Influence of deposition time on the properties of electrodeposited Cu(In,Al)Se-2 thin films

Cu(In,Al)Se-2 films are grown using single step electrodeposition technique. The film properties are studied by varying the deposition time from 500 to 2000 s. Peaks corresponding to elemental Se and Cu2Se phase started appearing from 1200 s of deposition. The composition is changed significantly after 1500 S. Se concentration increased from 57 to 68% with the increase in the deposition time. The Cu2Se phase is dominant in the films deposited for a duration of 2000 s and the grain size increased from 1.12 to 2.15 mu m in this film. Raman analysis confirmed the presence of Se and Cu2Se phase in C1200. In C1500 and C2000 the spectra showed prominent mode corresponding to Cu2Se. The thickness of the film increased from 0.85 to 2.3 mu m with the increase in the deposition time. All the films showed p-type conductivity and resistivity reduced with increased thickness. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dependence of shear yield strain and shear transformation zone on the glass transition temperature in thin film metallic glasses

The dependence of shear yield strain, the activation energy and volume of shear transformation zone on the glass transition temperature was investigated through the analysis of statistical distributions of the first pop-in events during spherical indentation of four different thin film metallic glasses. Only the Cu-Zr metallic glass exhibits a bimodal distribution of the first pop-in loads, whereas W-Ru-B, Zr-Cu-Ni-Al and La-Co-Al metallic glasses show an unimodal distribution. Results show that shear yield strain and activation energy of shear transformation zone decrease whereas the volume of shear transformation zone increases with increasing homologous temperature, indicating that it is the activation energy rather than the volume of shear transformation zone that controls shear yield strain. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Influence of soil pedological properties on termite mound stability

This study investigated the influence of soil properties on the density and shape of epigeous fungus-growing termite nests in a dry deciduous forest in Karnataka, India. In this environment, Odontotermes obesus produces cathedral shaped mounds. Their density, shape (height and volume) and soil physicochemical properties were analyzed in ferralsol and vertisol environments. No significant difference was observed in O. obesus mound density (n = 2.7 mound ha(-1) on average in the vertisol and ferralsol areas). This study also showed that O. obesus has a limited effect on soil physical properties. No differences in soil particle size, pH, or the C:N ratio and base saturation were measured whereas the C and N contents were reduced and CEC was higher in termite nest soils in both environments. Clay mineralogical composition was also measured, and showed the presence of higher amounts of smectite clays in termite nest soils, which thus explained the increasing CEC despite the reduced C and N content. However, the main difference was the shape of the termite mounds. The degradation of the nests created a hillock of eroded soil at the base of termite mounds in the vertisol while only a thin layer of eroded soil was observed in the ferralsol. The increased degradation of termite mounds in the vertisol is explained by the presence of smectites (2:1 swelling clays), which confer macroscopic swelling and shrinking characteristics to the soil. Soil shrinkage during the dry season leads to the formation of deep cracks in the termite mounds that allow rain to rapidly penetrate inside the mound wall and then breakdown unstable aggregates. In conclusion, it appears that despite a similar abundance, termite mound properties depend to a large extent on the soil properties of their environments. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Investigation of Annealing Induced Yttria Segregation in Sputtered Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia Thin Films

8mol% yttria-stabilized zirconia (8YSZ) is an extensively studied solid electrolyte. But there is no consistency in the reported ionic conductivity values of 8YSZ thin films. Interfacial segregation in YSZ thin films can affect its ionic conductivity by locally altering the surface chemistry. This article presents the effects of annealing temperature and film thickness on free surface yttria segregation behavior in 8YSZ thin film by Angle Resolved XPS and its influence on the ionic conductivity of sputtered 8YSZ thin films. Surface yttria concentration of about 32, 20, and 9mol% have been found in 40nm 8YSZ films annealed at 1273, 1173, and 1073K, respectively. Yttria segregation is found to increase with increase in annealing temperature and film thickness. Ionic conductivities of 0.23, 0.16, and 0.08Scm(-1) are observed at 923K for 40nm 8YSZ films annealed at 1073, 1173, and 1273K, respectively. The decrease in conductivity with increase in annealing temperature is attributed to the increased yttria segregation with annealing. Neither segregation nor film thickness is found to affect the activation energy of oxygen ion conduction. Target purity is found to play a key role in determining free surface yttria segregation in 8YSZ thin films.

