Henry Romanus

Interface behaviour in nickel composite coatings with nano-particles of oxidic ceramic

Advances in micro-technology demand that new functional materials be developed so that the technical properties of micro-devices can be improved at reasonable cost. The co-deposition of nanoscaled particles during an electroplating process has been shown to bring such an improvement. This work focuses on particles of oxidic ceramics, in this case those of Al2O3 and TiO2. The diameters of the primary particles ranges from 10 to 30 nm, electrodeposited by means of a conventional Watts nickel electrolyte. A series of nickel nano-ceramic composites were produced, with co-deposition of particles as a single primary particle in the nanometre range at one end of the scale and as agglomerates up to a size of a micrometer at the other. The influence of the presence of particles on crystallisation behaviour, residual stress and texture of the deposited nickel coatings was examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD). There is a report on the interfaces between the nickel grains and the oxidic ceramic particles, investigated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). A decreasing corrosion stability indicates an attack along the interface nickel/particles.

Phase selective growth and properties of rhombohedral and cubic indium oxide

Phase selective growth of rhombohedral and cubic indium oxide polytypes was studied. The selective growth of different polytypes was achieved by adjusting substrate temperature and trimethylindium flow rate during metal organic chemical vapor deposition on c-plane sapphire. The optical band gaps of the cubic and rhombohedral phases were determined to be ∼3.7 and ∼3.0eV, respectively. On the basis of the performed structural investigations, a phenomenological model of the nucleation and growth of highly textured cubic In2O3 on Al2O3 (0001) is proposed.

Preparation of single phase tungsten carbide by annealing of sputtered tungsten-carbon layers

Abstract Tungsten carbide layers were prepared by sputtering from a stoichiometric WC target and subsequent annealing. Carbide formation was found at temperatures above 800°C. Annealing in pure hydrogen ambient results in a carbon depletion in the layers and the formation of a dominant W 2 C phase. We demonstrate that propane added to the annealing ambient stimulates a transformation of the tungsten-carbon layers to a stoichiometric WC phase. The variation of the propane concentration allows a continuously alteration of the layer structure between single phase WC and a mixed layer with dominant W 2 C and the adjustment of different values of the electrical resistance and the optical constants.

The role of Si as surfactant and donor in molecular-beam epitaxy of AlN

The growth of Si-doped AlN(0001) thin films on Al2O3(0001) substrates by plasma-induced molecular-beam epitaxy is reported. We have found that Si positively affects the epitaxy being an effective surfactant for AlN growth with a remarkable impact on the crystal quality. It was proven that the characteristic surface reconstruction sequences frequently related to the Al adatoms are obviously Si induced on AlN(0001) surfaces. It was also observed that heavy doping conditions result in volume segregation of Si on the threading dislocation network and in the formation of an amorphous (AlO)(SiO)N cap layer caused by surface oxidation of the accumulated Al and segregated Si. The electron affinity was measured to be smaller than 0.5eV on the clean AlN surface after removing of the cap layer using Ar+ sputtering.

Photoreduction and oxidation behavior of In2O3 nanoparticles by metal organic chemical vapor deposition

In2O3 nanoparticles were synthesized at low substrate temperatures by the metal organic chemical vapor deposition technique. Nanoparticles with a mean diameter from 3 to 33 nm can be obtained by varying the growth temperature. Photoreduction and oxidation studies were carried out for particle-containing layers exhibiting a resistance change of more than five orders of magnitude after ultraviolet irradiation and oxidation by ozone. A grain boundary model was proposed to understand the photoreduction and oxidation mechanism for the nanoparticle layers. It was suggested that by photoreduction the nanoparticles are reactivated throughout the layer. The Schottky barrier between the nanoparticles decreases inducing a reduction of the space-charge-limited region. After oxidation, a completely depleted space-charge region covering the whole volume of In2O3 nanoparticles is formed. Furthermore, the bulk diffusion process dominates the response of thick layers during the oxidation process. By decreasing the layer t...

A comparative study of the electrical properties of heavily Al implanted, single crystalline and nanocrystalline SiC

The electrical properties of heavily Al doped single and nanocrystalline 4H–SiC layers on semi-insulating 4H–SiC substrate, prepared by multienergy, high-fluence Al implantation and subsequent furnace annealing, are investigated by sheet resistance and Hall effect measurements. Ion beam induced crystallization is used to prepare the nanocrystalline SiC layers. The doping levels are chosen around the solid solubility limit of 2×1020cm−3 in the range from 5×1019to1.5×1021cm−3. The comparison of the results shows that heavily Al doped single crystalline SiC layers have superior conduction properties. The lowest resistivities measured at room temperature are 0.08 and 0.8Ωcm for the single crystalline and nanocrystalline samples, respectively. Recent results on enhanced Al acceptor activation in nanocrystalline SiC cannot be confirmed. There is an upper limit for the hole concentration in the nanocrystalline samples independent of the Al supersaturation level in the as-implanted state due to outdiffusion of Al...

