D.T. Britton

Fully printed silicon field effect transistors

This letter demonstrates the use of a traditional screen printing approach for the fabrication of silicon field effect transistors. Using purely additive patterning technologies at room temperature conditions, with no additional postprocessing steps, transistors have been produced on paper substrates that have performance characteristics comparable to amorphous silicon thin film transistors. Insulated gate field effect transistors employing n type silicon in the semiconductor layer operate in accumulation mode with effective carrier mobilities in the range 0.3 to 0.7 cm2 (V s)−1.

An improved pulsed low-energy positron system

A pulsed low-energy positron system for positron-lifetime spectroscopy has been up-graded and modified with regard to its three main components. A new moderator preparation chamber has been added, the radiofrequency pulsing concept has been modified using a pre-buncher and a pre-chopper in front of the existing chopper-buncher section. Furthermore, a new target station allowing measurements at variable temperatures has been incorporated. The lifetime spectra now reveal a strongly increased ratio of peak to background and of peak to satellite peak.

Ab initio pseudopotential study of vacancies and self-interstitials in hcp titanium

By means of an ab initio plane-wave pseudopotential method, monovacancy, divacancy and self-interstitials in hcp titanium are investigated. The calculated monovacancy formation energy is 1.97 eV, which is in excellent agreement with other theoretical calculations, and agrees qualitatively with published experimental results. The relaxation of the atoms around a single vacancy is observed to be small. Two divacancy configurations, the in-plane and the off-plane, have also been shown to be equally stable. With regards to the interstitials, of the eight configurations studied, two (octahedral and basal octahedral) have relatively lower formation energies and are, thus, the most likely stable configurations. We find small energy differences between them, suggesting their possible co-existence. It is also observed that the tetrahedral configuration decays to a split dumbbell configuration, whereas both the basal tetrahedral and the basal pseudocrowdion interstitials decay to the basal octahedral configuration. Using the nudged elastic band method (NEB), we determine a possible minimum energy path (MEP) for the diffusion of self-interstitial titanium atoms from an octahedral site to the nearest octahedral site. The energy barrier for this migration mechanism is shown to be about 0.20 eV.

Evidence for negatively charged vacancy defects in 6H-SiC after low-energy proton implantation

We have used pulsed-slow-positron-beam-based positron lifetime spectroscopy to investigate the nature of acceptors and charge states of vacancy-type defects in low-energy proton-implanted 6H-SiC(H). We can infer from the temperature dependence of the lifetime spectra that neutral and negatively charged vacancy clusters exist in the track region. Depending on annealing, they give rise to positron lifetimes of 257±2, 281±4, and 345±2 ps, respectively. The 281 ps cluster likely has an ionization level near the middle of the band gap. By comparison with theory, the 257 and 280 ps are identified as (VC–VSi)2 and (VC–VSi)3 clusters, respectively. In addition, other acceptors of ionic type act as strong trapping centers at low temperature (T<150 K). Neutral monovacancy-like complexes are also detected with a lifetime of 160±2 after 900 °C annealing.

Determination of the elastic modulus of mesoporous silica thin films by x-ray reflectivity via the capillary condensation of water

The mechanical properties of mesoporous silica films were characterized by x-ray reflectivity measurements. The measurements provide information on the deformation of the pores and the walls induced by the adsorption of water in the pores. The analysis of the nanoscaled deformations supplies a method to determine the elastic modulus E of thin porous films. The nanodeformation of the porous network during its filling with water is interpreted in three regimes of isotherm sorptions.

A Pulsed Positron Microbeam

The first pulsed microbeam for positrons in the keV energy range is described. The principle of operation and the construction details are given. The performance achieved is: 20 μm (FWHM) spot diameter; 350 ps (FWHM) time resolution; 5000 e+ /(s mCi) at 5 keV final energy.

The Influence of Strain on Point Defect Dynamics

Stress migration of point and open-volume defects is an important problem in a wide variety of applications, ranging from semiconductor technology and basic metallurgical problems to ion implantation and surface modification. Often the driving force of the drift is the local stress field of other defects in the material, although other sources of residual stress as well as external loads play an important role. This paper concentrates on the behaviour of non-equilibrium vacancies in a non-uniformly strained material. Illustrative models of one-dimensional problems are developed and compared to available experimental results in different ion implanted materials.

A Southern African positron beam

Abstract The first stage of a state of the art positron beam, being constructed at the University of Cape Town, is currently being brought into operation. This is the first positron beam on the African continent, as well as being the first positron beam dedicated to solid and surface studies in the southern hemisphere. The project also contains a high proportion of local development, including the encapsulated 22 Na positron source developed by our collaboration. Novel features in the design include a purely magnetic in-line deflector, working in the solenoidal guiding field, to eliminate unmoderated positrons and block the direct line of sight to the source. A combined magnetic projector and single pole probe forming lens is being implemented in the second phase of construction to achieve a spot size of ∼ 10 μm without remoderation.

On the sensitivity of positrons to electric fields and defects in MBE-grown silicon structures

The sensitivity of the positron to the internal electric fields in good quality thin (≈100 nm) Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE)-grown layers is experimentally demonstrated. Both a thin intrinsic layer grown on a p-type substrate and a highly n-doped δ profile buried in intrinsic silicon form effective barriers to positron diffusion although no defects can be detected. We also extract, from a full treatment of the positron diffusion, a quantitative estimate of the concentration, below the detection limits of other methods, of large vacancy clusters in a thick (680 nm) film.

Nanoparticle composites for printed electronics.

Printed Electronics is a rapidly developing sector in the electronics industry, in which nanostructured materials are playing an increasingly important role. In particular, inks containing dispersions of semiconducting nanoparticles, can form nanocomposite materials with unique electronic properties when cured. In this study we have extended on our previous studies of functional nanoparticle electronic inks, with the development of a solvent-based silicon ink for printed electronics which is compatible with existing silver inks, and with the investigation of other metal nanoparticle based inks. It is shown that both solvent-based and water-based inks can be used for both silver conductors and semiconducting silicon, and that qualitatively there is no difference in the electronic properties of the materials printed with a soluble polymer binder to when an acrylic binder is used.