Microwave Properties of 2D CMOS Compatible Co-Planar Waveguides Made from Phosphorus Dopant Monolayers in Silicon

Low-dimensional microwave interconnects have important applications for nanoscale electronics, from complementary metal–oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) to silicon quantum technologies. Graphene is naturally nanoscale and has already demonstrated attractive electronic properties, however its application to electronics is limited by available fabrication techniques and CMOS incompatibility. Here, the characteristics of transmission lines made from silicon doped with phosphorus are investigated using phosphine monolayer doping. S-parameter measurements are performed between 4–26 GHz from room temperature down to 4.5 K. At 20 GHz, the measured monolayer transmission line characteristics consist of an attenuation constant of 40 dB mm−1 and a characteristic impedance of 600 Ω. The results indicate that Si:P monolayers are a viable candidate for microwave transmission and that they have a.c. properties similar to graphene, with the additional benefit of extremely precise, reliable, stable, and inherently CMOS compatible fabrication

Advancements and challenges in strained group-IV-based optoelectronic materials stressed by ion beam treatment

In this perspective article, we discuss the application of ion implantation to manipulate strain (by either neutralizing or inducing compressive or tensile states) in suspended thin films. Emphasizing the pressing need for a high-mobility silicon-compatible transistor or a direct bandgap group-IV semiconductor that is compatible with complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor technology, we underscore the distinctive features of different methods of ion beam-induced alteration of material morphology. The article examines the precautions needed during experimental procedures and data analysis and explores routes for potential scalable adoption by the semiconductor industry. Finally, we briefly discuss how this highly controllable strain-inducing technique can facilitate enhanced manipulation of impurity-based spin quantum bits (qubits)

XeF 2 gas-assisted focused-ion-beam etching of InSb quantum wells for rapid prototyping of semiconductor nanodevices

InSb is a III-V narrow-gap semiconductor with properties such as low effective mass, high mobility, and strong spin-orbit coupling making it an ideal material for applications such as spintronics mid-infrared photonics, and nanoelectronics. InSb quantum wells can be made by growing an InSb/InAlSb structure on a Ga substrate using molecular beam epitaxy. However, it is notoriously difficult to fabricate nanodevices from InSb/InAlSb quantum wells due to factors such as its low thermal budget and the production of non-volatile by-products in conventional etching processes, leading to unwanted deposition of material onto the material surface. Current wet and dry etching techniques take a long time and require expensive lithography masks to make new devices, slowing the development of optimised nanodevices.We investigate focused ion beam (FIB) lithography as a "rapid prototyping"&nbsp;fabrication technique to create semiconductor nanodevices from InSb quantum wells. FIB methods have the advantage of being relatively quick and "maskless", making them ideal for use in the research environment as new iterations of device design can be made quickly and different etching chemistries and electrical properties can be tested in-situ. A variety of Xe plasma FIB parameters were tested to optimise the feature resolution and etching quality of milled trenches at low temperatures. The XeF2 gas-assisted etching process was also studied as an alternative to the Cl2 chemistry that is typically employed for dry etching of InSb. Cross-sections and profiles of the trenches indicate that the XeF2 etch yields superior trench smoothness and mills material from the surface at a much higher rate. This method was also less prone to deposition of unwanted material onto the surface of the sample. This high-resolution fabrication method can be used for the rapid development and optimisation of individual nanoscale devices before mass production.</p

Selectively Reflective Transparent Sheets

We investigate the possibility to selectively reflect certain wavelengths while maintaining the optical properties on other spectral ranges. This is of particular interest for transparent materials, which for specific applications may require high reflectivity at pre-determined frequencies. Although there exist currently techniques such as coatings to produce selective reflection, this work focuses on new approaches for mass production of polyethylene sheets which incorporate either additives or surface patterning for selective reflection between 8 to 13 μ m. Typical additives used to produce a greenhouse effect in plastics include particles such as clays, silica or hydroxide materials. However, the absorption of thermal radiation is less efficient than the decrease of emissivity as it can be compared with the inclusion of Lambertian materials. Photonic band gap engineering by the periodic structuring of metamaterials is known in nature for producing the vivid bright colors in certain organisms via strong wavelength-selective reflection. Research to artificially engineer such structures has mainly focused on wavelengths in the visible and near infrared. However few studies to date have been carried out to investigate the properties of metastructures in the mid infrared range even though the patterning of microstructure is easier to achieve. We present preliminary results on the diffuse reflectivity using FDTD simulations and analyze the technical feasibility of these approaches

Performance Evaluation of CNTFETs Fabricated with Carbon Nanotubes of Different Synthesis Methods

