Improved diphasic nc-si/a-si : H I-layer materials using PECVD

Two series of films has been prepared by using a new regime of plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) in the region adjacent to the phase transition from amorphous to crystalline state. The photoelectronic properties of the films have been investigated as a function of crystalline fraction. In comparison with typical a-Si:H, these diphasic films with a crystalline fraction less than 0.3 show a similar optical absorption coefficient, higher mobility life-time product ( LT) and higher stability upon light soaking. By using the diphasic nc-Si/a-Si films as the intrinsic layer, a p-i-n junction solar cell has been prepared with an initial efficiency of 9. 10 % and a stabilized efficiency of 8.56 % (AM 1.5, 100 mW/cm(2)).

Homoepitaxial growth and MOS structures of 4H-SiC on off oriented n-type (0001)Si-faces

Homoepitaxial growth of 4H-SiC on off-oriented n-type Si-face (0001) substrates was performed in a home-made hot-wall low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) reactor with SiH4 and C2H4 at temperature of 1500 C and pressure of 20 Torr. The surface morphology and intentional in-situ NH3 doping in 4H-SiC epilayers were investigated by using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS). Thermal oxidization of 4H-SiC homoepitaxial layers was conducted in a dry O-2 and H-2 atmosphere at temperature of 1150 C. The oxide was investigated by employing x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). 4H-SiC MOS structures were obtained and their C-V characteristics were presented.

Photoluminescence and Raman scattering correlated study of boron-doped silicon nanowires

Boron-doped (B-doped) silicon nanowires (SiNWS) have been prepared and characterized by Raman scattering and photoluminescence (PL). B-doped SiNWS were grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), using diborane (B2H6) as the dopant gas. Raman spectra show a band at 480cm(-1),which is attributed to amorphous silicon. Photoluminescence at room temperature exhibits three distinct emission peaks at 1.34ev, 1.42ev, 1.47ev. Possible reason for these is suggested.

Metal-free growth of Si/SiO2 nanowires by annealing SiOx (x < 2) films deposited by PECVD

A new metal catalysis-free method of fabricating Si or SiO2 nanowires (NWs) compatible with Si CMOS technology was proposed by annealing SiOx (x < 2) films deposited by plasma -enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). The effects of the Si content (x value) and thickness of SiOx films, the annealing process and flowing gas ambient on the NW growth were studied in detail. The results indicated that the SiOx film of a thickness below 300 rim with x value close to 1 was most favorable for NW growth upon annealing at 1000-1150 degrees C in the flowing gas mixture of N-2 and H-2. NWs of 50-100nm in diameter and tens of micrometers in length were synthesized by this method. The formation mechanism was likely to be related to a new type of oxide assisted growth (OAG) mechanism, with Si nanoclusters in SiOx films after phase separation serving as the nuclei for the growth of NWs in SiOx films > 200nm, and SiO molecules from thin SiO, film decomposition inducing the NW growth in films < 100nm. An effective preliminary method to control NW growth direction was also demonstrated by etching trenches in SiOx films followed by annealing.

STUDY OF MICROSTRUCTURE AND DEFECTS IN HYDROGENATED MICROCRYSTALLINE SILICON FILMS

Microcrystalline silicon films were deposited by very high frequency (VHF) plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) with different hydrogen dilution. The microstructure of these films was investigated using Raman spectroscopy and infrared absorption (IR) spectra. The crystalline, amorphous, and grain boundary volume fractions X-c, X-a and X-gb were estimated from Raman measurements. An interface structure factor (R-if) is proposed to characterize the grain boundary volume fractions in IR spectroscopy. The density of states (DOS) of the microcrystalline crystalline silicon films were studied by phase-shift analysis of modulated photocurrent (MPC) and photoconductivity spectroscopy. It was observed that DOS increases with increasing grain boundary volume fractions, while the values of electron mobility-lifetime product mu T-e(e) disease.

Comparative study of the surface passivation on crystalline silicon by silicon thin films with different structures

Si thin films with different structures were deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), and characterized via Raman spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The passivation effect of such different Si thin films on crystalline Si surface was investigated by minority carrier lifetime measurement via a method, called microwave photoconductive decay (mu PCD), for the application in HIT (heterojunction with intrinsic thin-layer) solar cells. The results show that amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) has a better passivation effect due to its relative higher H content, compared with microcrystalline (mu c-Si) silicon and nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si). Further, it was found that H atoms in the form of Si-H bonds are more preferred than those in the form of Si-H-2 bonds to passivate the crystalline Si surface. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

InN layers grown by MOCVD on SrTiO3 substrates

Epitaxial wurtzite InN thin films have been grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition on (1 1 1) SrTiO3 (STO) substrates. Interestingly, twin domain epitaxy induced by the surface reconstruction of STO is observed with the in-plane orientation relationships of [(1) over bar 1 0 0]InN parallel to [<(1)over bar > 1 0]STO and [2 <(1 1)over bar > 0]InN parallel to[<(1)over bar > 1 0]STO, which is helpful to release the strain. The InN films on STO substrates exhibit a strong photoluminescence emission around 0.78 eV. Particularly, using STO substrates opens up a possibility to integrate InN with the functional oxides. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

