Epitaxial growth of ZnO thin films on LiGaO2 substrates by pulsed-laser deposition

Lattice-matched (Delta(a/a) = 1.8-3.4%) (001) LiGaO2 substrates have been employed for the first time to grow ZnO thin films by pulsed-laser deposition at 350-650 degrees C with oxygen partial pressure of 20Pa. XRD shows that a highly c-axis-oriented ZnO film can be deposited on (001) LiGaO2 substrate at 500 degrees C. AFM images reveal the surfaces of as-deposited ZnO films are smooth and root-mean-square values are 6.662, 5.765 and 6.834 nm at 350, 500 and 650 degrees C, respectively. PL spectra indicate only near-band-edge UV emission appears in the curve of ZnO film deposited at 500 degrees C. The deep-level emission of ZnO film deposited at 650 degrees C probably results from Li diffusion into the film. All the results illustrate substrate temperature plays a pretty important role in obtaining ZnO film with a high quality on LiGaO2 substrate by pulsed-laser deposition. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Stress analysis of ZrO2/SiO2 multilayers deposited on different substrates with different thickness periods

The effects of repeating thickness periods on stress are studied in ZrO2/SiO2 multilayers deposited by electron-beam evaporation on BK7 glass and fused-silica substrates. The results show that the residual stress is compressive and decreases with an increase of the periods of repeating thickness in the ZrO2/SiO2 multilayers. At the same time, the residual stress in multilayers deposited on BK7 glass is less than that of samples deposited on fused silica. The variation of the microstructure examined by x-ray diffraction shows that microscopic deformation does not correspond to macroscopic stress, which may be due to variation of the interface stress. (c) 2005 Optical Society of America.

Study on the layer structure of W/C multilayers deposited by magnetron sputtering using x-ray reflectivity

A study on the layer structure of W/C multilayers deposited by magnetron sputtering is reported. In the study, soft x-ray resonant reflectivity and hard x-ray grazing incidence reflectivity of the W/C multilayers were measured. The imperfections at the interface such as interdiffusion and formation of compounds were dealt with by two methods. On analyzing the experimental results, we found that the incorporation of an interlayer was a more suitable method than the traditional statistical method to describe the layer structure of a W/C system we fabricated. The optical constants of each layer at a wavelength of 4.48 nm were also obtained from the analysis. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Magnetic anisotropies of laterally confined structures of epitaxial Fe films on GaAs (001)

We have investigated magnetic properties of laterally confined structures of epitaxial Fe films on GaAs (001). Fe films with different thicknesses were grown by molecular-beam epitaxy and patterned into regular arrays of rectangles with varying aspect ratios. In-plane magnetic anisotropy was observed in all of the patterned Fe films both at 15 and 300 K. We have demonstrated that the coercive fields can be tuned by varying the aspect ratios of the structures. The magnitudes of the corresponding anisotropy constants have been determined and the shape anisotropy constant is found to be enhanced as the aspect ratio is increased.

Microstructure and strain analysis of GaN epitaxial films using in-plane grazing incidence x-ray diffraction

This paper investigates the major structural parameters, such as crystal quality and strain state of (001)-oriented GaN thin films grown on sapphire substrates by metalorganic chemical vapour deposition, using an in-plane grazing incidence x-ray diffraction technique. The results are analysed and compared with a complementary out-of-plane x-ray diffraction technique. The twist of the GaN mosaic structure is determined through the direct grazing incidence measurement of (100) reflection which agrees well with the result obtained by extrapolation method. The method for directly determining the in-plane lattice parameters of the GaN layers is also presented. Combined with the biaxial strain model, it derives the lattice parameters corresponding to fully relaxed GaN films. The GaN epilayers show an increasing residual compressive stress with increasing layer thickness when the two dimensional growth stage is established, reaching to a maximum level of -0.89 GPa.

Epitaxial Semiconductor Quantum Wires

The investigation on the direct epitaxial quantum wires (QWR) using MBE or MOCVD has been persuited for more than two decades, more lengthy in history as compared with its quantum dot counterpart. Up to now, QWRs with various structural configurations have been produced with different growth methods. This is a reviewing article consisting mainly of two parts. The first part discusses QWRs of various configurations, together with laser devices based on them, in terms of the two growth mechanisms, self-ordering and self-assembling. The second part gives a brief review of the electrical and optical properties of QWRs.

Structural and electrical properties of (110) ZnO epitaxial thin films on (001) SrTiO3 substrates

(110) oriented ZnO thin films were epitaxially prepared on (001) SrTiO3 single crystal substrates by a pulsed laser deposition method. The evolution of structure, surface morphology, and electrical conductivity of ZnO films was investigated on changing the growth temperature. Two domain configurations with 90 degrees rotation to each other in the film plane were found to exist to reduce the lattice mismatch between the films and substrates. In the measured temperature range between 80 K and 300 K, the electrical conductivity can be perfectly fitted by a formula of a (T) = sigma(0) + aT(b/2). implying that the electron-phonon scattering might have a significant contribution to the conductivity. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Structural, electrical, and optical properties of InAsxSb1-x epitaxial films grown by liquid-phase epitaxy