Single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) exhibit extraordinary electronic properties that render it as an exciting candidate to be applied as the active channel of high-performance carbon nanotube field effect transistors (CNTFETs). The electronic properties of SWCNTs have been demonstrated to be dependent on the tube intrinsic properties that includes structural defects, chirality and diameter. Structural tube defects can be affected by the synthesis method and therefore the latter should also affect the device performance. Hence, this paper aims to present the influence of SWCNTs source synthesis method towards the resulting CNTFET device characteristics. A total of four SWCNT samples were sourced from different synthesis methods in fabricating CNTFETs. The synthesis methods are arc-discharge and three different variation of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) processes, which are DIPS, HiPco and CoMoCAT, respectively. Prior to fabrication, the SWCNT samples were characterized via Raman spectroscopy to quantify the tube defect levels of each sample, which are directly proportional to the G-peak to D-peak height ratio, G/D. Electrical characterization was carried out via 3-terminal field effect I-V measurement to evaluate key device performance parameters such as on-off current ratio, ION/IOFF, transconductance, gm, subthreshold slope, Sp and field effect mobility, µFE. Analysis shows that G/D affects the I­OFF more significantly relative to ION, resulting in increasing ION/IOFF, and hence switching performance, when G/D increases. It is shown an increase of ~50% to the G/D of the SWCNT source resulted in ~ 860% increase in µFE. Based on the correlation between the optical analysis and electrical measurement, we conclude that the SWCNT growth method can significantly affect the CNTFET device performance

Performance Evaluation of CNTFETs Fabricated with Carbon Nanotubes of Different Synthesis Methods

Single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) exhibit extraordinary electronic properties that render it as an exciting candidate to be applied as the active channel of high-performance carbon nanotube field effect transistors (CNTFETs). The electronic properties of SWCNTs have been demonstrated to be dependent on the tube intrinsic properties that includes structural defects, chirality and diameter. Structural tube defects can be affected by the synthesis method and therefore the latter should also affect the device performance. Hence, this paper aims to present the influence of SWCNTs source synthesis method towards the resulting CNTFET device characteristics. A total of four SWCNT samples were sourced from different synthesis methods in fabricating CNTFETs. The synthesis methods are arc-discharge and three different variation of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) processes, which are DIPS, HiPco and CoMoCAT, respectively. Prior to fabrication, the SWCNT samples were characterized via Raman spectroscopy to quantify the tube defect levels of each sample, which are directly proportional to the G-peak to D-peak height ratio, G/D. Electrical characterization was carried out via 3-terminal field effect I-V measurement to evaluate key device performance parameters such as on-off current ratio, ION/IOFF, transconductance, gm, subthreshold slope, Sp and field effect mobility, µFE. Analysis shows that G/D affects the I­OFF more significantly relative to ION, resulting in increasing ION/IOFF, and hence switching performance, when G/D increases. It is shown an increase of ~50% to the G/D of the SWCNT source resulted in ~ 860% increase in µFE. Based on the correlation between the optical analysis and electrical measurement, we conclude that the SWCNT growth method can significantly affect the CNTFET device performance

Selective light transmission as a leading innovation for solar swimming pool covers

An innovative, extrudable material with the ability to filter the sun’s energy has been developed for the mass manufacture of high performance swimming pool covers. Solar radiation in the visible spectrum ( nm) is absorbed by the material so that minimal visible light enters the pool water which inhibits photosynthesis to prevent algae growth. Furthermore, the material has high transmission properties in the near infrared that can be efficiently absorbed by the water allowing for a higher temperature increase compared to a standard non-selective opaque cover. We have developed a model to enable the cover efficiency to convert solar energy to heat a swimming pool, calculated based on the wavelength dependent absorption and transmission properties of the cover. We have validated this model using dedicated full-scale test-facility. Our results demonstrate that a selective transmission cover can increase the absolute heating efficiencies by approximately 12% compared to the fully opaque equivalent

Stress-strain engineering of single-crystalline silicon membranes by ion implantation: Towards direct-gap group-IV semiconductors

The introduction of strain into semiconductors offers a well-known route to modify their band structure. Here, we show a single-step procedure for generating such strains smoothly and deterministically, over a very wide range, using a simple, easily available, highly scalable, ion implantation technique to control the degree of amorphization in and around single-crystal membranes. The amorphization controls the density of the material and thus the tension in the neighboring crystalline regions. We have demonstrated up to 3.1% biaxial tensile strain and 8.5% uniaxial strain in silicon, based on micro-Raman spectroscopy. This method achieves strain levels never previously reached in mesoscopic defect-free, crystalline silicon structures. The flexible, gently controllable, single-step process points toward very high mobility complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor devices and easy fabrication of direct-bandgap germanium for silicon-compatible optoelectronics

Radii of Rydberg states of isolated silicon donors

We have performed a high field magneto-absorption spectroscopy on silicon doped with a variety of single and double donor species. The magnetic field provides access to an experimental magnetic length, and the quadratic Zeeman effect in particular may~be used to extract the wavefunction radius without reliance on previously determined effective mass parameters. We were therefore able to determine the limits of validity for the standard one-band anisotropic effective mass model. We also provide improved parameters and use them for an independent check on the accuracy of effective mass theory. Finally, we show that the optically accessible excited state wavefunctions have the attractive property that interactions with neighbours are far more forgiving of position errors than (say) the ground state