Y. L. Soo

Local structure and chemical valency of Mn impurities in wide-band-gap III–V magnetic alloy semiconductors Ga1−xMnxN

Local structure and effective chemical valency of Mn impurity atoms incorporated in wide-band-gap (Ga,Mn)N epilayers have been investigated by using x-ray absorption fine structure techniques. The x-ray results provide direct evidence for the substitution of majority Mn atoms for the Ga sites in GaN, with an effective valency close to Mn(II), up to a rather high Mn concentration about 2 at. %. A small fraction of the impurity atoms could also form Mn clusters.

Local environment surrounding magnetic impurity atoms in a structural phase transition of Co-doped TiO2 nanocrystal ferromagnetic semiconductors

The local environment surrounding magnetic impurity atoms and the host crystal structure of codoped TiO2 (TiO2:Co) nanocrystal ferromagnetic semiconductors have been investigated using the x-ray absorption fine structure and powder diffraction techniques. It has been found that the magnetic Co impurity atoms substitute for the Ti sites in an anataselike local environment through a structural phase transition when the material changes from an amorphous phase to a mixture of anatase and rutile crystal structures and then to a rutile structure as a result of increasing the anneal temperature. This result reveals an interesting feature that the local structure around magnetic impurity atoms can remain practically unchanged while the material undergoes drastic structural variations and a loss of room-temperature ferromagnetism.

X-ray excited luminescence and local structures in Tb-doped Y2O3 nanocrystals

Pronounced structure in x-ray excited luminescence (XEL) has been observed in dilute Tb-doped Y2O3 (Y2O3:Tb) nanocrystals. This effect affords a means to assess different energy transfer mechanisms in the nanocrystals and also an opportunity for novel device applications. Sharp jumps and oscillations are found in the XEL output with the incident x-ray energy around the absorption edges of Y and Tb. When compared with a bulk Y2O3:Tb sample, these effects are attributed to some unique electronic and optical properties of doped nanocrystals related to quantum confinement of charge carriers, and the main features can be explained by a proposed model of multichannel energy transfer. Extended x-ray absorption fine structure techniques have also been employed to study the effect of size variation and chemical doping on the local structures in Y2O3 and Y2O3:Tb nanocrystals. The local environment surrounding Y and Tb in the nanocrystals is compared with that in the respective bulk material. The results indicate th...

Local structure around Mn atoms in room-temperature ferromagnetic (In, Mn)As thin films probed by extended X-ray absorption fine structure

An extended x-ray absorption fine structure technique has been employed to probe the average local structure around Mn impurity atoms in (In,Mn)As thin films prepared by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy. These films show ferromagnetism above room temperature. As the concentration of Mn increases, the average local environment surrounding Mn changes from that of a Mn–Mn interstitial pair to a dimer, trimer, or cubic MnAs structure and then to the hexagonal MnAs structure/interstitial pair. In contrast to random substitution, the Mn impurity atoms in these dimer, trimer, or cubic MnAs structure occupy adjacent sites in the In sublattice. Ferromagnetism above room temperature in these ordered substitutional samples provides an excellent example for ferromagnetic exchange interaction in (In,Mn)As diluted magnetic semiconductors without the formation of hexagonal MnAs clusters, this is potentially very important for spintronic applications.

Controlled agglomeration of Tb-doped Y2O3 nanocrystals studied by x-ray absorption fine structure, x-ray excited luminescence, and photoluminescence

Local environment surrounding Y atoms in Y2O3:Tb nanocrystals under various heat treatment conditions has been investigated by using the extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) technique. X-ray excited luminescence (XEL) with the incident x-ray energy near Y K edge and Tb L edges has also been measured to investigate the mechanisms of x-ray-to-visible down conversion in these doped nanoparticles. The observed changes in EXAFS, XEL, and photoluminescent data can be explained on the basis of increased average size of the nanoparticles as confirmed by transmission electron microscopy studies. Our results thus demonstrate that the doped nanoparticles can agglomerate to a controllable degree by varying the heat treatment temperature. At higher temperatures, the local environment surrounding Y atoms in the nanoparticles is found to become similar to that in bulk Y2O3 while the XEL output still shows the characteristics of nanocrystals. These results indicate that appropriate heat treatment can afford a...