The InAsxSb1-x films were grown on (100) GaSb substrates by liquid-phase epitaxy, and their structural, electrical, and optical properties were investigated. The high-resolution x-ray diffraction results reveal that the single crystalline InAsxSb1-x films with a midrange composition are epitaxially grown on the GaSb substrates. Temperature dependence of the Hall mobility was theoretically modeled by considering several predominant scattering mechanisms. The results indicate that ionized impurity and dislocation scatterings dominate at low temperatures, while polar optical phonon scattering is important at room temperature (RT). Furthermore, the InAsxSb1-x films with the higher As composition exhibit the better crystalline quality and the higher mobility. The InAs0.35Sb0.65 film exhibits a Hall mobility of 4.62x10(4) cm(2) V-1 s(-1). The cutoff wavelength of photoresponse is extended to about 12 mu m with a maximum responsivity of 0.21 V/W at RT, showing great potential for RT long-wavelength infrared detection. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.2989116]

Zn2SiO4/ZnO Core/Shell Coaxial Heterostructure Nanobelts Formed by an Epitaxial Growth

Si-doped ZnO can be synthesized on the surface of the early grown Zn2SiO4 nanostructures and form core/ shell coaxial heterostructure nanobelts with an epitaxial orientation relationship. A parallel interface with a periodicity array of edge dislocations and an inclined interface without dislocations can be formed. The visible green emission is predominant in PL spectra due to carrier localization by high density of deep traps from complexes of impurities and defects. Due to band tail localization induced by composition and defect fluctuation, and high density of free-carriers donated by doping, especially the further dissociation of excitons into free-carriers at high excitation intensity, the near-band-edge emission is dominated by the transition of free-electrons to free-holes, and furthermore, exhibits a significant excitation power-dependent red-shift characteristic. Due to the structure relaxation and the thermalization effects, carrier delocalization takes place in deep traps with increasing excitation density. As a result, the green emission passes through a maximum at 0.25I(0) excitation intensity, and the ratio of the violet to green emission increases monotonously as the excitation laser power density increases. The violet and green emission of ZnO nanostructures can be well tuned by a moderate doping and a variation in the excitation density.

Raman scattering characterization of Mn composition and strain in Ga1-xMnxSb/GaSb epitaxial layers

Raman scattering (RS) experiments have been performed for simultaneous determination of Mn composition and strain in Ga1-xMnxSb thin films grown on GaSb substrate by liquid phase epitaxy technique. The Raman spectra obtained from various Ga1-xMnxSb samples show only GaSb-like phonon modes whose frequency positions are found to have Mn compositional dependence. With the combination of epilayer strain model, RS and energy dispersive x-ray (EDX) experiments, the compositional dependence of GaSb-like LO phonon frequency is proposed both in strained and unstrained conditions. The proposed relationships are used to evaluate Mn composition and strain from the Ga1-xMnxSb samples. The results obtained from the RS data are found to be in good agreement with those determined independently by the EDX analysis. Furthermore, the frequency positions of MnSb-like phonon modes are suggested by reduced-mass model. (C) 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

Mechanical and tribological properties of epitaxial cubic boron nitride thin films grown on diamond

电子邮箱nataliya.deyneka@uni-ulm.de

Enhancement of electroluminescence in p-i-n structures with nano-crystalline Si/SiO2 multilayers

Nano-crystalline Si/SiO2 multilayers were prepared by alternately changing the ultra-thin amorphous Si film deposition and the in situ plasma oxidation process followed by the post-annealing treatments. Well-defined periodic structures can be achieved with 2.5 nm thick SiO2 sublayers. It is shown that the size of formed nano-crystalline Si is about 3 nm. Room temperature electroluminescence can be observed and the spectrum contains two luminescence bands located at 650 nm and 520 nm. In order to improve the hole injection probability, p-i-n structures containing a nanocrystalline Si/SiO2 luminescent layer were designed and fabricated on different p-type substrates. It is found that the turn-on voltage of p-i-n structures is obviously reduced and the luminescence intensity increases by 50 times. It is demonstrated that the use of a heavy-doped p-type substrate can increase the luminescence intensity more efficiently compared with the light-doped p-type substrate due to the enhanced hole injection.

Fabrication and transport properties of ZnO/Nb-1 wt %-doped SrTiO3 epitaxial heterojunctions

(110) ZnO/(001) Nb-1 wt %-doped SrTiO3 n-n type heteroepitaxial junctions were fabricated using the pulse laser deposition method. A diodelike current behavior was observed. Different from conventional p-n junctions or Schottky diodes, the diffusion voltage was found to increase with temperature. At all temperatures, the forward current was perfectly fitted on the thermionic emission model. The band bending at the interface can qualitatively explain our results, and the extracted high ideality factor at low temperatures, as well as large saturation currents, is ascribed to the deep-level-assisted tunneling current through the junction. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.

EPITAXIAL LATERAL OVERGROWTH OF GaN ON SILICON-ON-INSULATOR

From a single process, GaN layers were laterally overgrown on maskless stripe-patterned (111) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The influence of stress on the behavior of dislocations at the coalescence during growth was observed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Improvement of the crystallin equality of the GaN layer was demonstrated by TEM and micro-Raman spectroscopy. Furthermore, the benefits of SOI substrates for GaN growth are also discussed.