Atomic force microscopy investigations of rapid thermal carbonized silicon

Abstract Thin cubic silicon carbide layers grown by carbonization in a rapid thermal processing equipment were investigated by atomic force microscopy. Different roughness descriptions were applied and compared for the characterisation. A special attention was drawn on the morphology evolution during the initial stages of the growth. The surface roughness increases during the first, i.e. the linear growth period, run through a maximum at the point where the growth rate is decreasing, i.e. the saturation set in, and decreases slightly with further growth. Regarding to the common growth model, at the maximum point, the laterally grown crystallites are touching and sealing off the surface. Decreasing the propane concentration in hydrogen results in a slight decreasing of the density of the crystallites and increase of its size. Additionally pits in the surface and well shaped objects were also observed. In increasing the temperature the surface features were shaped more clearly. This indicates predominant three-dimensional growth.

High-Resolution XRD Investigations of the Strain Reduction in 3C-SiC Thin Films Grown on Si (111) Substrates

In this work the biaxial stress of 3C-SiC thin films epitaxia lly grown on Si(111) substrates has been investigated by using x-ray diffraction methods. The influence of the resulting strain on the electrical properties of SiC/Si heterojunctions was an lyzed. Different methods to prepare the surface prior to the SiC deposition were compared: (i) ex situ carbonization, (ii) interface modification by deposition of Ge prior to epitaxial growth and (iii) annealing of the silicon surface. The x-ray measurements revealed the lowest strain in ex situ carbonized samples, showing a transition from tensile to compressive strain when off-axis substrates were used. The highest strain appeared in SiC layers grown on a thin Ge intermediate layer whi ch was deposited prior to SiC growth without an additional annealing step of the substrate. The strai n in the SiC layer is directly correlated with the reverse current through the heterojunction. Introduction Epitaxially grown mismatched semiconductor heterostructures are of increasing importance for microand optoelectronic devices or circuits. Lattice mismatched layers can be elastically strained by pseudomorphic growth on the substrate. Alternatively the strain can be relieved by relaxation of the epilayer due to formation of misfit dislocations resulting in a n in-plane lattice parameter of the epitaxial film close to that of the bulk material. If epitaxia l l yers of 3C-SiC are grown on Si substrates the large mismatch in the lattice constants and the thermal expansion coefficients lead to a substantial residual tensile strain. A significant part of the 20% mismatch in lattice constants can be released by the formation of a dislocation network. However, the mis match in thermal expansion coefficients of SiC and Si introduces an additional strain into the s yst m during the cooling down process after growth. This strain results in a strong degradation of the layer properties and a wafer warpage, limiting the use of SiC/Si hetrostructures for device a pplications and as pseudo substrate for the deposition of group III-nitrides. In this work we analyze the e ffect of different techniques to minimize the residual strain of the SiC layers and to improve the structural and electrical properties of the grown heterostructures. Experimental The 3C-SiC thin films (thickness ~120 nm) were grown by solid-source mol cular-beam epitaxy (MBE) on (111)-oriented onand off-axis Si crystal wafers at a substrate temperature of 1000°C with a growth rate around 1 nm/min. Prior to epitaxial growth the Si( 111) substrates were prepared by different methods. The first method uses an ex vacuo carbonization process at 1280°C in a propane-hydrogen atmosphere inside a rapid thermal processing (RTP) sy stem [1]. The MBE Materials Science Forum Online: 2003-09-15 ISSN: 1662-9752, Vols. 433-436, pp 233-236 doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.433-436.233

Optical properties of anodically degraded ZnO

We discuss the optical properties of non-degraded and anodically degraded boron-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:B) deposited by low-pressure chemical vapour deposition on soda-lime glass. The optical model used to simulate the infrared reflectance in the wavelength range between 1.2 and 25 μm is based on the Maxwell-Garnett effective-medium theory. The model is sensitive to the conditions at the grain boundaries of the investigated polycrystalline ZnO:B films. We confirm that the presence of defect-rich grain boundaries, especially after degradation, causes a highly resistive ZnO:B film. Furthermore, indications of a degraded zinc oxide layer next to the ZnO:B/glass interface with different refractive index are found. We present evidence for the creation of oxygen vacancies, based on Raman investigations, which correlate with a shift of the optical absorption edge of the ZnO:B. Investigations with scanning and transmission electron microscopy show microvoids at the grain boundaries after anodic degradation. This indicates that the grain/grain interfaces are the principle location of defects after degradation.

Au-NiO nanocrystalline thin films for sensor application

Nanocrystalline NiO thin films were deposited by dc reactive magnetron sputtering in a mixture of oxygen and argon and subsequently coated by Au on a NiO film surface. Very thin Au overlayers with a thickness of about 1 and 7 nm have been prepared by magnetron sputtering. Then, the surface modified NiO films have been analysed by TEM, EDX and SEM. NiO thin films showed a polycrystalline structure with the size of nanocrystals ranging from a few nanometers to 10 nm. Electrical responses of NiO-based structure towards hydrogen have been measured.