicitly takes temperature and the highly correlated nature of molecular orbitals into account. The model describes the observed doping behaviour in our experiment and readily explains why net p-type doping was not achieved in a previous study [Coletti et al., Phys. Rev. B 81, 8 (2010)] which used tetrafluorotetra-cyanoquinodimethane (F4-TCNQ).

New Insights into the Substrate-Plasma Polymer Interface

We describe a new method to characterize the underside (substrate interface) of plasma polymer (PP) thin films via their simple delamination from a sodium chloride single crystal substrate. By depositing the PP film onto an ionic bonded surface such as a sodium chloride crystal, the PP films investigated were easily delaminated from the substrate. Two plasma polymer films deposited from 1-bromopropane (BrPP) and allylamine (AAPP) were used to exemplify this new technique. The top- and underside (substrate-plasma polymer interface) of the films were examined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and synchrotron-based near edge X-ray adsorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy. The results demonstrate that both films exhibit heterogeneous film structures with their chemical composition and levels of unsaturated species. The underside of both the BrPP and the AAPP films exhibited higher concentrations of oxygen, while their topsides contained higher levels of unsaturated species. These results provide useful insights into the BrPP and AAPP film formation and the chemistry. The delamination technique provides a simple method to analyze the early stages of film chemistry for plasma polymer thin films. Furthermore, this approach opens new opportunities for additional studies on the mechanisms and fundamentals of plasma polymer thin film formation with various monomers.

Air-Stable Electron Depletion of Bi2Se3 Using Molybdenum Trioxide into the Topological Regime

We perform high-resolution photoelectron spectroscopy on in situ cleaved topological insulator Bi2Se3 single crystals and in situ transport measurements on Bi2Se3 films grown by molecular beam epitaxy. We demonstrate efficient electron depletion of Bi2Se3 via vacuum deposition of molecular MoO3, lowering the surface Fermi energy to within ∼100 meV of the Dirac point, well into the topological regime. A 100 nm MoO3 film provides an air-stable doping and passivation layer.

Surface band bending and electron affinity as a function of hole accumulation density in surface conducting diamond

Simultaneous measurements of work function (ϕ) and C 1s core level shift were employed to determine the change in electron affinity (χ) and band bending as a function of hole sheet density on H-terminated diamond for atmospheric and fullerene (C60F48) induced surface conductivity. Contrary to earlier investigations, it is shown that changes in work function do not reflect variations in the position of the surface Fermi level in response to surface transfer doping. Instead, with a transition from −0.96 to −0.33 eV, χ accounts for a significant amount of the change in ϕ for hole densities between 5×108 and 4×1013 cm−2.