The formation and characteristics of Si1-xCx alloys in Si crystals by means of implantation of cions with different doses

Carbon ions with concentration of (0.6-1.5)% were implanted into silicon crystals at room temperature and Si1-xCx alloys were grown by solid phase epitaxy with high temperature annealing. The formation and characteristics of Si1-xCx alloys under different implanted carbon doses were studied. If the implanted carbon atom concentration was less than 0.6%, carbon atoms would tend to combine with the defects produced during implantation and it was difficult for Si1-xCx alloys to form during annealing at 850-950 degreesC. With the increase of implanted C concentration, almost all implanted carbon atoms would occupy substitution positions to form Si1-xCx alloys, but only part of implanted carbon atoms would occupy the substitution position to form Si1-xCx alloys as the implanted dose increased to 1.5 %. Most Si1-xCx alloy phases would vanish as the annealing temperature was increased higher.

Fabrication of luminescent Ge nanocrystals started from unlayered hydrogenated amorphous SiGe films or hydrogenated amorphous Si hydrogenated amorphous Ge multilayers

Nanocrystalline Ge embedded in SiOx matrix is fabricated by oxidizing hydrogenated amorphous Sice alloys or hydrogenated amorphous Si/hydrogenated amorphous Ge multilayers. The structures before and after oxidation are systematically investigated. Visible light emission was observed from both samples. The luminescence peak is located at 2.2 eV which is independent of the starting materials. Compared to the luminescence from unlayered samples, the photoluminescence spectrum from multilayered samples has a narrower band width, which can be attributed to the uniform size distribution. The light emission origin is also discussed briefly and a mechanism different from the quantum size effect is suggested.

Pressure behavior of deep centers in ZnSxTe1-x alloys

We have measured photoluminescence of ZnSxTe1-x alloys (x > 0.7) at 300 K and under hydrostatic pressure up to 7 GPa. The spectra contain only a broad emission band under excitation of the 406.7 nm line. Its pressure coefficients are 47, 62 and 45 meV/GPa for x = 0.98, 0.92 and 0.79 samples, which are about 26%, 7% and 38% smaller than that of the band gap in the corresponding alloys. The Stokes shifts between emission and absorption of the bands were calculated by fitting the pressure dependence of the emission intensity, being 0.29, 0.48 and 0.13 eV for the three samples, respectively. The small pressure coefficient and large Stokes shift indicate that the emission band observed in our samples may correspond to the Te isoelectronic center in the ZnSxTe1-x alloy.

Nanostructure in the p-layer and its impacts on amorphous silicon solar cells

The open circuit voltage (V-oc) of n-i-p type hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells has been examined by means of experimental and numerical modeling. The i- and p-layer limitations on V-oc are separated and the emphasis is to identify the impact of different kinds of p-layers. Hydrogenated protocrystalline, nanocrystalline and microcrystalline silicon p-layers were prepared and characterized using Raman spectroscopy, high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), optical transmittance and activation energy of dark-conductivity. The n-i-p a-Si:H solar cells incorporated with these p-layers were comparatively investigated, which demonstrated a wide variation of V-oc from 1.042 V to 0.369 V, under identical i- and n-layer conditions. It is found that the nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) p-layer with a certain nanocrystalline volume fraction leads to a higher V-oc. The optimum p-layer material for n-i-p type a-Si:H solar cells is not found at the onset of the transition between the amorphous to mixed phases, nor is it associated with a microcrystalline material with a large grain size and a high volume fraction of crystalline phase. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Band crossing in isovalent semiconductor alloys with large size mismatch: First-principles calculations of the electronic structure of Bi and N incorporated GaAs

For large size- and chemical-mismatched isovalent semiconductor alloys, such as N and Bi substitution on As sites in GaAs, isovalent defect levels or defect bands are introduced. The evolution of the defect states as a function of the alloy concentration is usually described by the popular phenomenological band anticrossing (BAC) model. Using first-principles band-structure calculations we show that at the impurity limit the N-(Bi)-induced impurity level is above (below) the conduction- (valence-) band edge of GaAs. These trends reverse at high concentration, i.e., the conduction-band edge of GaAs1-xNx becomes an N-derived state and the valence-band edge of GaAs1-xBix becomes a Bi-derived state, as expected from their band characters. We show that this band crossing phenomenon cannot be described by the popular BAC model but can be naturally explained by a simple band broadening picture.

ON THE DANGLING-BOND RELAXATION PROBLEM IN HYDROGENATED AMORPHOUS-SILICON

The influence of pulsed bias light excitation on the absorption in the defect region of undoped a-Si:H film has been investigated. Ac constant photocurrent method has been used to measure the absorption spectrum. The absorption in the defect region increases with the light pulse duration.The analysis of obtained results does not support the existence of a long time relaxation process of dangling-bond states in a-Si:H.

Strong visible photoluminescence from amorphous silicon grains in a-SiOx:H films

Two strong luminescence bands were observed from a-SiOx:H in the spectral range of 550-900 nm at room temperature. One is a main broad peak which blueshifts with oxygen content and the other is a shoulder fixed at about 835 nm. In conjunction with TR and micro-Raman spectra, we have proposed that the main band may originate from the amorphous silicon grains embedded in SiOx network, while the shoulder might be due to some defects induced by excess-silicon in these films. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.

Competitions of magnetism and superconductivity in FeAs-based materials

Using the numerical unrestricted Hartree-Fock approach, we study the ground state of a two-orbital model describing newly discovered FeAs-based superconductors. We observe the competition of a (0, π) mode spin-density wave and the superconductivity as the doping concentration changes. There might be a small region in the electron-doping side where the magnetism and superconductivity coexist. The superconducting pairing is found to be spin singlet,orbital even, and coexisting sxy + dx~2-y~2 wave (even parity).

Light-induced change of Si-H bond absorption in hydrogenated amorphous silicon

Device-quality a-Si:H films were prepared by glow discharge CVD with pure or H-diluted silane as well as by hot-wire CVD. The hydrogen content was varied from similar to 2 to 15 at. %. The Si-H bond absorption and its light-soaking-induced changes were studied by IR and differential IR absorption spectroscopes. The results indicate that the more stable sample exhibits an increase of the absorption at wave number similar to 2000 cm(-1), and the less stable one exhibits a decrease at similar to 2040 cm(-1) and an increase at similar to 1880 cm(-1).

Pressure behavior of deep centers in ZnSxTe1-x alloys

We have measured photoluminescence of ZnSxTe1-x alloys (x > 0.7) at 300 K and under hydrostatic pressure up to 7 GPa. The spectra contain only a broad emission band under excitation of the 406.7 nm line. Its pressure coefficients are 47, 62 and 45 meV/GPa for x = 0.98, 0.92 and 0.79 samples, which are about 26%, 7% and 38% smaller than that of the band gap in the corresponding alloys. The Stokes shifts between emission and absorption of the bands were calculated by fitting the pressure dependence of the emission intensity, being 0.29, 0.48 and 0.13 eV for the three samples, respectively. The small pressure coefficient and large Stokes shift indicate that the emission band observed in our samples may correspond to the Te isoelectronic center in the ZnSxTe1-x alloy.