Spin exchange dynamics in 4H SiC monocrystals with different nitrogen donor concentrations

4H silicon carbide (SiC) polytype is preferred over other SiC polytypes for high-power, high-voltage, and high-frequency applications due to its superior electrical, thermal, and structural characteristics. In this manuscript, we provide a comprehensive study of the spin coupling dynamic between conduction electrons and nitrogen (N) donors in monocrystalline 4H SiC with various concentrations of uncompensated N donors from 10^17 cm^-3 to 5x10^19 cm^-3 by continuous wave, pulsed EPR, and microwave perturbation techniques at T=4.2-300 K. At low temperatures two triplets due to N donors in cubic (Nk) hexagonal (Nh) positions and triplet arisen from spin-interaction between Nh and Nk were observed in 4H SiC having Nd-Na=10^17 cm^-3. A single S-line (S=1/2) dominates the EPR spectra in all investigated 4H SiC monocrystals at high temperatures. It was established that this line occurs due to the exchange coupling of localized electrons (dominate at low temperatures) and non-localized electrons (dominate at high temperatures). The localized electrons were attributed to Nh for Nd-Na=10^17 cm^-3 and Nk donors for Nd-Na>=5x10^18 cm^-3. We have concluded that the conduction electrons in 4H SiC monocrystals are characterized by gpar=2.0053(3) gper=2.0011(3) for Nd-Na<=5x10^18 cm^-3 and gpar=2.0057(3) and gper=2.0019(3) for Nd-Na=5x10^19 cm^-3. Using the theoretical fitting of the temperature variation of S-line EPR linewidth in 4H SiC having Nd-Na<5x10^18 cm-^3, the energy levels of 57-65 meV that correlate with the valley-orbit splitting values for Nk donors in 4H SiC monocrystals were obtained

Defect studies of ZnO films prepared by pulsed laser deposition on various substrates

ZnO thin films deposited on various substrates were characterized by slow positron implantation spectroscopy (SPIS) combined with X-ray diffraction (XRD). All films studied exhibit wurtzite structure and crystallite size 20-100 nm. The mosaic spread of crystallites is relatively small for the films grown on single crystalline substrates while it is substantial for the film grown on amorphous substrate. SPIS investigations revealed that ZnO films deposited on single crystalline substrates exhibit significantly higher density of defects than the film deposited on amorphous substrate. This is most probably due to a higher density of misfit dislocations, which compensate for the lattice mismatch between the film and the substrate

Hydrogen absorption in thin ZnO films prepared by pulsed laser deposition

ZnO films with thickness of ~80 nm were grown by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on MgO (1 0 0) single crystal and amorphous fused silica (FS) substrates. Structural studies of ZnO films and a high quality reference ZnO single crystal were performed by slow positron implantation spectroscopy (SPIS). It was found that ZnO films exhibit significantly higher density of defects than the reference ZnO crystal. Moreover, the ZnO film deposited on MgO substrate exhibits higher concentration of defects than the film deposited on amorphous FS substrate most probably due to a dense network of misfit dislocations. The ZnO films and the reference ZnO crystal were subsequently loaded with hydrogen by electrochemical cathodic charging. SPIS characterizations revealed that absorbed hydrogen introduces new defects into Zn

Magnetic Hyperfine Fields of Nanoperm Alloys

Magnetic hyperfine fields of $Fe_{90}Zr_7B_3$ Nanoperm nanocrystalline alloy are characterized by $\text{}^{57}Fe$ Mössbauer spectrometry and $P^{57}Fe$ NMR as well as by magnetic force microscopy. $\text{}^{57}Fe$ NMR enables to distinguish a broad signal of iron atoms located in a residual amorphous matrix from a narrow one which belongs to Fe in nanograins. The former coincides with the distribution of hyperfine fields obtained from $\text{}^{57}Fe$ Mössbauer spectroscopy. In addition, it is possible to make a distinction between NMR signals of the Fe nanograins located in magnetic domains from that of the nanograins positioned in domain walls. This is confirmed by magnetic force microscopy where appearance of maze-domains is observed

Magnetic Hyperfine Fields of Nanoperm Alloys

Magnetic hyperfine fields of $Fe_{90}Zr_7B_3$ Nanoperm nanocrystalline alloy are characterized by $\text{}^{57}Fe$ Mössbauer spectrometry and $P^{57}Fe$ NMR as well as by magnetic force microscopy. $\text{}^{57}Fe$ NMR enables to distinguish a broad signal of iron atoms located in a residual amorphous matrix from a narrow one which belongs to Fe in nanograins. The former coincides with the distribution of hyperfine fields obtained from $\text{}^{57}Fe$ Mössbauer spectroscopy. In addition, it is possible to make a distinction between NMR signals of the Fe nanograins located in magnetic domains from that of the nanograins positioned in domain walls. This is confirmed by magnetic force microscopy where appearance of maze-domains is observed

Structural characterization of ZnO thin films grown on various substrates by pulsed laser deposition

ZnO thin films were grown by pulsed laser deposition on three different substrates: sapphire (0 0 0 1), MgO (1 0 0) and fused silica (FS). The structure and morphology of the films were characterized by x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy and defect studies were carried out using slow positron implantation spectroscopy (SPIS). Films deposited on all substrates studied in this work exhibit the wurtzite ZnO structure and are characterized by an average crystallite size of 20–100 nm. However, strong differences in the microstructure of films deposited on various substrates were found. The ZnO films deposited on MgO and sapphire single-crystalline substrates exhibit local epitaxy, i.e. a well-defined relation between film crystallites and the substrate. Domains with different orientation relationships with the substrate were found in both films. On the other hand, the film deposited on the FS substrate exhibits fibre texture with random lateral orientation of crystallites. Extremely high compressive in-plane stress of σ ~ 14 GPa was determined in the film deposited on the MgO substrate, while the film deposited on sapphire is virtually stress-free, and the film deposited on the FS substrate exhibits a tensile in-plane stress of σ ~ 0.9 GPa. SPIS investigations revealed that the concentration of open-volume defects in the ZnO films is substantially higher than that in a bulk ZnO single crystal. Moreover, the ZnO films deposited on MgO and sapphire single-crystalline substrates exhibit a significantly higher density of defects than the film deposited on the amorphous FS substrate

Nanofaceting as a stamp for periodic graphene charge carrier modulations

International audienc