Nikolaos Kelaidis

Two-dimensional semiconductor HfSe2 and MoSe2/HfSe2 van der Waals heterostructures by molecular beam epitaxy

Using molecular beam epitaxy, atomically thin 2D semiconductor HfSe2 and MoSe2/HfSe2 van der Waals heterostructures are grown on AlN(0001)/Si(111) substrates. Details of the electronic band structure of HfSe2 are imaged by in-situ angle resolved photoelectron spectroscopy indicating a high quality epitaxial layer. High-resolution surface tunneling microscopy supported by first principles calculations provides evidence of an ordered Se adlayer, which may be responsible for a reduction of the measured workfunction of HfSe2 compared to theoretical predictions. The latter reduction minimizes the workfunction difference between the HfSe2 and MoSe2 layers resulting in a small valence band offset of only 0.13u2009eV at the MoSe2/HfSe2 heterointerface and a weak type II band alignment.

Epitaxial 2D MoSe2 (HfSe2) Semiconductor/2D TaSe2 Metal van der Waals Heterostructures

Molecular beam epitaxy of 2D metal TaSe2/2D MoSe2 (HfSe2) semiconductor heterostructures on epi-AlN(0001)/Si(111) substrates is reported. Electron diffraction reveals an in-plane orientation indicative of van der Waals epitaxy, whereas electronic band imaging supported by first-principles calculations and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicate the presence of a dominant trigonal prismatic 2H-TaSe2 phase and a minor contribution from octahedrally coordinated TaSe2, which is present in TaSe2/AlN and TaSe2/HfSe2/AlN but notably absent in the TaSe2/MoSe2/AlN, indicating superior structural quality of TaSe2 grown on MoSe2. Apart from its structural and chemical compatibility with the selenide semiconductors, TaSe2 has a workfunction of 5.5 eV as measured by ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy, which matches very well with the semiconductor workfunctions, implying that epi-TaSe2 can be used for low-resistivity contacts to MoSe2 and HfSe2.

Electronic band structure imaging of three layer twisted graphene on single crystal Cu(111)

Few layer graphene (FLG) is grown on single crystal Cu(111) by Chemical Vapor Deposition, and the electronic valence band structure is imaged by Angle-Resolved Photo-Emission Spectroscopy. It is found that graphene essentially grows polycrystalline. Three nearly ideal Dirac cones are observed along the Cu Γ¯K¯ direction in k-space, attributed to the presence of ∼4° twisted three layer graphene with negligible interlayer coupling. The number of layers and the stacking order are compatible with Raman data analysis demonstrating the complementarity of the two techniques for a more accurate characterization of FLG.

Defects and lithium migration in Li2CuO2

Li2CuO2 is an important candidate material as a cathode in lithium ion batteries. Atomistic simulation methods are used to investigate the defect processes, electronic structure and lithium migration mechanisms in Li2CuO2. Here we show that the lithium energy of migration via the vacancy mechanism is very low, at 0.11u2009eV. The high lithium Frenkel energy (1.88u2009eV/defect) prompted the consideration of defect engineering strategies in order to increase the concentration of lithium vacancies that act as vehicles for the vacancy mediated lithium self-diffusion in Li2CuO2. It is shown that aluminium doping will significantly reduce the energy required to form a lithium vacancy from 1.88u2009eV to 0.97u2009eV for every aluminium introduced, however, it will also increase the migration energy barrier of lithium in the vicinity of the aluminium dopant to 0.22u2009eV. Still, the introduction of aluminium is favourable compared to the lithium Frenkel process. Other trivalent dopants considered herein require significantly higher solution energies, whereas their impact on the migration energy barrier was more pronounced. When considering the electronic structure of defective Li2CuO2, the presence of aluminium dopants results in the introduction of electronic states into the energy band gap. Therefore, doping with aluminium is an effective doping strategy to increase the concentration of lithium vacancies, with a minimal impact on the kinetics.

Reducing the layer number of AB stacked multilayer graphene grown on nickel by annealing at low temperature.

