Y.H. Lin

Stable and High-Performance Flexible ZnO Thin-Film Transistors by Atomic Layer Deposition.

Passivation is a challenging issue for the oxide thin-film transistor (TFT) technologies because it requires prolonged high-temperature annealing treatments to remedy defects produced in the process, which greatly limits its manufacturability as well as its compatibility with temperature-sensitive materials such as flexible plastic substrates. This study investigates the defect-formation mechanisms incurred by atomic layer deposition (ALD) passivation processes on ZnO TFTs, based on which we demonstrate for the first time degradation-free passivation of ZnO TFTs by a TiO2/Al2O3 nanolaminated (TAO) film deposited by a low-temperature (110 °C) ALD process. By combining the TAO passivation film with ALD dielectric and channel layers into an integrated low-temperature ALD process, we successfully fabricate flexible ZnO TFTs on plastics. Thanks to the exceptional gas-barrier property of the TAO film (water vapor transmission rate (WVTR)<10(-6) g m(-2) day(-1)) as well as the defect-free nature of the ALD dielectric and ZnO channel layers, the TFTs exhibit excellent device performance with high stability and flexibility: field-effect mobility>20 cm2 V(-1) s(-1), subthreshold swing<0.4 V decade(-1) after extended bias-stressing (>10,000 s), air-storage (>1200 h), and bending (1.3 cm radius for 1000 times).

Air-Stable flexible organic light-emitting diodes enabled by atomic layer deposition

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) are an energy-efficient light source with many desirable attributes, besides being an important display of technology, but its practical application has been limited by its low air-stability. This study demonstrates air-stable flexible OLEDs by utilizing two atomic-layer-deposited (ALD) films: (1) a ZnO film as both a stable electron-injection layer (EIL) and as a gas barrier in plastics-based OLED devices, and (2) an Al2O3/ZnO (AZO) nano-laminated film for encapsulating the devices. Through analyses of the morphology and electrical/gas-permeation properties of the films, we determined that a low ALD temperature of 70 °C resulted in optimal EIL performance from the ZnO film and excellent gas-barrier properties [water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) <5 × 10(-4) g m(-2) day(-1)] from both the ZnO EIL and the AZO encapsulating film. The low-temperature ALD processes eliminated thermal damage to the OLED devices, which were severe when a 90 °C encapsulation process was used, while enabling them to achieve an air-storage lifetime of >10,000 h.

Strongly enhanced spin current in topological insulator/ferromagnetic metal heterostructures by spin pumping

Spin pumping effect in Bi2Se3/Fe3Si and Fe/Bi2Te3 heterostructures was studied. High quality films of Bi2Se3(001) on ferromagnetic Fe3Si(111) layer and Fe(111) films on Bi2Te3(001) layer were grown epitaxially by molecular beam epitaxy. Using a microwave cavity source, large voltages due to the Inverse Spin Hall Effect (VISHE) were detected in Bi2Se3(001)/Fe3Si(111) bi-layer at room temperature. VISHE of up to 63.4 ± 4.0 μV at 100 mW microwave power (PMW) was observed. In addition, Fe(111)/Bi2Te3(001) bi-layer also showed a large VISHE of 3.0 ± 0.1 μV at PMW of 25 mW. VISHE of both structures showed microwave linear power dependence in accordance with the theoretical model of spin pumping. The spin Hall angle was calculated to be 0.0053 ± 0.002 in Bi2Se3 and was estimated to be 0.0068 ± 0.003 in Bi2Te3. The charge current density (Jc) of Bi2Se3/Fe3Si and Fe/Bi2Te3 structures are comparable and are about 2–5 times higher than the Fe3Si/normal metal and Fe3Si/GaAs results. The significant enhancement of spi...

Perfecting the Al2O3/In0.53Ga0.47As interfacial electronic structure in pushing metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect-transistor device limits using in-situ atomic-layer-deposition

We performed interfacial electric and electronic studies of both in-situ and ex-situ atomic-layer deposited (ALD) Al2O3 films on InGaAs. Self-aligned inversion-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect-transistors (MOSFETs) with a 1 μm gate length (Lg) from the in-situ sample have extrinsic drain currents (Id) of 1.8 mA/μm, transconductances (Gm) of 0.98 mS/μm, and an effective mobility (μeff) of 1250 cm2/V s. MOSFETs that employ ex-situ ALD-Al2O3 have an Id of 0.56 mA/μm, Gm of 0.28 mS/μm, and μeff of 410 cm2/V s. Synchrotron radiation photoemission reveals no AsOx residue at the Al2O3/InGaAs interface using the in-situ approach, whereas some AsOx residue is detected using the ex-situ method.

Demonstration of large field effect in topological insulator films via a high-κ back gate

The spintronics applications long anticipated for topological insulators (TIs) has been hampered due to the presence of high density intrinsic defects in the bulk states. In this work we demonstrate the back-gating effect on TIs by integrating Bi2Se3 films 6–10 quintuple layer (QL) thick with amorphous high-κ oxides of Al2O3 and Y2O3. Large gating effect of tuning the Fermi level EF to very close to the band gap was observed, with an applied bias of an order of magnitude smaller than those of the SiO2 back gate, and the modulation of film resistance can reach as high as 1200%. The dependence of the gating effect on the TI film thickness was investigated, and ΔN2D/ΔVg varies with TI film thickness as ∼t−0.75. To enhance the gating effect, a Y2O3 layer thickness 4 nm was inserted into Al2O3 gate stack to increase the total κ value to 13.2. A 1.4 times stronger gating effect is observed, and the increment of induced carrier numbers is in good agreement with additional charges accumulated in the higher κ oxides. Moreover, we have reduced the intrinsic carrier concentration in the TI film by dopingTe to Bi2Se3 to form Bi2TexSe1−x. The observation of a mixed state of ambipolar field that both electrons and holes are present indicates that we have tuned the EF very close to the Dirac Point. These results have demonstrated that our capability of gating TIs with high-κ back gate to pave the way to spin devices of tunable EF for dissipationless spintronics based on well-established semiconductor technology.