Role of thermal annealing on SiGe thin films fabricated by PECVD

Amorphous Silicon Germanium (a-SiGe) thin films of 500 nm thickness are deposited on silicon substrates using Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition (PECVD). To obtain polycrystalline nature of films, thermal annealing is done at various temperature (450-600 degrees C) and time (1-10 h). The surface morphology of the pre- and post-annealed films is investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The crystallographic structure of the film is obtained by X-ray diffraction method. Raman spectroscopy is carried out to quantify the Ge concentration and the degree of strain relaxation in the film. Nano-indentation is performed to obtain the mechanical properties of the film. It is found that annealing reduces the surface roughness of the film and increases the Ge concentration in the film. The grain size of the film increases with increase in annealing temperature. The grain size is found to decrease with increase in annealing time up to 5 h and then increased. The results show that 550 degrees C for 5 h is the critical annealing condition for variation of structural and mechanical properties of the film. Recrystallization starts at this condition and results in finer grains. An increase in hardness value of 7-8 GPa has been observed. Grain growth occurs above this critical annealing condition and degrades the mechanical properties of the film. The strain in the film is only relaxed to about 55% even for 10 h of annealing at 600 degrees C. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) observations show that the strain relaxation occurs by forming misfit dislocations and these dislocations are confined to the SiGe/Si interface. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Spotting 2D atomic layers on aluminum nitride thin films

Substrates for 2D materials are important for tailoring their fundamental properties and realizing device applications. Aluminum nitride (AIN) films on silicon are promising large-area substrates for such devices in view of their high surface phonon energies and reasonably large dielectric constants. In this paper epitaxial layers of AlN on 2 `' Si wafers have been investigated as a necessary first step to realize devices from exfoliated or transferred atomic layers. Significant thickness dependent contrast enhancements are both predicted and observed for monolayers of graphene and MoS2 on AlN films as compared to the conventional SiO2 films on silicon, with calculated contrast values approaching 100% for graphene on AlN as compared to 8% for SiO2 at normal incidences. Quantitative estimates of experimentally measured contrast using reflectance spectroscopy show very good agreement with calculated values. Transistors of monolayer graphene on AlN films are demonstrated, indicating the feasibility of complete device fabrication on the identified layers.

RF plasma enhanced MOCVD of yttria stabilized zirconia thin films using octanedionate precursors and their characterization

Yttria stabilized zirconia thin films have been deposited by RF plasma enhanced MOCVD technique on silicon substrates at substrate temperature of 400 degrees C. Plasma of precursor vapors of (2,7,7-trimethyl-3,5-octanedionate) yttrium (known as Y(tod)(3)), (2,7,7-trimethyl-3,5-octanedionate) zirconium (known as Zr(tod)(4)), oxygen and argon gases is used for deposition. To the best of our knowledge, plasma assisted MOCVD of YSZ films using octanediaonate precursors have not been reported in the literature so far. The deposited films have been characterized by GIXRD, FTIR, XPS, FESEM, AFM, XANES, EXAFS, EDAX and spectroscopic ellipsometry. Thickness of the films has been measured by stylus profilometer while tribological property measurement has been done to study mechanical behavior of the coatings. Characterization by different techniques indicates that properties of the films are dependent on the yttria content as well as on the structure of the films. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effect of substrates and surfactants over the evolution of crystallographic texture of nanostructured ZnO thin films deposited through microwave irradiation

