P. Desjardins

Carbon nanotube sheets as electrodes in organic light-emitting diodes.

High performance organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) were implemented on transparent and conductive single-wall carbon nanotube sheets. At the maximum achieved brightness of 2800cdm−2 the luminance efficiency of our carbon nanotube-based OLED is 1.4cdA−1 which is comparable to the 1.9cdA−1 measured for an optimized indium tin oxide anode device made under the same experimental conditions. A thin parylene buffer layer between the carbon nanotube anode and the hole transport layer is required in order to readily achieve the measured performance.

Probing Charge Transfer at Surfaces Using Graphene Transistors

Graphene field effect transistors (FETs) are extremely sensitive to gas exposure. Charge transfer doping of graphene FETs by atmospheric gas is ubiquitous but not yet understood. We have used graphene FETs to probe minute changes in electrochemical potential during high-purity gas exposure experiments. Our study shows quantitatively that electrochemistry involving adsorbed water, graphene, and the substrate is responsible for doping. We not only identify the water/oxygen redox couple as the underlying mechanism but also capture the kinetics of this reaction. The graphene FET is highlighted here as an extremely sensitive potentiometer for probing electrochemical reactions at interfaces, arising from the unique density of states of graphene. This work establishes a fundamental basis on which new electrochemical nanoprobes and gas sensors can be developed with graphene.

Thin film reaction of transition metals with germanium

A systematic study of the thermally induced reaction of 20 transition metals (Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Nb, Ta, Cr, Mo, W, Mn, Re, Fe, Ru, Co, Rh, Ir, Ni, Pd, Pt, and Cu) with Ge substrates was carried out in order to identify appropriate contact materials in Ge-based microelectronic circuits. Thin metal films, nominally 30nm thick, were sputter deposited on both amorphous Ge and crystalline Ge(001). Metal-Ge reactions were monitored in situ during ramp anneals at 3°Cs−1 in an atmosphere of purified He using time-resolved x-ray diffraction, diffuse light scattering, and resistance measurements. These analyses allowed the determination of the phase formation sequence for each metal-Ge system and the identification of the most promising candidates—in terms of sheet resistance and surface roughness—for their use as first level interconnections in microelectronic circuits. A first group of metals (Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Nb, and Ta) reacted with Ge only at temperatures well above 450°C and was prone to oxidation. Another set (Cr...

Metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy of coherent self-assembled InAs nanometer-sized islands in InP(001)

The metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy of coherent self-assembled InAs islands on InP(001) is demonstrated. Samples are characterized using transmission electron microscopy and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy at 77 K. The deposition of ∼2.4–4.8 monolayers (ML) of InAs at 500°C followed by a 30 s growth interruption results in the formation of coherent islands whose average diameter is 30–35 nm with a standard deviation of 8 nm and whose areal density is (3–4)×1010 cm−2. The PL emission is centered at 0.79 eV and has a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 90 meV. When the nominal deposited thickness is increased to ∼9.6 ML, the average island diameter increases to ∼120 nm while the areal density decreases to ∼109 cm−2. The resulting PL is then centered at 0.83 eV with a FWHM of 130 meV and also displays a peak at 1.23 eV which is attributed to an InAs wetting layer ∼2 ML in thickness.

Low-temperature growth and critical epitaxial thicknesses of fully strained metastable Ge1−xSnx (x≲0.26) alloys on Ge(001)2×1

Epitaxial metastable Ge1−xSnx alloys with x up to 0.26 (the equilibrium solid solubility of Sn in Ge is <0.01) were grown on Ge(001)2×1 by low-temperature molecular beam epitaxy. Film growth temperatures Ts in these experiments were limited to a relatively narrow range around 100 °C by the combination of increased kinetic surface roughening at low temperatures and Sn surface segregation at high temperatures. All Ge1−xSnx films consisted of three distinct sublayers: the first is a highly perfect epitaxial region followed by a sublayer, with an increasingly rough surface, containing 111 stacking faults and microtwins, while the terminal sublayer is amorphous. Based upon reflection high energy electron diffraction and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (XTEM) analyses, critical epitaxial thicknesses tepi, defined as the onset of amorphous growth, were found to decrease from 1080 A for pure Ge to ≃35 A for alloys with x=0.26. TEM and XTEM analyses revealed no indication of misfit dislocations (e...

