Cecilia Århammar

Room temperature ferromagnetism in pristine MgO thin films

Robust ferromagnetic ordering at, and well above room temperature is observed in pure transparent MgO thin films (<170 nm thick) deposited by three different techniques. Careful study of the wid ...

Unveiling the complex electronic structure of amorphous metal oxides

Amorphous materials represent a large and important emerging area of material’s science. Amorphous oxides are key technological oxides in applications such as a gate dielectric in Complementary metal-oxide semiconductor devices and in Silicon-Oxide-Nitride-Oxide-Silicon and TANOS (TaN-Al2O3-Si3N4-SiO2-Silicon) flash memories. These technologies are required for the high packing density of today’s integrated circuits. Therefore the investigation of defect states in these structures is crucial. In this work we present X-ray synchrotron measurements, with an energy resolution which is about 5–10 times higher than is attainable with standard spectrometers, of amorphous alumina. We demonstrate that our experimental results are in agreement with calculated spectra of amorphous alumina which we have generated by stochastic quenching. This first principles method, which we have recently developed, is found to be superior to molecular dynamics in simulating the rapid gas to solid transition that takes place as this material is deposited for thin film applications. We detect and analyze in detail states in the band gap that originate from oxygen pairs. Similar states were previously found in amorphous alumina by other spectroscopic methods and were assigned to oxygen vacancies claimed to act mutually as electron and hole traps. The oxygen pairs which we probe in this work act as hole traps only and will influence the information retention in electronic devices. In amorphous silica oxygen pairs have already been found, thus they may be a feature which is characteristic also of other amorphous metal oxides.

The R3-carbon allotrope: a pathway towards glassy carbon under high pressure

Pressure-induced bond type switching and phase transformation in glassy carbon (GC) has been simulated by means of Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations and the Stochastic Quenching method (SQ) in a wide range of pressures (0–79 GPa). Under pressure, the GC experiences a hardening transition from sp- and sp2-type to sp3-type bonding, in agreement with previous experimental results. Moreover, a new crystalline carbon allotrope possessing R3 symmetry (R3-carbon) is predicted using the stochastic SQ method. The results indicate that R3-carbon can be regarded as an allotrope similar to that of amorphous GC. A very small difference in the heat of formation and the coherence of the radial and angular distribution functions of GC and the R3-carbon structure imply that small perturbations to this crystalline carbon allotrope may provide another possible amorphization pathway of carbon besides that of quenching the liquid melt or gas by ultra-fast cooling.

Tuning magnetic properties of In2O3 by control of intrinsic defects

The electronic structure and magnetic properties of In2O3 with four kinds of intrinsic point defects (O vacancy, In interstitial, O interstitial, and In vacancy) have been theoretically studied usi ...