153 research outputs found
Ion beam effect on Ge-Se chalcogenide glass films: Non-volatile memory array formation, structural changes and device performance
The conductive bridge non-volatile memory technology is an emerging way to
replace traditional charge based memory devices for future neural networks and
configurable logic applications. An array of the memory devices that fulfills
logic operations must be developed for implementing such architectures. A
scheme to fabricate these arrays, using ion bombardment through a mask, has
been suggested and advanced by us. Performance of the memory devices is
studied, based on the formation of vias and damage accumulation due to the
interactions of Ar+ ions with GexSe1-x (x=0.2, 0.3 and 0.4) chalcogenide
glasses as a function of the ion energy and dose dependence. Blanket films and
devices were created to study the structural changes, surface roughness, and
device performance. Raman Spectroscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Energy
Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDS) and electrical measurements expound the Ar+
ions behavior on thin films of GexSe1-x system. Raman studies show that there
is a decrease in area ratio between edge-shared to corner-shared structural
units, revealing occurrence of structural reorganization within the system as a
result of ion/film interaction. AFM results demonstrate a tendency in surface
roughness improvement with increased Ge concentration, after ion bombardment.
EDS results reveal a compositional change in the vias, with a clear tendency of
greater interaction between ions and the Ge atoms, as evidenced by greater
compositional changes in the Ge rich films
Morphology of PbTe crystal surface sputtered by argon plasma under Secondary Neutral Mass Spectrometry conditions
We have investigated morphology of the lateral surfaces of PbTe crystal
samples grown from melt by the Bridgman method sputtered by Ar+ plasma with ion
energy of 50-550 eV for 5-50 minutes under Secondary Neutral Mass Spectrometry
(SNMS) conditions. The sputtered PbTe crystal surface was found to be
simultaneously both the source of sputtered material and the efficient
substrate for re-deposition of the sputtered material during the depth
profiling. During sputtering PbTe crystal surface is forming the dimple relief.
To be redeposited the sputtered Pb and Te form arrays of the microscopic
surface structures in the shapes of hillocks, pyramids, cones and others on the
PbTe crystal sputtered surface. Correlation between the density of re-deposited
microscopic surface structures, their shape, and average size, on the one hand,
and the energy and duration of sputtering, on the other, is revealed
Application of Surface Roughness Data for the Evaluation of Depth Profile Measurements of Nanoscale Multilayers
A secondary neutral mass spectrometric (SNMS) depth profile study of electrodeposited Co/Cu multilayers was performed. Depth
profile measurements were performed both in the conventional way (i.e., starting the sputtering from the final deposit surface) and
in the reverse manner (i.e., detaching the multilayers from the substrate and starting the analysis from the substrate side, which was
very smooth as compared to the final deposit surface). The latter method could yield significantly larger intensity fluctuations in
the SNMS spectra. Surface roughness data were measured with atomic force microscopy (AFM) for multilayers with different
bilayer numbers but otherwise exhibiting the same layer structure as those used for the depth profiling. The experimental AFM
surface roughness evolution was used to calculate the result of the depth profile measurements quantitatively. An excellent
agreement was obtained between this calculation and the SNMS measurements. It was shown that the decrease in the intensity
fluctuations during the depth profile analysis stems mainly from the increase in surface roughness of the samples studied,
especially in the conventional sputtering mode. It was also concluded that the thickness fluctuation of the entire multilayer deposit
and that of each layer are strongly correlated
Influence of hydrogen on the structural stability of annealed ultrathin Si/Ge amorphous layers
Semiconductor structures based on Si and Ge are generally submitted to hydrogenation because H passivates the dangling bonds of Si and Ge. By this way the devices prepared from those semiconductors, e.g., solar cells, have much better electrical properties. However, H stability is still a critical issue. In fact, there is wide evidence that H is very unstable against illumination as well as heat treatment. It has been seen that H out effuses from the samples under such treatments. As this causes unsaturation of the dangling bonds the electrical properties worsen significantly. In this work we will show that in the case of ultrathin Si/Ge amorphous layers the H thermal instability also affects the structural stability even up to the micrometric scale depending on the H content. Such type of structure can also be used to prepare SiGe alloys by mixing the layers with heat treatments. The samples were amorphous multilayers (MLs) of alternating ultrathin (3 nm) layers of Si and Ge deposited by sputtering on (100) oriented Si substrate. The total thickness of the MLs was 300 nm. The samples were hydrogenated by introducing H in the sputter chamber with flow rates varying from 0.8 to 6 ml/min. The MLs underwent different heat treatments, from the one at 350 ?C for 1 h up to the one at 250 ?C for 0.5 h + 450 ?C for 5 h. The samples were analysed by AFM, TEM, energy filtering TEM and Small-Angle X-Ray Diffraction (SAXRD). AFM showed that upon annealing the structure of the samples degrades with formation of surface bumps whose size increases by increasing the annealing temperature and/or time, for the same H content, or by increasing the H content for the same annealing conditions. For high H content and/or annealing conditions AFM showed that the bumps have blown up giving rise to craters. This suggests that H was released from its dangling bonds to Si and Ge and formed H bubbles in the MLs because of the energy supplied by the annealing. Additional energy for the break of the Si-H and Ge-H bonds could be the one supplied by the recombination of thermally generated carriers associated with the band gap fluctuations caused by the not uniform distribution of H in the MLs. The first sites of H accumulation are very likely nanocavities certainly present in the amorphous MLs. By TEM it has been seen that layer intermixing occurred which could be the first step of H bubbles formation. SAXRD measurements as well as TEM energy filtering maps for Si and Ge showed that Si and Ge interdiffusion took place in an asymmetric way as Si was seen to diffuse to the Ge layers whereas Ge did not diffuse to the Si layers. This might be due to the higher density of free dangling bonds in the Ge layers created by annealing because the binding energy of the Ge-H bond is smaller than the one of the Si-H bond
On the feasibility to study inverse proximity effect in a single S/F bilayer by Polarized Neutron Reflectometry
Here we report on a feasibility study aiming to explore the potential of
Polarized Neutron Reflectometry (PNR) for detecting the inverse proximity
effect in a single superconducting/ferromagnetic bilayer. Experiments,
conducted on the V(40nm)/Fe(1nm) S/F bilayer, have shown that experimental spin
asymmetry measured at T = 0.5TC is shifted towards higher Q values compared to
the curve measured at T = 1.5TC. Such a shift can be described by the
appearance in superconducting vanadium of magnetic sub-layer with thickness of
7 nm and magnetization of +0.8 kG.Comment: Changes in the 2nd version: small mistypes are corrected. Manuscript
submitted to JETP let. 4 pages, 2 figure
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