A study of indium incorporation in In-rich InGaN grown by MOVPE

InGaN/GaN heterostructures have been deposited onto (0 0 0 1) sapphire by our home-made low pressure MOVPE with different growth parameters. It has been noted that the indium incorporation depends by a complex way on a number of factors. In this work, the effect of substrate temperature, trimethylindium input flow and V/III ratio on the indium incorporation has been investigated. Finally, by optimizing the growth parameters, we made a series of single-phase InGaN samples with indium content from 10% up to 45%.

Magnetoresistance in a nominally undoped InGaN thin film

The magnetotransport properties of a nominally undoped InGaN thin film grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition were investigated. Resistivity was measured under a magnetic field up to 5 T over the temperature range of 3 to 298 K. The film exhibits a negative magnetoresistance at low temperatures. Its magnitude decreases with increasing temperature, and turns to be positive for temperatures above 100 K. The negative component was described by a model proposed by Khosla and Fischer for spin scattering of carriers in an impurity band. The positive part was attributed to the effect of Lorentz force on the carrier motion. Agreement between the model and the data is presented.

Electron concentration dependence of exciton localization and freeze-out at local potential fluctuations in InN films

InN films with electron concentration ranging from n similar to 10(17) to 10(20) cm(-3) grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) were investigated by variable-temperature photoluminescence and absorption measurements. The energy positions of absorption edge as well as photoluminescence peak of these InN samples with electron concentration above 10(18) cm(-3) show a distinct S-shape temperature dependence. With a model of potential fluctuations caused by electron-impurity interactions, the behavior can be quantitatively explained in terms of exciton freeze-out in local potential minima at sufficiently low temperatures, followed by thermal redistribution of the localized excitons when the band gap shrinks with increasing temperature. The exciton localization energy sigma (loc) is found to follow the n (5/12) power relation, which testifies to the observed strong localization effects in InN with high electron concentrations.

Photoluminescence spectroscopy and positron annihilation spectroscopy probe of alloying and annealing effects in nonpolar m-plane ZnMgO thin films

Temperature-dependent photoluminescence characteristics of non-polar m-plane ZnO and ZnMgO alloy films grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition have been studied. The enhancement in emission intensity caused by localized excitons in m-plane ZnMgO alloy films was directly observed and it can be further improved after annealing in nitrogen. The concentration of Zn vacancies in the films was increased by alloying with Mg, which was detected by positron annihilation spectroscopy. This result is very important to directly explain why undoped Zn1-xMgxO thin films can show p-type conduction by controlling Mg content, as discussed by Li [Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 232115 (2007)].

Valence band offset of ZnO/BaTiO3 heterojunction measured by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy has been used to measure the valence band offset of the ZnO/BaTiO3 heterojunction grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. The valence band offset (VBO) is determined to be 0.48 +/- 0.09 eV, and the conduction band offset (CBO) is deduced to be about 0.75 eV using the band gap of 3.1 eV for bulk BaTiO3. It indicates that a type-II band alignment forms at the interface, in which the valence and conduction bands of ZnO are concomitantly higher than those of BaTiO3. The accurate determination of VBO and CBO is important for use of semiconductor/ferroelectric heterojunction multifunctional devices.

Nano-Ag on vanadium dioxide. I. Localized spectrum tailoring

We report on the utilization of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of Ag nanoparticles to tailor the optical properties Of VO2 thin film. Interaction of nano-Ag with incident light yields a salient absorption band in the visible-near IR region and modifies the spectrum Of VO2 locally. The wavelength of modification occurs in a limited spectral region rather than affects the full spectrum. The wavelength of modification shows a strong dependence on the metal nanoparticle size and shifts toward the red as the particle size or the mass thickness of nano-Ag increases. Also, we found that the wavelength can be shifted into the IR further by introducing a thin layer of TiO2 onto the nano-Ag. Interestingly, with the help of LSPR effects the VO2 film exhibits an anomalous thermochromic behavior in the modification wavelength region, which may be useful in optical switching applications.

All-optical switching application of germano-silicate optical fiber incorporated with Ag nanocrystals

银纳米晶体掺杂的高非线性石英光纤的全光转换应用

High-Saturation-Power and High-Speed Ge-on-SOI p-i-n Photodetectors

Ge-on-silicon-on-insulator p-i-n photodetectors were fabricated using an ultralow-temperature Ge buffer by ultrahigh-vacuum chemical vapor deposition. For a detector of 70-mu m diameter, the 1-dB small-signal compression power was about 110.5 mW. The 3-dB bandwidth at 3-V reverse bias was 13.4 GHz.