Takuya Sakaguchi

Internal Friction of Hydrogenated Ti (Ni,Cu) Shape Memory Alloys

Effects of hydrogen doping on the internal friction (IF) of ternary Ti50Ni50-xCux (x=15, 20, 25) shape memory alloys, prepared by rolling and annealing laminating Ti and Ni-Cu alloy sheets, have been measured with a damping mechanical analyzer in a forced bending oscillation mode at temperatures from 173K to 423K at three frequencies, 0.1, 1 and 5Hz. The effects of hydrogen doping on IF are common to the three alloys: a hydrogen IF peak appears at around 260K; the IF peak value (tanφ) increases rapidly with increasing hydrogen concentration up to tanφ=0.03 at 0.5at% and then decreases; the peak temperature also increases rapidly and then gradually decreases. From the frequency dependence of the peak temperature, the activation energy E and the pre-exponential factor ω0 have been analyzed to be E=0.6-0.7eV and ω0=1013-14s-1. The origin of the hydrogen IF is interpreted to be the Snoek-Koester effect due to interaction of twin boundary dislocations and segregated hydrogen atoms. Effects of hydrogen on mechanical properties of the alloys have also been studied.

Susceptibility of Damping Behavior to the Solidification Condition in the As-Cast M2052 High-Damping Alloy

M2052 alloy is a MnCu based high damping alloy that shows high damping capacity and the superior workability. In the present work, the microstructure and damping behavior of the alloy in different solidification cooling rates are investigated with directionally cast alloy plate. For the variation of solidification cooling rate in the range of 250~10K/s, the secondary dendrite arm spacing of the cast alloy changes from 4 to 18mm and grain size varies in the range of 100~200mm except the surface regions and center regions in the cast plate. As compared to the worked and heat treated alloy, the as-cast alloy shows a high temperature damping above the average phase transformation temperature of the alloy irrespective to the solidification cooling rate. On the other hand, a higher damping peak is observed in the cast alloy which is attributed much to the twin boundary damping, however, the magnitudes of the damping peak are found to be varied corresponding to the respective solidification conditions.

Magnetic Properties of Fe-Pt Nanoparticle Protected by PVP Polymer

Annealing effect on the magnetic properties of Fe-Pt nanoparticle was investigated. Fe-Pt nanoparticles were synthesized by the chemical reduction of H2PtCl6 and the decomposition of Fe(CO)5 in the presence of PVP polymers. The samples were annealed at several temperatures from 350°C to 600°C and the structural and magnetic properties were studied by TEM, XRD and magnetization measurements. FePt nanoparticles as-synthesized showed super-paramagnetism and annealed samples at temperatures more than 400°C, ferromagnetism. The crystal structure of as-synthesized sample was disordered fcc, but chemically ordered fct, when it was annealed at more than 400°C. The annealing effects are the concatenation or agglomeration of nanoparticles accompanied with the increase in particle diameter and with the ordering of the FePt superlattice. The critical diameter for emergence of ferromagnetism of FePt particle has been considered to be 3.6 to 5.6 nm in mean diameter, under the existence of the ordered L10 phase The blocking temperature as a function of the annealing temperature was investigated.

Improving mechanical strength and surface uniformity to prepare high quality thinned 4H-SiC epitaxial wafer using Si-vapor etching technology

As a new thinning and surface planarizing process of Silicon Carbide (SiC) wafer, we propose the completely thermal-chemical etching process; Si-vapor etching (Si-VE) technology. In this work, the effects of mechanical strength and surface step-terrace structure by Si-VE are investigated on the 4° off-axis 4H-SiC (0001) Si-face substrates. The indentation hardness of Si-VE surface is superior to the conventional chemo-mechanical polishing (CMP) surface even after epitaxial growth. The transverse strength of thinned Si-VE substrate is also superior to the conventional mechanically ground substrate. The surface step-terrace structures are observed by the low energy electron channeling contrast (LE-ECC) imaging technique. The latent scratch causes bunched step lines (BSLs) with various inhomogeneous step morphologies only on the CMP surface.

Characterization of pn-Diode Fabricated from Surface Damage-Free 4H-SiC Wafer Using Si-Vapor Etching Process

We investigate electrical characteristics of the pn-diode fabricated using the epitaxial films on the surface damage-free 4H-SiC (0001) Si-face 4° off-cut wafers prepared by the completely thermal-chemical etching process; Si-vapor etching (Si-VE) technology. The forward and reverse current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of pn-diodes correlated to the epitaxial defects are discussed. The device at the defect-free area includes 11 % failed diodes on the chemo-mechanical polishing (CMP) wafer while 0 % on the Si-VE wafer. The latent scratches and mechanical damages, which increase the forward and reverse leakage current of the pn-diodes, are completely removed by the Si-VE. The Si-VE exposes the carbon inclusions in the wafer to form the small bump which ends up with the larger bump defect on the epitaxial surface. These bumps cause leak current of the forward characteristics while all of the reverse characteristics are normal. The epitaxial film on the Si-VE surface has less density of the basal plane dislocations (BPDs) than the conventional CMP. It is hard to recognize the safe device on the CMP wafer without additional reliability test. The Si-VE wafer shows the apparent breakdown voltage fail on every small-number diode including BPDs under the simple test. It is considered that the Si-VE is possible to reduce ambiguity of the device characteristics under the relationship with the defects in comparison with the CMP.

Rearrangement of Surface Structure of 4o Off-Axis 4H-SiC (0001) Epitaxial Wafer by High Temperature Annealing in Si/Ar Ambient

Mechanism of surface roughening caused by the polishing induced subsurface damage on 4o off-cut 4H-SiC (0001) substrate during thermal etching, CVD epitaxial growth, and the subsequent high temperature annealing was investigated in the wide temperature range of 1000-1800°C. Different from the previous study based on a macroscopic characterization by optical microscopy, microscopic characterization based on a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was employed in this study. By utilizing the SEM operated under various conditions, disordered step arrangements as well as stacking faults and dislocations were imaged. The obtained results revealed that the SFs cause the fluctuation in the step kinetics, resulting in the step bunching formation during the thermal process.