In spite of intense research on ZnO over the past decade, the detailed investigation about the crystallographic texture of as obtained ZnO thin films/coatings, and its deviation with growth surface is scarce. We report a systematic study about the orientation distribution of nanostructured ZnO thin films fabricated by microwave irradiation with the variation of substrates and surfactants. The nanostructured films comprising of ZnO nanorods are grown on semiconductor substrates such as Si(100), Ge(100)], conducting substrates (ITO-coated glass, Cr coated Si), and polymer coated Si (PMMA/Si) to examine the respective development of crystallographic texture. The ZnO deposited on semiconductor substrates yieldsmixed texture, whereas c-axis oriented ZnO nanostructured films are obtained by conducting substrate, and PMMA coated Si substrates. Among all the surfactants, nanostructured film produced by using the lower molecular weight of polymeric surfactants (polyvinylpyrrolidone) shows a stronger (0002) texture, and that can be tuned to (10 - 10) by increasing the molecular weight of the surfactant. The strongest basal pole is achieved for the ZnO deposited on PMMA coated Si as substrate, and cetyl-trimethyl ammonium bromide as cationic surfactant. The texture analysis is carried out by X-ray pole figure analysis using the Schultz reflection method. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Stimuli-responsive weak polyelectrolyte multilayer films: A thin film platform for self triggered multi-drug delivery

Polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM) thin film composed of weak polyelectrolytes was designed by layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly of poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) and poly(methacrylic acid) (PMA) for multi-drug delivery applications. Environmental stimuli such as pH and ionic strength showed significant influence in changing the film morphology from pore-free smooth structure to porous structure and favored triggered release of loaded molecules. The film was successfully loaded with bovine serum albumin (BSA) and ciprofloxacin hydrochloride (CH) by modulating the porous polymeric network of the film. Release studies showed that the amount of release could be easily controlled by changing the environmental conditions such as pH and ionic strength. Sustained release of loaded molecules was observed up to 8 h. The fabricated films were found to be biocompatible with epithelial cells during in-vitro cell culture studies. PEM film reported here not only has the potential to be used as self-responding thin film platform for transdermal drug delivery, but also has the potential for further development in antimicrobial or anti-inflammatory coatings on implants and drug-releasing coatings for stents. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effect of laser irradiation on optical properties of Ge12Sb25Se63 amorphous chalcogenide thin films

The change in photo-induced optical properties in thermally evaporated Ge12Sb25Se63 chalcogenide thin film under 532-nm laser illumination has been reported in this paper. The structure and composition of the film have been examined by X-ray diffraction and energy dispersive X-ray analysis, respectively. The optical properties such as refractive index, extinction coefficient and thickness of the films have been determined from the transmission spectra based on inverse synthesis method and the optical band gap has been derived from optical absorption spectra using the Tauc plot. It has been found that the mechanism of the optical absorption is due to allowed indirect transition. The optical band gap increases by 0.05 eV causing photo-bleaching mechanism, while refractive index decreases because of reduction in structural disordering. Deconvolution of Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectra into several peaks provides different structural units, which supports the optical photo-bleaching.

Growth and characteristics of amorphous Sb2Se3 thin films of various thicknesses for memory switching applications

Thin films of different thicknesses in the range of 200-720 nm have been deposited on glass substrates at room temperature using thermal evaporation technique. The structural investigations revealed that the as-deposited films are amorphous in nature. The surface roughness of the films shows an increasing trend at higher thickness of the films. The surface roughness of the films shows an increasing trend at higher thickness of the films. Interference fringes in the transmission spectra of these films suggest that the films are fairly smooth and uniform. The optical absorption in Sb2Se3 film is described using indirect transition and the variation in band gaps is explained on the basis of defects and disorders in the chalcogenide systems. Raman spectrum confirms the increase of orderliness with film thickness. From the I-V characteristics, a memory type switching is observed whose threshold voltage increases with film thickness. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Investigation on the origin of exchange bias in epitaxial, oriented and polycrystalline Fe3O4 thin films

We observe exchange bias (EB) in a single magnetic film Fe3O4 at temperature T < 200 K. Irrespective of crystallographic orientations of grown Fe3O4; they exhibit similar nature of EB for (100) epitaxial, (111) oriented and polycrystalline Fe3O4 thin films. Growth induced defects such as anti-phase boundaries (APBs) in epitaxial Fe3O4 thin film is known to have an influence on the magnetic interaction. But, it is noticed that according to the common consensus of APBs alone cannot explain the origin of EB. If majority of APBs end up with mainly anti-ferromagnetic interactions across these boundaries together with the internal ordering modification in Fe3O4, then EB can emerge at low temperatures. Hence, we propose the idea of directional anti-ferromagnetic APB induced EB in Fe3O4 triggered by internal ordering for T <= 200 K. Similar arguments are extended to (111) oriented as well as polycrystalline Fe3O4 films where the grain boundaries can impart same consequence as that of APBs. (C) 2015 Author(s).

