TRANSMISSION ELECTRON-MICROSCOPY STUDY OF N+-IMPLANTED SILICON ON INSULATOR BY ENERGY-FILTERED IMAGING

We report on the first study of N+ -implanted silicon on insulator by energy-filtered imaging using an Opton electron microscope CEM 902 equipped Castaing-Henry electron optical system as a spectrometer. The inelastic images, energy window set at DELTA-E = 16 eV and DELTA-E = 25 eV according to plasmon energy loss of crystal Si and of silicon nitride respectively, give much structure information. The interface between the top silicon layer and the upper silicon nitride layer can be separated into two sublayers.

Reaction and formation of crystalline silicon oxynitride in Si-O-N systems under solid high pressure

Oxidized amorphous Si3N4 and SiO2 powders were pressed alone or as a mixture under high pressure (1.0-5.0 GPa) at high temperatures (800-1700 degreesC). Formation of crystalline silicon oxynitride (Si(2ON)2) was observed from amorphous silicon nitride (Si3N4) powders containing 5.8 wt% oxygen at 1.0 GPa and 1400 degreesC, The Si2ON2 coexisted with beta -Si3N4 with a weight fraction of 40 wt%, suggesting that all oxygen in the powders participated in the reaction to form Si2ON2. Pressing a mixture of amorphous Si3N4 of lower oxygen (1.5 wt%) and SiO2 under 1.0-5.0 GPa between 1000 degrees and 1350 degreesC did not give Si2ON2 phase, but yielded a mixture of alpha,beta -Si3N4, quartz, and coesite (a high-pressure form of SiO2). The formation of Si2ON2, from oxidized amorphous Si3N4 seemed to be assisted by formation of a Si-O-N melt in the system that was enhanced under the high pressure.

Superelastic And Spring Properties Of Si3N4 Microcoils

Silicon nitride with helical structure was prepared on a large scale by CVD. On the microscale, these coiled Si3N4 ceramics still possess superelasticity and can recover their original shapes after cyclic loadings without noticeable deformations. These results suggest helical microcoils could have potential in microdevices for MEMS, motors, electromagnets, generators, and related equipment.

The induction plasma chemical reactor: Part I. Equilibrium model

A mathematical model is presented for the numerical simulation of the flow, temperature, and concentration fields in an rf plasma chemical reactor. The simulation is performed assuming chemical equilibrium. The extent of validity of this assumption is discussed. The system considered is the reaction of SiCl4 and NH3 for the production of Si3N4.

Dynamics of spontaneous emission from SiN with two-dimensional photonic crystals

We investigated the dynamics of spontaneous emission from a photonic crystal etched into a SiN slab. After fitting the decay curves of the emission to double exponential functions, we divided the dynamic process of the spontaneous emission into a fast process and a slow process. It was observed that the presence of the photonic crystal increased the proportion of the fast decay component, and consequently, the emission rate and time-integrated emission intensity were also enhanced. These enhancements were a result of the coupling of the guide modes to the leaky modes of the photonic crystal slab waveguide. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America.

Metal catalysis-free, direction-controlled planar growth of single-crystalline alpha-Si3N4 nanowires on Si(100) substrate

Single-crystalline alpha-Si3N4 nanowires are controlled to grow perpendicular to the wet-etched trenches in the SiO0.94 film on the plane of the Si substrate without metal catalysis. A detailed characterization is carried out by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The photoluminescence at 600 nm from alpha-Si3N4 nanowires is attributed to the recombination at the defect state formed by the Si dangling bond N3 equivalent to Si-center dot. The growth mechanism is considered to be related to the catalysis and nitridation of SiO nanoclusters preferably re-deposited around the inner corner of the trenches, as well as faster Si diffusion along the slanting side walls of the trenches. This simple direction-controlled growth method is compatible with the CMOS process, and could facilitate the fabrication of alpha-Si3N4 nanoelectronic or nanophotonic devices on the Si platform.

ENHANCEMENT EFFECT OF PLASMA-ENHANCED CHEMICAL-VAPOR-DEPOSITED SIN CAPPING LAYER ON DIELECTRIC CAP QUANTUM-WELL DISORDERING

Quantum well disordering of GaAs/AlGaAs multiple quantum well(MQW) has been accomplished with only plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposited (PECVD) SiN cap layer growth. The amount of blue shift increases with SiN growing time. This result has been explained by the vacancy indiffusion during PECVD SiN growth. Rapid thermal annealing (RTA) of the sample after SiN cap layer growth at 850 degrees C for 35 s caused a larger amount of blue shift than those obtained without RTA. By considering the model of Al diffusion from AlGaAs barrier into GaAs QWs together with the result from photoluminescence (PL) measurement, Al diffusion coefficients were calculated. The Al diffusion coefficient due to PECVD SiN was estimated at about 3 x10(-17) cm(2)/s. It was possible to extract the effect of RTA on the QW disordering, which showed that the amount of the blue shift and the Al diffusion coefficient due only to RTA increases with SiN cap layer thickness as reported by Chi et al.(10))

The influence of tip performance on scanning probe lithography

Scanning probe lithography (SPL), employing the tip of an atomic force microscope to mechanically pattern various materials in nanoscale region has provided a simple but significant method for making nanostructures. We use this technique for the lithography of several kinds of substrate surfaces. The tip performance has been found to be a crucial factor in the lithographic process. Four types of cantilevers are employed in nanolithography, including standard silicon nitride (DNP), tapping mode(TM) etched silicon (TESP(W)), uncoated silicon cantilever (NSC21/50) and conductive platinum/iridium-coated probe. Results demonstrate that tips with smaller spring constants can not be used for physically scribing and nanomanipulating in our experiment. The possible mechanism of our experiment is discussed.