Controlling the number of layers of graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition is crucial for large scale graphene application. We propose here an etching process of graphene which can be applied immediately after growth to control the number of layers. We use nickel (Ni) foil at high temperature (T = 900 °C) to produce multilayer-AB-stacked-graphene (MLG). The etching process is based on annealing the samples in a hydrogen/argon atmosphere at a relatively low temperature (T = 450 °C) inside the growth chamber. The extent of etching is mainly controlled by the annealing process duration. Using Raman spectroscopy we demonstrate that the number of layers was reduced, changing from MLG to few-layer-AB-stacked-graphene and in some cases to randomly oriented few layer graphene near the substrate. Furthermore, our method offers the significant advantage that it does not introduce defects in the samples, maintaining their original high quality. This fact and the low temperature our method uses make it a good candidate for controlling the layer number of already grown graphene in processes with a low thermal budget.

Early electromigration effects and early resistance changes

Abstract This paper reviews different known physical phenomena acting during electromigration, such as changes in the mechanical stress of the metal line, void growth and precipitation/dissolution of alloy elements (Cu, Si) and their effects on early resistance changes. The superposition of all these phenomena is also discussed to describe the typical early resistance changes detected in Al–Cu lines of the present technology.

Defect processes in Li2ZrO3: insights from atomistic modelling

Lithium zirconate (Li2ZrO3) is an important material that is considered as an anode in lithium-ion batteries and as a nuclear reactor breeder material. The intrinsic defect processes and doping can impact its material properties. In the present study we employ density functional theory calculations to calculate the defect processes and doping in Li2ZrO3. Here we show that the lithium Frenkel is the dominant intrinsic defect process and that dopants substituting in the zirconium site strongly associate with oxygen vacancies. In particular, it is calculated that divalent dopants more strongly bind with oxygen vacancies, with trivalent dopants following in binding energies and even tetravalent dopands having significant binding energies. The results are discussed in view of the application of Li2ZrO3 in energy applications.

Defect pair formation in fluorine and nitrogen codoped TiO2

Titanium oxide is extensively investigated because of its high chemical stability and its photocatalytic properties; nevertheless, the large band gap limits its activity to a small portion of the solar spectrum. Nitrogen and fluorine codoping is an efficient defect engineering strategy to increase the photocatalytic activity of titanium oxide. In the present study, we apply density functional theory to investigate the interaction of nitrogen with fluorine and the formation of defect pairs. We show that in fluorine and nitrogen codoped titanium oxide, the FiNi, FONi, and FiNTi defects can form. Their impact on the electronic structure of titanium oxide is discussed.

Hydrogen and nitrogen codoping of anatase TiO 2 for efficiency enhancement in organic solar cells

TiO2 has high chemical stability, strong catalytic activity and is an electron transport material in organic solar cells. However, the presence of trap states near the band edges of TiO2 arising from defects at grain boundaries significantly affects the efficiency of organic solar cells. To become an efficient electron transport material for organic photovoltaics and related devices, such as perovskite solar cells and photocatalytic devices, it is important to tailor its band edges via doping. Nitrogen p-type doping has attracted considerable attention in enhancing the photocatalytic efficiency of TiO2 under visible light irradiation while hydrogen n-type doping increases its electron conductivity. DFT calculations in TiO2 provide evidence that nitrogen and hydrogen can be incorporated in interstitial sites and possibly form NiHi, NiHO and NTiHi defects. The experimental results indicate that NiHi defects are most likely formed and these defects do not introduce deep level states. Furthermore, we show that the efficiency of P3HT:IC60BA-based organic photovoltaicxa0devices is enhanced when using hydrogen-doping and nitrogen/hydrogen codoping of TiO2, both boosting the material n-type conductivity, with maximum power conversion efficiency reaching values of 6.51% and 6.58%, respectively, which are much higher than those of the cells with the as-deposited (4.87%) and nitrogen-doped TiO2 (4.46%).

Study of interfacial defects induced during the oxidation of ultrathin strained silicon layers

In this work ultrathin strained silicon layers grown on relaxed Si0.9Ge0.1 substrates were oxidized under high thermal budget conditions in N2O ambient at 800u2009°C. The results indicate that the density of interface traps depends on the extent of the oxidation process. If the strained Si layer is totally consumed the density of interface traps reduces to almost half the value as compared to the case where a part of the strained Si layer still remains. The results indicate that the two existing interfaces of the strained Si layer, the SiO2/strained-Si and the strained-Si/Si0.9Ge0.1, contribute in parallel to the measured interface trap density. In addition, the buried strained-Si/Si0.9Ge0.1 interface constitutes a major source of the observed high density of interface traps.