Real-Time Stress Measurements in Germanium Thin Film Electrodes during Electrochemical Lithiation/Delithiation Cycling

An in situ study of stress evolution and mechanical behavior of germanium as a lithium-ion battery electrode material is presented. Thin films of germanium are cycled in a half-cell configuration with lithium metal foil as counter/reference electrode, with 1M LiPF6 in ethylene carbonate, diethyl carbonate, dimethyl carbonate solution (1:1:1, wt%) as electrolyte. Real-time stress evolution in the germanium thin-film electrodes during electrochemical lithiation/delithiation is measured by monitoring the substrate curvature using the multi-beam optical sensing method. Upon lithiation a-Ge undergoes extensive plastic deformation, with a peak compressive stress reaching as high as -0.76 +/- 0.05 GPa (mean +/- standard deviation). The compressive stress decreases with lithium concentration reaching a value of approximately -0.3 GPa at the end of lithiation. Upon delithiation the stress quickly became tensile and follows a trend that mirrors the behavior on compressive side; the average peak tensile stress of the lithiated Ge samples was approximately 0.83 GPa. The peak tensile stress data along with the SEM analysis was used to estimate a lower bound fracture resistance of lithiated Ge, which is approximately 5.3 J/m(2). It was also observed that the lithiated Ge is rate sensitive, i.e., stress depends on how fast or slow the charging is carried out. (C) The Author(s) 2015. Published by ECS. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse of the work in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. All rights reserved.

Solution processible Cu2SnS3 thin films for cost effective photovoltaics: Characterization

Thin films of Cu2SnS3 (CTS) were deposited by the facile solution processed sol-gel route followed by a low-temperature annealing. The Cu-Sn-thiourea complex formation was analysed using Fourier Transform Infrared spectrophotometer (FTIR). The various phase transformations and the deposition temperature range for the initial precursor solution was determined using Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) studies revealed the tetragonal phase formation of the CTS annealed films. Raman spectroscopy studies further confirmed the tetragonal phase formation and the absence of any deterioratory secondary phases. The morphological investigations and compositional analysis of the films were determined using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) respectively. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) was used to estimate the surface roughness of 1.3 nm. The absorption coefficient was found to be 10(4) cm(-1) and bandgap 1.3 eV which qualifies CTS to be a potential candidate for photovoltaic applications. The refractive index, extinction coefficient and relative permittivity of the film were measured by Spectroscopic ellipsometry. Hall effect measurements, indicated the p type nature of the films with a hole concentration of 2 x 10(18) cm(-3), electrical conductivity of 9 S/cm and a hole mobility of 29 cm(2)/V. The properties of CTS as deduced from the current study, present CTS as a potential absorber layer material for thin film solar cells. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

High-kappa TiO2 Thin Film Prepared by Sol-Gel Spin-Coating Method

High-k TiO2 thin film on p-type silicon substrate was fabricated by a combined sol-gel and spin coating method. Thus deposited titania film had anatase phase with a small grain size of 16 nm and surface roughness of congruent to 0.6 nm. The oxide capacitance (C-ox), flat band capacitance (C-FB), flat band voltage (V-FB), oxide trapped charge (Q(ot)), calculated from the high frequency (1 MHz) C-V curve were 0.47 nF, 0.16 nF, -0.91 V, 4.7x10(-12) C, respectively. As compared to the previous reports, a high dielectric constant of 94 at 1 MHz frequency was observed in the devices investigated here and an equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) was 4.1 nm. Dispersion in accumulation capacitance shows a linear relationship with AC frequencies. Leakage current density was found in acceptable limits (2.1e-5 A/cm(2) for -1 V and 5.7e-7 A/cm(2) for +1 V) for CMOS applications.