Nasrin Banu

Defect engineered d0 ferromagnetism in tin-doped indium oxide nanostructures and nanocrystalline thin-films

Origin of unexpected defect engineered room-temperature ferromagnetism observed in tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) nanostructures (Nanowires, Nano-combs) and nanocrystalline thin films fabricated by pulsed laser deposition has been investigated. It is found that the ITO nanostructures prepared under argon environment exhibit strongest ferromagnetic signature as compared to that nanocrystalline thin films grown at oxygen. The evidence of singly ionized oxygen vacancy (V0+) defects, obtained from various spectroscopic measurements, suggests that such V0+ defects are mainly responsible for the intrinsic ferromagnetic ordering. The exchange interaction of the defects provides extensive opportunity to tune the room-temperature d0 ferromagnetism and optical properties of ITOs.

High density nonmagnetic cobalt in thin films

Recently high density (HD) nonmagnetic cobalt has been discovered in a nanoscale cobalt thin film, grown on Si(111) single crystal. This form of cobalt is not only nonmagnetic but also superconducting. These promising results have encouraged further investigations of the growth of the nonmagnetic (NM) phase of cobalt. In the original investigation, the cobalt film had a natural cobalt oxide at the top. We have investigated whether the growth of HD NM cobalt layers in the thin film depends on (i) a capping layer on the cobalt film, (ii) the thickness of the cobalt film and (iii) the nature of the substrate on which the cobalt film is grown. The results of such investigations indicate that for cobalt films capped with a thin gold layer, and for various film thicknesses, HD NM cobalt layers are formed. However, instead of a Si substrate, when the cobalt films are grown on oxide substrates, such as silicon oxide or cobalt oxide, HD NM cobalt layers are not formed. The difference is attributed to the nature-crystalline or amorphous-of the substrate.

Evidence of Formation of Superdense Nonmagnetic Cobalt

Because of the presence of 3d transition metals in the Earth’s core, magnetism of these materials in their dense phases has been a topic of great interest. Theory predicts a dense face-centred-cubic phase of cobalt, which would be nonmagnetic. However, this dense nonmagnetic cobalt has not yet been observed. Recent investigations in thin film polycrystalline materials have shown the formation of compressive stress, which can increase the density of materials. We have discovered the existence of ultrathin superdense nonmagnetic cobalt layers in a polycrystalline cobalt thin film. The densities of these layers are about 1.2–1.4 times the normal density of Co. This has been revealed by X-ray reflectometry experiments, and corroborated by polarized neutron reflectometry (PNR) experiments. Transmission electron microscopy provides further evidence. The magnetic depth profile, obtained by PNR, shows that the superdense Co layers near the top of the film and at the film-substrate interface are nonmagnetic. The major part of the Co film has the usual density and magnetic moment. These results indicate the possibility of existence of nonmagnetic Co in the earth’s core under high pressure.

Unidirectional endotaxial cobalt di-silicide nanowires on Si(110) substrates

Self-organized growth of well-ordered endotaxial silicide nanowires (NWs) on clean Si(110) surfaces has been investigated by in situ scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Co deposition on clean Si(110) reconstructed surfaces at ∼600 °C produces unidirectional CoSi2 NWs by reaction of cobalt with the hot silicon substrate. STM investigations reveal four major types of distinct NWs, all growing along the [-110] in-plane direction except one type growing along the in-plane [-113] direction. There are also some nanodots. The cross-sectional TEM measurements show that the unidirectional NWs are of two types-flat-top and ridged. The NWs grow not only on the substrate but also into the substrate. CoSi2 in flat top NWs are in the same crystallographic orientation as the substrate Si and the buried interfaces between CoSi2 and Si are A-type. In the ridged NWs CoSi2 and Si are in different crystallographic orientations and the interfaces are B-type. The ridged NWs are in general wider and grow deeper into the substrate.

Nanoscale η-NiSi formation via ion irradiation of Si/Ni/Si

Nickel monosilicide (NiSi) has emerged as an excellent material of choice for source-drain contact applications below 45 nm node complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology. We have investigated the formation of nanoscale NiSi by ion irradiation of Si (∼5 nm)/Ni(∼15 nm)/Si, grown in an ultrahigh vacuum environment. Irradiation was carried out at room temperature with 1 MeV Si+ ions. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were employed for analysis. With increasing ion fluence, ion beam mixing occurs and more and more Si is incorporated into the Ni layer, and this layer gets amorphized. At an even higher fluence, a recrystallized uniform nickel monosilicide (η-NiSi) layer is formed. Several planar spacings of different Miller indices of η-NiSi have been observed in XRD and TEM. Additionally, an interesting amorphization and recrystallization behavior has been observed in the substrate Si with increasing ion fluence. To our knowledge, this has never been observed in ion ir...

Real time investigation of the effect of thermal expansion coefficient mismatch on film-substrate strain partitioning in Ag/Si systems

We have used X-ray diffraction (XRD) to investigate strain partitioning between an epitaxial layer and the substrate as a function of temperature, where the substrate (Si) and the epilayer material (Ag) have large thermal expansion coefficient (α) mismatch. The Ag/Si(111) system undergoes morphological changes upon heating, and the larger and taller islands are formed exposing more substrate surfaces. Sample heating was carried out under nitrogen flow. At >300 °C, the Si(111) diffraction peak splits into three. One of these components conforms to the thermal expansion of bulk Si. The other two components correspond to a highly nonlinear decrease and increase of Si-d(111) planar spacing. The decreasing component has been associated with strained Si under Ag and the increasing component with strained Si under SiO2, which has been formed partly prior to the XRD experiment and partly during sample heating. The opposite trends of these two Si-d(111) components are because of the larger value of α for Ag (7 tim...

Growth of a-few-atom wide nanowires with different surface reconstructions via desorption of Au on vicinal Si (111) surfaces

We present scanning tunneling microscopy studies of adsorption and desorption of Au on vicinal Si (111) - 7×7 (4° miscut) surfaces. The Au film transforms into percolated structures due to annealing at 400 °C. On annealing at 800 °C, the Au film is found to evaporate completely from the terrace whereas the step edges retain the signature of Au in the form of droplets. This also modifies the atomic structure of the step-bunched facets which show nanowire-like structures with various surface reconstructions like 7×5, 5×3√2 and 5×2 which are Au-induced reconstructions.