Investigation of interface morphology and composition mixing in CdTe/CdS heterojunction photovoltaic materials using synchrotron radiation

The interface microstructure in thin film photovoltaic materials is an important problem which can severely affect the light-conversion efficiency and stability of heterojunction solar cells. This is a long-standing fundamental problem, but has not been studied in the past by effective probing methods. In the present experiment, the interfacial roughness, correlation lengths of interface height fluctuations, effects of heat treatment, and diffusion of Te atoms across the heterojunction interface have been investigated by means of grazing incidence x-ray scattering and angular dependence of x-ray fluorescence using synchrotron radiation. We thus demonstrate that these x-ray techniques can provide a powerful tool for nondestructive characterization of the interfacial roughness and intermixing of selected atomic species in heterojunction photovoltaic materials.

Thickness modulation of InGaAs/GaAs superlattices studied by large angle x‐ray scattering

Superlattices of 100‐period InxGa1−xAs (15 A)/GaAs(100 A) grown on GaAs (100) substrates by molecular beam epitaxy were studied by using large angle x‐ray scattering techniques. In contrast to the usual superlattice satellite peaks corresponding to structural periodicity along the growth direction, unusual satellite peaks in the lateral direction parallel to the sample surface were observed in a sample with x=0.535 grown at 480 °C, indicating an in‐plane ordering. This result is confirmed by high resolution transmission electron microscopy observations that thickness modulation in the InxGa1−xAs layers gives rise to long‐range lateral periodic arrays of clusterlike microstructures with spacing on the order of a few hundred angstroms. This thickness modulation is found to occur only in the [110] direction, thus the material can be viewed as a somewhat disordered array of grown‐in parallel quantum wires.

Studies of Mn/GaAs digital alloys using x-ray absorption fine structure and x-ray diffraction methods

Local structure and effective chemical valency of Mn atoms in Mn/GaAs digital alloys have been investigated using the x-ray absorption fine structure techniques. The samples were prepared by molecular-beam epitaxy with different thickness of GaAs layers separating the nominal Mn monolayers. Lattice constants of the digital alloys are found by x-ray diffraction to increase linearly in a very narrow range (about 0.3%) with the Mn/GaAs ratio in the samples. Our data show that Mn atoms in the nominal Mn monolayers actually combine with GaAs to form (Ga, Mn)As alloys with Mn atoms substituting for the Ga sites in GaAs. This result clearly rules out the possibility of dominant MnAs formation.

Migration of constituent atoms and interface morphology in a heterojunction between CdS and CuInSe2 single crystals

Angular dependence of x-ray fluorescence (ADXRF), x-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS), and grazing incidence x-ray scattering measurements were carried out using synchrotron radiation for a study of the interface morphology and migration of constituent atoms in a heterojunction formed between CdS and CuInSe2 single crystals. The advantage of using a single crystal for this study is to avoid the usually complicated problems arising from multiple phases of the Cu–In–Se compounds. By a comparison of the results obtained with a bare CuInSe2 single crystal, the changes of interface microstructures in the CdS/CuInSe2 heterojunction system with well-defined stoichiometry can therefore be investigated. Prominent features in the ADXRF data clearly demonstrate that both Cu and Se atoms have migrated into the CdS layer in the heterojunction while In atoms remain intact in the CuInSe2 single crystal. The local structures around Cu in the system also show a significant change after the deposition of CdS, as manifes...

INTERFACIAL ROUGHNESS SCALING AND STRAIN IN LATTICE MISMATCHED SI0.4GE0.6 THIN FILMS ON SI

Interfacial roughness parameters and lattice strain of Si0.4Ge0.6 films with varying thickness epitaxially grown on Si(100) were determined using the techniques of grazing‐incidence x‐ray scattering and diffraction. The roughness of both the buried interface and sample surface follows a similar power‐law scaling behavior with an exponent β around 0.71 for films below the critical thickness, and it undergoes a large change above the critical thickness. Observation of such a scaling law thus establishes a quantitative correlation between the interfacial roughness and lattice strain, and also allows the prediction of interfacial roughness as a function of film thickness of this compound.