A theoretical analysis on stochastic behaviour of short cracks and fatigue damage of metals

In this paper, the closed form of solution to the stochastic differential equation for a fatigue crack evolution system is derived. and the relationship between metal fatigue damage and crack stochastic behaviour is investigated. It is found that the damage extent of metals is independent of crack stochastic behaviour ii the stochastic deviation of the crack growth rate is directly proportional to its mean value. The evolution of stochastic deviation of metal fatigue damage in the stage close to the transition point between short and long crack regimes is also discussed.

Analysis of Kic and its temperature dependence of metals by a simplified dislocation model

The relative Kic values of metals are calculated with a simplified dislocation model. It is found that the ratio of KIIc to KIc and the temperature dependence of fracture toughness of some metals estimated with this model are consistent with the experimental results.

The study of high temperature annealing of a-SiC : H films

A series of amorphous silicon carbide films were prepared by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition technique on (100) silicon wafers by using methane, silane, and hydrogen as reactive resources. A very thin (around 15 A) gold film was evaporated on the half area of the aSiC:H films to investigate the metal induced crystallization effect. Then the a-SiC:H films were annealed at 1100 degrees C for 1 hour in the nitrogen atmosphere. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-Ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were employed to analyze the microstructure, composition and surface morphology of the films. The influences of the high temperature annealing on the microstructure of a-SiC:H film and the metal induced metallization were investigated.

Heteroepitaxial growth and annealing of gamma-Al2O3 thin films on silicon

The gamma-Al2O3 films were grown on Si (100) substrates using the sources of TMA (Al (CH3)(3)) and O-2 by very low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (VLP-CVD). It has been found that the gamma-Al2O3 film has a mirror-like surface and the RMS was about 2.5nm. And the orientation relationship was gamma-Al2O3(100)/Si(100). The thickness uniformity of gamma-Al2O3 films for 2-inch epi-wafer was less than 5%. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) and reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) results show that the crystalline quality of the film was improved after the film was annealed at 1000degreesC in O-2 atmosphere. The high-frequency C-V and leakage current of Al/gamma-Al2O3/Si capacitor were also measured to verify the annealing effect of the film. The results show that the dielectric constant increased from 4 to 7 and the breakdown voltage for 65-nm-thick gamma-Al2O3 film on silicon increases from 17V to 53V.

Pulsed excimer laser annealing of Mg-doped cubic GaN

A KrF (248 nm) excimer laser with a 38 ns pulse width was used to study pulsed laser annealing (PLA) on Mg-doped cubic GaN alms. The laser-induced changes were monitored by photoluminescence (PL) measurement. It indicated that deep levels in as-grown cubic GaN : Mg films were neutralized by H and PLA treatment could break Mg-H-N complex. The evolution of emissions around 426 and 468 nm with different PLA conditions reflected the different activation of the involved deep levels. Rapid thermal annealing (RTA) in N-2 atmosphere reverts the luminescence of laser annealed samples to that of the pre-annealing state. The reason is that most H atoms still remained in the epilayers after PLA due to the short duration of the pulses and reoccupied the original locations during RTA. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 61.72.Vv; 61.72.Cc; 18.55. -m.

The study of high temperature annealing of a-SiC : H films

A series of amorphous silicon carbide films were prepared by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition technique on (100) silicon wafers by using methane, silane, and hydrogen as reactive resources. A very thin (around 15 A) gold film was evaporated on the half area of the aSiC:H films to investigate the metal induced crystallization effect. Then the a-SiC:H films were annealed at 1100 degrees C for 1 hour in the nitrogen atmosphere. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-Ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were employed to analyze the microstructure, composition and surface morphology of the films. The influences of the high temperature annealing on the microstructure of a-SiC:H film and the metal induced metallization were investigated.

Rapid thermal annealing of arsenic implanted Si1-xGex epilayers

Rapid thermal annealing of arsenic implanted Si1-xGex was studied by secondary ion-mass spectroscopy (SIMS) and spreading resistance probe (SRP) over a wide range of Ge fractions (0-43%). Redistribution of the implanted arsenic was followed as a function of Ge content and annealing temperature. Arsenic concentration profiles from SIMS indicated that the behavior of implanted arsenic in Si1-xGex after RTA was different from that in Si, and the Si1-xGex samples exhibited box-shaped, concentration-dependent diffusion profiles with increasing Ge content. The maximum concentrations of electrically active arsenic in Si1-xGex was found to decrease with increasing Ge content. Experimental results showed that the arsenic diffusion is enhanced with increasing temperature for certain Ge content and strongly dependent on Ge content, and the higher Ge content, the faster As diffusion.