Direct oriented growth of armchair graphene nanoribbons on germanium

Graphene can be transformed from a semimetal into a semiconductor if it is confined into nanoribbons narrower than 10 nm with controlled crystallographic orientation and well-defined armchair edges. However, the scalable synthesis of nanoribbons with this precision directly on insulating or semiconducting substrates has not been possible. Here we demonstrate the synthesis of graphene nanoribbons on Ge(001) via chemical vapour deposition. The nanoribbons are self-aligning 3° from the Ge〈110〉 directions, are self-defining with predominantly smooth armchair edges, and have tunable width to <10 nm and aspect ratio to >70. In order to realize highly anisotropic ribbons, it is critical to operate in a regime in which the growth rate in the width direction is especially slow, <5 nm h−1. This directional and anisotropic growth enables nanoribbon fabrication directly on conventional semiconductor wafer platforms and, therefore, promises to allow the integration of nanoribbons into future hybrid integrated circuits.

Carbon Nanotubes as Injection Electrodes for Organic Thin Film Transistors

We have investigated the charge injection efficiency of carbon nanotube electrodes for organic semiconducting layers and compared their performance to that of traditional noble metal electrodes. Our results reveal that charge injection from a single carbon nanotube electrode is more than an order of magnitude more efficient than charge injection from metal electrodes. Moreover, organic thin film transistors that use arrays of carbon nanotube electrodes display considerable effective mobilities (0.14 cm(2)/(V.s)) and nearly ideal linear output characteristics. These results indicate that carbon nanotubes should be considered a viable alternative to metal electrodes for next-generation organic field-effect transistors.

Reaction of thin Ni films with Ge: Phase formation and texture

The solid-state reaction between a 30-nm-thick Ni film and Ge substrates was investigated using in situ x-ray diffraction, diffuse light scattering, and four-point probe electrical measurements. Our results reveal that Ni5Ge3 and NiGe appear consecutively on Ge(111) while they grow simultaneously on amorphous Ge(α-Ge) and Ge(001). Furthermore, phase formation temperatures depend strongly on the nature of the substrate being the lowest on α-Ge and the highest on Ge(111). X-ray pole figure measurements of the NiGe phase obtained from the reaction with an amorphous substrate indicate a completely random texture while several epitaxial and axiotaxial texture components are observed on both Ge(001) and Ge(111). The texturing for the NiGe film on Ge(111), which showed a sequential phase formation, is an order of magnitude more pronounced than for the film on Ge(001) which showed a simultaneous growth.

Electroluminescence from single-wall carbon nanotube network transistors.

The electroluminescence (EL) properties from single-wall carbon nanotube network field-effect transistors (NNFETs) and small bundle carbon nanotube field effect transistors (CNFETs) are studied using spectroscopy and imaging in the near-infrared (NIR). At room temperature, NNFETs produce broad (approximately 180 meV) and structured NIR spectra, while they are narrower (approximately 80 meV) for CNFETs. EL emission from NNFETs is located in the vicinity of the minority carrier injecting contact (drain) and the spectrum of the emission is red shifted with respect to the corresponding absorption spectrum. A phenomenological model based on a Fermi-Dirac distribution of carriers in the nanotube network reproduces the spectral features observed. This work supports bipolar (electron-hole) current recombination as the main mechanism of emission and highlights the drastic influence of carrier distribution on the optoelectronic properties of carbon nanotube films.

Epitaxial NaCl structure d-TaNx(001): Electronic transport properties, elastic modulus, and hardness versus N/Ta ratio

While metastable Bl-NaCl-structure d-TaNx. is presently used in a variety of hard coating, wear-resistant, and diffusion barrier applications, it is a complex material exhibiting a wide single-phase field, x?0.94-1.37, and little is known about its fundamental properties. Here, we report physical properties of epitaxial d-TaNx. layers grown as a function of x on MgO(00) by ultrahigh vacuum reactive magnetron sputter deposition. The room-temperature resistivity (? = 225 µO cm), hardness (H = 30.9 GPa), and elastic modulus (E = 455 GPa) of d-TaNx(001) are independent of x over the range 0.94-1.22. However, changes in the electronic structure associated with increasing x>1.22 lead to an increase in ? with a decrease in H and E. All d-TaNx(001) layers exhibit negative temperature coefficients of resistivity between 20 and 400 K due to weak carrier localization. d-TaNx is superconducting with the highest critical temperature, 8.45 K, obtained for layers with the lowest N/Ta ratio, x=0.94. Based upon the above results, combined with the fact that the relaxed lattice constant a0 shows only a very weak dependence on x, we propose that the wide phase field in d-TaNx is due primarily to antisite substitutions of Ta on N (and N on Ta) sites, rather than to cation and anion vacancies. To first order, antisite substitutions in TaNx are isoelectronic and hence have little effect on charge carrier density. At sufficiently high N/Ta ratios, however, simple electron-counting arguments are no longer valid since large deviations from stoichiometry alter the character of the band structure itself.