Effects of silicon incorporation on composition, structure and electric conductivity of cubic boron nitride thin films

We have achieved in-situ Si incorporation into cubic boron nitride (c-BN) thin films during ion beam assisted deposition. The effects of silicon incorporation on the composition, structure and electric conductivity of c-BN thin films were investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and electrical measurements. The results suggest that the content of the cubic phase remains stable on the whole with the incorporation of Si up to a concentration of 3.3 at.%, and the higher Si concentrations lead to a gradual change from c-BN to hexagonal boron nitride. It is found that the introduced Si atoms only replace B atoms and combine with N atoms to form Si-N bonds, and no evidence of the existence of Si-B bonds is observed. The resistance of the Si-doped c-BN films gradually decreases with increasing Si concentration, and the resistivity of the c-BN film with 3.3 at.% Si is lowered by two orders of magnitude as compared to undoped samples.

Amorphous silicon nanoparticles in compound films grown on cold substrates for high-efficiency photoluminescence

Silicon nanoparticles have been fabricated in both oxide and nitride matrices by using plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition, for which a low substrate temperature down to 50 degreesC turns out to be most favourable. High-rate deposition onto such a cold substrate results in the formation of nanoscaled silicon particles, which have revealed an amorphous nature under transmission electron microscope (TEM) examination. The particle size can be readily controlled below 3.0 nm, and the number density amounts to over 10(12) cm(-2), as calculated from the TEM micrographs. Strong photoluminescence in the whole visible light range has been observed in the as-deposited Si-in-SiOx and Si-in-SiNx thin films. Without altering the size or structure of the particles, a post-annealing at 300 degreesC for 2 min raised the photoluminescence efficiency to a level comparable to the achievements with nanocrystalline Si-in-SiO2 samples prepared at high temperature. This low-temperature procedure for fabricating light-emitting silicon structures opens up the possibility of manufacturing integrated silicon-based optoelectronics.

Nano-layer structure of silicon-on-insulator materials

Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) has been recognized as a promising semiconductor starting material for ICs where high speed and low power consumption are desirable, in addition to its unique applications in radiation-hardened circuits. In the present paper, three novel SOI nano-layer structures have been demonstrated. ULTRA-THIN SOI has been fabricated by separation by implantation of oxygen (SIMOX) technique at low oxygen ion energy of 45 keV and implantation dosage of 1.81017/cm2. The formed SOI layer is uniform with thickness of only 60 nm. This layer is of crystalline quality. and the interface between this layer and the buried oxide layer is very sharp, PATTERNED SOI nanostructure is illustrated by source and drain on insulator (DSOI) MOSFETs. The DSOI structure has been formed by selective oxygen ion implantation in SIMOX process. With the patterned SOI technology, the floating-body effect and self-heating effect, which occur in the conventional SOI devices, are significantly suppressed. In order to improve the total-dose irradiation hardness of SOI devices, SILICON ON INSULATING MULTILAYERS (SOIM) nano-structure is proposed. The buried insulating multilayers, which are composed of SiOx and SiNy layers, have been realized by implantation of nitride and oxygen ions into silicon in turn at different ion energies, followed by two steps of high temperature annealing process, respectively, Electric property investigation shows that the hardness to the total-dose irradiation of SOIM is remarkably superior to those of the conventional SIMOX SOI and the Bond-and-Etch-Back SOI.

The effect of low temperature GaAs nucleation on the growth of GaN on Silicon (001) during MOVPE process

High quality cubic GaN was grown on Silicon (001) by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) using a GaAs nucleation layer grown at low temperature. The influence of various nucleation conditions on the GaN epilayers' quality was investigated. We found that the GaAs nucleation layer grown by atomic layer epitaxy (ALE) could improve the quality of GaN films by depressing the formation of mixed phase. Photoluminescence (PL) and X-ray diffraction were used to characterize the properties of GaN epilayers. High quality GaN epilayers with PL full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 130meV at room temperature and X-ray FWHM of 70 arc-min were obtained by using 10-20nm GaAs nucleation layer grown by ALE.

Nano-layer structure of silicon-on-insulator materials

Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) has been recognized as a promising semiconductor starting material for ICs where high speed and low power consumption are desirable, in addition to its unique applications in radiation-hardened circuits. In the present paper, three novel SOI nano-layer structures have been demonstrated. ULTRA-THIN SOI has been fabricated by separation by implantation of oxygen (SIMOX) technique at low oxygen ion energy of 45 keV and implantation dosage of 1.81017/cm2. The formed SOI layer is uniform with thickness of only 60 nm. This layer is of crystalline quality. and the interface between this layer and the buried oxide layer is very sharp, PATTERNED SOI nanostructure is illustrated by source and drain on insulator (DSOI) MOSFETs. The DSOI structure has been formed by selective oxygen ion implantation in SIMOX process. With the patterned SOI technology, the floating-body effect and self-heating effect, which occur in the conventional SOI devices, are significantly suppressed. In order to improve the total-dose irradiation hardness of SOI devices, SILICON ON INSULATING MULTILAYERS (SOIM) nano-structure is proposed. The buried insulating multilayers, which are composed of SiOx and SiNy layers, have been realized by implantation of nitride and oxygen ions into silicon in turn at different ion energies, followed by two steps of high temperature annealing process, respectively, Electric property investigation shows that the hardness to the total-dose irradiation of SOIM is remarkably superior to those of the conventional SIMOX SOI and the Bond-and-Etch-Back SOI.