Temperature-stimulated abnormal annealing of neutron-induced damage in high-resistivity silicon detectors

Neutron-irradiated high-resistivity silicon detectors have been subjected to elevated temperature annealing (ETA). It has been found that both detector full depletion voltage and leakage current exhibit abnormal annealing (or ''reverse annealing'') behaviour for highly irradiated detectors: increase with ETA. Laser induced current measurements indicate a net increase of acceptor type space charges associated with the full depletion voltage increase after ETA. Current deep level transient spectroscopy (I-DLTS) and thermally stimulated current (TSC) data show that the dominant effect is the increase of a level at 0.39 eV below the conduction band (E(c) - 0.39 eV) or a level above the valence band (E(v) + 0.39 eV). Candidates tentatively identified for this level are the singly charged double vacancy (V-V-) level at E(c) - 0.39 eV, the carbon interstitial-oxygen interstitial (C-i-O-i) level at E(v) + 0.36 eV, and/or the tri-vacancy-oxygen center (V3O) at E(v) + 0.40 eV.

Heteroepitaxial growth and annealing of gamma-Al2O3 thin films on silicon

The gamma-Al2O3 films were grown on Si (100) substrates using the sources of TMA (Al (CH3)(3)) and O-2 by very low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (VLP-CVD). It has been found that the gamma-Al2O3 film has a mirror-like surface and the RMS was about 2.5nm. And the orientation relationship was gamma-Al2O3(100)/Si(100). The thickness uniformity of gamma-Al2O3 films for 2-inch epi-wafer was less than 5%. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) and reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) results show that the crystalline quality of the film was improved after the film was annealed at 1000degreesC in O-2 atmosphere. The high-frequency C-V and leakage current of Al/gamma-Al2O3/Si capacitor were also measured to verify the annealing effect of the film. The results show that the dielectric constant increased from 4 to 7 and the breakdown voltage for 65-nm-thick gamma-Al2O3 film on silicon increases from 17V to 53V.

Temperature annealing of tracks induced by ion irradiation of graphite

Highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) samples were irradiated by Xe ions of initial kinetic energy of 3 MeV/u. The irradiations were performed at temperatures of 500 and 800 K. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) images show that the tracks occasionally have elongated structures under high-temperature irradiation. The track creation yield at 800 K is by three orders of magnitude smaller compared to that obtained during room-temperature irradiation. STM and Raman spectra show that amorphization occurs in graphite samples irradiated at 500 K to higher fluences, but not at 800 K. The obtained experimental results clearly reveal that the irradiation under high temperature causes track annealing.

Sorption of metals on humic acid

The sorption on humic acid (HA) of metals from an aqueous solution containing Hg(II). Fe(III), Pb, Cu, Al, Ni, Cr(III), Cd, Zn, Co and Mn, was investigated with special emphasis on effects of pH, metal concentration and HA concentration. The sorption efficiency tended to increase with rise in pH, decrease in metal concentration and increase in HA concentration of the equilibrating solution. At pH 2.4. the order of sorption was: Hg Fe Pb Cu=Al Ni Cr=Zn=Cd=Co=Mn. At pH 3.7. the order was: Hg and Fe were always most readily removed, while Co and Mn were sorbed least readily. There were indications of competition for active sites (CO2H and phenolic OH groups) on the HA between the different metals. We were unable to find correlations between the affinities of the eleven metals to sorb on HA and their atomic weights, atomic numbers, valencies, and crystal and hydrated ionic radii. The sorption of the eleven metals on the HA could be described by the equation Full-size image (1K), where Y = % metal removed by HA; X = mgHA; and A and B are empirical constants

Thermal annealing of Au nanorod self-assembled nanostructured materials: Morphology and optical properties

Three-dimensional Au nanorod and An nanoparticle nanostructured materials were prepared by layer-by-layer self-assembly. The plasmonic properties of the An nanorod and An nanoparticle self-assembled nanostructured materials (abbreviated as AuNR and AuNP SANMs) are tunable by the controlled self-assenibly process. The effect of thermal annealing at 180 and 500 degrees C to the morphologies, plasmonic properties and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) responses of these SANMs were investigated. According to the experimental results, these properties correlate with the structure of the SANMs.