Formation of SnO and SnO2 phases during the annealing of SnO(x) films obtained by molecular beam epitaxy

SnO and SnO2 films were obtained on the SiO2 surface by the molecular-beam epitaxy method. The initial film

Morphology, structure, and optical properties of SnO (x) films

The paper presents the morphological, structural, and optical properties of nanostructured SnO (x) film

Effect of annealing temperature on the morphology, structure, and optical properties of nanostructured SnO(x) films

Fabrication and characterization of titanium dioxide (TiO2) thin film on Al/TiO2/SiO2/p-Si MIS structure for the study of morphology, optical and electrical properties were reported. A transparent and high crystallinity of TiO2 thin films were prepared at room temperature (~25 °C) by sol–gel route. TiO2 sol suspension were prepared at molar ratio of TTIP:EtOH:AA = 2:15:1 using titanium tetra-isopropoxide (TTIP) and a mixture of absolute ethanol (EtOH) and acetic acid (AA) which used as a precursor and catalyst for the peptization, respectively. The TiO2 thin films were deposited on a thermally grown SiO2 layer of p-type silicon (100) substrates and were thermally treated at different annealing temperatures of 300, 500, 700 and 900 °C. For study of optical properties, the TiO2 thin films were deposited on a glass slides substrate and were annealed from 200 to 700 °C. The XRD results show that the presence of an amorphous TiO2 phases were transformed into the polycrystalline (anatase or rutile) with good crystallinity after treated at higher annealing temperatures. Besides, the surface roughness of TiO2 thin films increased with increasing annealing temperatures. In addition, the resistivity of the thin films decreased from 2.5751E+8 to 6.714E+7 Ω cm with the increasing temperatures. Moreover, the optical absorbance of TiO2 thin films exhibited high UV–visible light absorption with band gap energy shifted to the higher wavelength (low energy photons). The band gap energy (Eg) of the films decreased from 3.79 to 3.16 eV and from 3.95 to 3.75 eV significantly for direct band allowed and indirect band allowed, respectively, with the increasing annealing temperatures

The Influence of Argon Cluster Ion Bombardment on the Characteristics of AlN Films on Glass-Ceramics and Si Substrates

In this paper, the influence of surface modification on the characteristics and properties of AlN thin films on Si and glass-ceramics substrates is investigated. The surface modification was made at various parameters of argon cluster ions. By using XRD and Raman spectroscopy, it was shown that the obtained AlN films have a hexagonal structure with a characteristic direction of texturing along the c axis and slight deviations from it. A comparison of the AlN surface morphology obtained by atomic force microscopy before and after cluster processing was demonstrated. This demonstrated that the cluster ions with low energy per atom (E/N = 10 eV/atom) have a high efficiency of surface smoothing. A decrease in the intensity of the Raman peaks and an increase in their full-width after bombardment with cluster ions were found, which may be caused by a change in the physicochemical state of the surface. The optical properties, the quality of the boundaries, and the distribution map of the thickness of the functional layer of AlN were investigated by the methods of spectral and spatial resolution ellipsometry. By using the cross-sectional SEM, the direction of crystallite texturing was demonstrated. The influence of argon cluster ion bombardment on the stoichiometry of samples was analyzed by EDX spectroscopy. The results obtained demonstrate the efficiency of the cluster ion smoothing of polycrystalline thin films for microelectronics, particularly when creating surface acoustic wave resonators

Impact of Hydrogen Plasma on Electrical Properties and Deep Trap Spectra in Ga₂O₃ Polymorphs

In this study, the results of hydrogen plasma treatments of β-Ga2O3, α-Ga2O3, κ-Ga2O3 and γ-Ga2O3 polymorphs are analyzed. For all polymorphs, the results strongly suggest an interplay between donor-like hydrogen configurations and acceptor complexes formed by hydrogen with gallium vacancies. A strong anisotropy of hydrogen plasma effects in the most thermodynamically stable β-Ga2O3 are explained by its low-symmetry monoclinic crystal structure. For the metastable, α-, κ- and γ-polymorphs, it is shown that the net result of hydrogenation is often a strong increase in the density of centers supplying electrons in the near-surface regions. These centers are responsible for prominent, persistent photocapacitance and photocurrent effects

Characterization of Structure, Morphology, Optical and Electrical Properties of AlN–Al–V Multilayer Thin Films Fabricated by Reactive DC Magnetron Sputtering

Composite thin films of the AlN–Al–V type, grown by magnetron sputtering, were analyzed by several complementary diagnostic methods. The power of the magnetron was used as a variable parameter, while gas flows, chamber pressure, and substrate temperature remained unchanged during the film fabrication. According to grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) results, in most cases, it was possible to obtain an (002)-oriented aluminum nitride (AlN) layer in the films, although, with an increase in the magnetron power to 800 W, the formation of X-ray amorphous AlN was observed. Similarly, according to the Raman results, the width of the peak of the vibrational mode E1, which characterizes the correlation length of optical phonons, also significantly increased in the case of the sample obtained at 800 W, which may indicate a deterioration in the crystallinity of the film. A study of the surface morphology by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that the AlN film grows in the form of vertically oriented hexagons, and crystallites emerge on the surface in the form of dendritic structures. During the analysis of the AFM roughness power spectral density (PSD-x) functions, it was found that the type of substrate material does not significantly affect the surface roughness of the AlN films. According to the energy–dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) elemental analysis, an excess of aluminum was observed in all fabricated samples. The study of the current-voltage characteristics of the films showed that the resistance of aluminum nitride layers in such composites correlates with both the aluminum content and the structural imperfection of crystallites

Nitric oxide scavenging by red blood cell microparticles and cell-free hemoglobin as a mechanism for the red cell storage lesion

Bacground-: Intravascular red cell hemolysis impairs nitric oxide (NO)-redox homeostasis, producing endothelial dysfunction, platelet activation, and vasculopathy. Red blood cell storage under standard conditions results in reduced integrity of the erythrocyte membrane, with formation of exocytic microvesicles or microparticles and hemolysis, which we hypothesized could impair vascular function and contribute to the putative storage lesion of banked blood. METHODS AND RESULTS-: We now find that s