Single-crystal germanium growth on amorphous silicon

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 130-136).The integration of photonics with electronics has emerged as a leading platform for microprocessor technology and the continuation of Moore's Law. As electronic device dimensions shrink, electronic signals encounter crippling delays and heating issues such that signal transduction across large on-chip distances becomes increasingly more difficult. However, these issues may be mitigated by the use of photonic interconnects combined with electronic devices in electronic-photonic integrated circuits (EPICs). The electronics in proposed EPIC designs perform the logic operations and short-distance signal transmission, while photonic devices serve to transmit signals over longer lengths. However, the photonic devices are large compared to electronic devices, and thus the two types of devices would ideally exist on separate levels of the microprocessor stack in order to maximize the amount of silicon substrate available for electronic device fabrication. A CMOS-compatible back-end process for the fabrication of photonic devices is necessary to realize such a three-dimensional EPIC. Back-end processing is limited in thermal budget and does not present a single-crystal substrate for epitaxial growth, however, so high-quality crystal fabrication methods currently used for photonic device fabrication are not possible in back-end processing. This thesis presents a method for the fabrication of high-quality germanium single crystals using CMOS-compatible back-end processing. Initial work on the ultra-high vacuum chemical vapor deposition of polycrystalline germanium on amorphous silicon is presented. The deposition can be successfully performed by using a pre-growth hydrofluoric acid dip and by limiting the thickness of the amorphous silicon layer to less than 120 nm. Films deposited at temperatures of 350° C, 450° C, and 550° C show (110) texture, though the texture is most prevalent in growths at 450° C. Poly-Ge grown at 4500 C is successfully doped n-type in situ, and the grain size of as-grown material is enhanced by lateral growth over a barrier. Structures are fabricated for the growth of Ge confined in one dimension. The growths show faceting across large areas, in contrast to as-deposited poly-Ge, corresponding to enhanced grain sizes. Growth confinement is shown to reduce the defect density as the poly-Ge grows. When coalesced into a continuous film, the material grown from 1 D confinement exhibits a lower carrier density and lower trap density than as-deposited poly-Ge, indicating improved material quality. We measure an increased grain size from as-deposited poly-Ge to Ge grown from ID confinement. Single-crystal germanium is grown at 450° C from confinement in two dimensions. Such growths exhibit faceting across the entire crystal as well as the presence of E3 boundaries ({111} twins), with many growths showing no other boundaries. These twins mediate the growth of the crystal, as they serve as the points for heterogeneous surface nucleation of adatom clusters. The twins can form after the crystal nucleates and are strongly preferred in order to obtain appreciable crystal growth rates. We model the growths from the confining channels in order to find the optimum channel geometry for large, uniform, single-crystal growths that consistently emerge from the channel. The growths from 2D confinement show lower trap density than those from 1 D confinement, indicating a further enhancement of the crystal quality due to the increased confinement. This method of single-crystal growth from an amorphous substrate is extensible to any materials system in which selective non-epitaxial deposition is possible.by Kevin A. McComber.Ph.D

Potato Cultivar Differences Associated with Mealiness

Russet Burbank, Norchip, Pontiac, and LaSoda potato cultivars were examined for the parameters mealy and waxy. Russet Burbank was judged dry, hard and particulate, typifying mealiness. Using phase contrast microscopy and scanning electron microscopy, raw mealy cells were determined to be larger and more irregularly shaped than cells from waxy cultivars. Mealy cooked cells were engorged with gelatinized starch, cell walls were more polarized, and cell shapes were better retained after mashing, when compared to waxy cells. NMR-T2 bound water readings from Russet Burbank and Pontiac samples did not differ from each other. Starch granule sizes and shapes varied by cultivar

Rock scour in Australia: some latest Queensland experiences

From 2010, a succession of floods in eastern Australia, and particularly in Queensland, brought about spillway operation at high head dams with return periods in the region of Annual Exceedance Probabilities (AEP) of up to 1 in 2,000 years. As such, a number of spillways experienced extensive scour of rock downstream – including Boondooma Dam and Paradise Dam – the subject of the present paper. For both dams, part of the scour assessment process has been to utilise a large-scale physical model to obtain transient data which, together with the detailed geologic assessment, have been incorporated into the numerical scour modelling procedures developed by Dr Erik Bollaert. This paper will first of all describe the features of the 2011 and 2013 flood events at both dams, as well as the resulting rock scour and damage on both spillways and the geology of the rock area below. The paper will then go on to describe the computational scour modelling procedures of calibration and application, used in conjunction with a large-scale physical model of both dam and spillway, demonstrating a “system” approach to spillway scour analysis for plunge pools and similar situations with energy dissipation on natural materials

Mealiness Detection in Agricultural Crops: Destructive and Nondestructive Tests: A Review

Mealiness is known as an important internal quality attribute of fruits/vegetables, which has significant influence on consumer purchasing decisions. Mealiness has been a topic of research interest over the past several decades. A number of destructive and nondestructive techniques are introduced for mealiness detection. Nondestructive methods are more interesting because they are rapid, noninvasive, and suitable for real-time purposes. In this review, the concept of mealiness is presented for potato, apple, and peach, followed by an in-depth discussion about applications of destructive and nondestructive techniques developed for mealiness detection. The results suggest the potential of electromagnetic-based techniques for nondestructive mealiness evaluation. Further investigations are in progress to find more appropriate nondestructive techniques as well as cost and performance