Sara M. Rupich

Low-Temperature Synthesis of a TiO2/Si Heterojunction

The classical SiO2/Si interface, which is the basis of integrated circuit technology, is prepared by thermal oxidation followed by high temperature (>800 °C) annealing. Here we show that an interface synthesized between titanium dioxide (TiO2) and hydrogen-terminated silicon (H:Si) is a highly efficient solar cell heterojunction that can be prepared under typical laboratory conditions from a simple organometallic precursor. A thin film of TiO2 is grown on the surface of H:Si through a sequence of vapor deposition of titanium tetra(tert-butoxide) (1) and heating to 100 °C. The TiO2 film serves as a hole-blocking layer in a TiO2/Si heterojunction solar cell. Further heating to 250 °C and then treating with a dilute solution of 1 yields a hole surface recombination velocity of 16 cm/s, which is comparable to the best values reported for the classical SiO2/Si interface. The outstanding performance of this heterojunction is attributed to Si-O-Ti bonding at the TiO2/Si interface, which was probed by angle-resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) showed that Si-H bonds remain even after annealing at 250 °C. The ease and scalability of the synthetic route employed and the quality of the interface it provides suggest that this surface chemistry has the potential to enable fundamentally new, efficient silicon solar cell devices.

Substrate selectivity in the low temperature atomic layer deposition of cobalt metal films from bis(1,4-di- tert -butyl-1,3-diazadienyl)cobalt and formic acid

The initial stages of cobalt metal growth by atomic layer deposition are described using the precursors bis(1,4-di-tert-butyl-1,3-diazadienyl)cobalt and formic acid. Ruthenium, platinum, copper, Si(100), Si-H, SiO2, and carbon-doped oxide substrates were used with a growth temperature of 180 °C. On platinum and copper, plots of thickness versus number of growth cycles were linear between 25 and 250 cycles, with growth rates of 0.98 Å/cycle. By contrast, growth on ruthenium showed a delay of up to 250 cycles before a normal growth rate was obtained. No films were observed after 25 and 50 cycles. Between 100 and 150 cycles, a rapid growth rate of ∼1.6 Å/cycle was observed, which suggests that a chemical vapor deposition-like growth occurs until the ruthenium surface is covered with ∼10 nm of cobalt metal. Atomic force microscopy showed smooth, continuous cobalt metal films on platinum after 150 cycles, with an rms surface roughness of 0.6 nm. Films grown on copper gave rms surface roughnesses of 1.1-2.4 nm after 150 cycles. Films grown on ruthenium, platinum, and copper showed resistivities of <20 μΩ cm after 250 cycles and had values close to those of the uncoated substrates at ≤150 cycles. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of films grown with 150 cycles on a platinum substrate showed surface oxidation of the cobalt, with cobalt metal underneath. Analogous analysis of a film grown with 150 cycles on a copper substrate showed cobalt oxide throughout the film. No film growth was observed after 1000 cycles on Si(100), Si-H, and carbon-doped oxide substrates. Growth on thermal SiO2 substrates gave ∼35 nm thick layers of cobalt(ii) formate after ≥500 cycles. Inherently selective deposition of cobalt on metallic substrates over Si(100), Si-H, and carbon-doped oxide was observed from 160 °C to 200 °C. Particle deposition occurred on carbon-doped oxide substrates at 220 °C.

Order of magnitude enhancement of monolayer MoS2 photoluminescence due to near-field energy influx from nanocrystal films

Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) like MoS2 are promising candidates for various optoelectronic applications. The typical photoluminescence (PL) of monolayer MoS2 is however known to suffer very low quantum yields. We demonstrate a 10-fold increase of MoS2 excitonic PL enabled by nonradiative energy transfer (NRET) from adjacent nanocrystal quantum dot (NQD) films. The understanding of this effect is facilitated by our application of transient absorption (TA) spectroscopy to monitor the energy influx into the monolayer MoS2 in the process of ET from photoexcited CdSe/ZnS nanocrystals. In contrast to PL spectroscopy, TA can detect even non-emissive excitons, and we register an order of magnitude enhancement of the MoS2 excitonic TA signatures in hybrids with NQDs. The appearance of ET-induced nanosecond-scale kinetics in TA features is consistent with PL dynamics of energy-accepting MoS2 and PL quenching data of the energy-donating NQDs. The observed enhancement is attributed to the reduction of recombination losses for excitons gradually transferred into MoS2 under quasi-resonant conditions as compared with their direct photoproduction. The TA and PL data clearly illustrate the efficacy of MoS2 and likely other TMDC materials as energy acceptors and the possibility of their practical utilization in NRET-coupled hybrid nanostructures.

Role of excess ligand and effect of thermal treatment in hybrid inorganic-organic EUV resists

The chemical structure and thermal reactivity of recently discovered inorganic-organic hybrid resist materials are characterized using a combination of in situ and ex situ infrared (IR) spectroscopy and x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS). The materials are comprised of a small HfOx core capped with methacrylic acid ligands that form a combined hybrid cluster, HfMAA. The observed IR modes are consistent with the calculated modes predicted from the previously determined x-ray crystal structure of the HfMAA-12 cluster, but also contain extrinsic hydroxyl groups. We find that the water content of the films is dependent on the concentration of excess ligand added to the solution. The effect of environment used during post-application baking (PAB) is studied and correlated to changes in solubility of the films. In doing so, we find that hydroxylation of the clusters results in formation of additional Hf-O-Hf linkages upon heating, which in turn impacts the solubility of the films.