High quality microcrystalline Si films by hydrogen dilution profile

Novel hydrogen dilution profiling (HDP) technique was developed to improve the uniformity in the growth direction of mu c-Si:H thin films prepared by hot wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD). It was found that the high H dilution ratio reduces the incubation layer from 30 nm to less than 10 nm. A proper design of hydrogen dilution profiling improves the uniformity of crystalline content, X-c, in the growth direction and restrains the formation of micro-voids as well. As a result the compactness of mu c-Si:H films with a high crystalline content is enhanced and the stability of mu c-Si:H thin film against the oxygen diffusion is much improved. Meanwhile the HDP mu c-Si:H films exhibit the low defect states. The high nucleation density from high hydrogen dilution at early stage is a critical parameter to improve the quality of mu c-Si:H films. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Defect influence on luminescence efficiency of GaN-based LEDs

Wafers with normal light-emitting diode structure were grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition system. The pressure and temperature were varied during growth of buffer layer in order to grow different types of epilayers. The cathodoluminescence results show that the interface distortion of quantum well plays an important role in radiant efficiency. The electroluminescence detections indicate that the dislocations also influence the external quantum efficiency by lowering the electron injection efficiency. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Light-induced changes in diphasic nanocrystalline silicon films and solar cells

A series of diphasic nanocrystalline silicon films and solar cells was prepared using different hydrogen dilution ratios of silane by very high frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (VHF-PECVD). It was observed that after light soaking the open circuit voltage (V-oc) of the diphasic solar cells increased, while that of amorphous silicon solar cells decreased. Raman scattering spectroscopy was performed on the series of diphasic silicon films before and after light soaking. It was found that after light soaking the nanostruclures in the diphasic nanocrystalline silicon films were changed. Both the grain sizes and grain volume fraction reduced, while the grain boundary components increased. These results provide experimental evidence for the conjecture that the light-induced increase in V-oc of the diphasic nanocrystalline solar cells might be induced by the changes in the nanostructure of the intrinsic layer. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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.

Growth and characterization of semi-insulating GaN films grown by MOCVD

High resistivity unintentionally doped GaN films were grown on (0001) sapphire substrates by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The surface morphology of the layer was measured by both atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The results show that the films have mirror-like surface morphology with root mean square of 0.3 nm. The full width at half maximum of double crystal X-ray diffraction rocking curve for (0002) GaN is about 5.22 arc-min, indicative of high crystal quality. The resistivity of the GaN epilayers at room temperature and at 250 degrees C was measured to be approximate 10(9) and 10(6) Omega(.)cm respectively, by variable temperature Hall measurement. Deep level traps in the GaN epilayers were investigated by thermally stimulated current and resistivity measurements.

High-performance EML grown on taper-masked pattern substrates by ultra-low-pressure MOCVD

A novel in-plane bandgap energy controlling technique by ultra-low pressure (22 mbar) selective area growth (SAG) has been developed. To our knowledge, this is the lowest pressure condition during SAG process ever reported. In this work, high crystalline quality InGaAsP-InP MQWs with a photoluminescence (PL) full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of less than 35meV are selectively grown on mask-patterned planar InP substrates by ultra-low pressure (22 mbar) metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). In order to study the uniformity of the MQWs grown in the selective area, novel tapered masks are designed and used. Through optimizing growth conditions, a wide wavelength shift of over 80 nm with a rather small mask width variation (0-30 mu m) is obtained. The mechanism of ultra-low pressure SAG is detailed by analyzing the effect of various mask designs and quantum well widths. This powerful technique is then applied to fabricate an electroabsorption-modulated laser (EML). Superior device characteristics are achieved, such as a low threshold current of 19mA and an output power of 7mW. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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.

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

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.