ZnO layers deposited by Atomic Layer Deposition

The structure of 40 nm thick epitaxial ZnO layers grown on single crystalline sapphire and GaN substrates by atomic layer deposition has been studied using transmission electron microscopy. The growth is carried out between 150°C and 300°C without any buffer layer using di-ethyl zinc and water precursors. The ZnO layer on sapphire is found to be polycrystalline, which is probably due to the large misfit (~15 %) and the relatively low deposition temperature. However, the small misfit (~1.8 %) between the ZnO layer that is deposited on GaN at 300°C resulted in a high quality single crystalline layer

THERMAL DECOMPOSITION OF COMPOUND SEMICONDUCTORS COVERED WITH THIN METALLIC LAYERS

The aim of these investigations was to study the processes taking place during the heat treatment of compound semiconductor structures covered with thin metallic layers. This situation models the heat treatment of metallized wafer in the device technology. To investigate these samples a liquid nitrogen cooled UHV system was constructed, and the volatile component loss during the heat treatment was measured with a quadrupole mass spectrometer. The output signals are collected and evaluated by microcomputers. Special care was taken for the precise measurement of the sample to ensure the exact determination of the large peaks in volatile component loss. This method is suitable not only to measure the evaporation of the volatile component during annealing as a function of temperature, but to provide samples annealed in well- controlled circumstances for later investigations. As an example the measurement of the resistance of selected alloyed samples will also be shown

PALLADIUM BASED CONTACTS TO GaAs AND InP

Au(85nm)/Pd(55nm) and Pd(55nm) metallizations were deposited on GaAs(lOO) and InP(100) substrates. The samples were heat treated in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with a quadrupole mass spectrometer. The simultaneous observation of the volatile component loss (in situ) by Evolved Gas Analysis (EGA) and the change in surface morphology by SEM during the heart treatment using a heating rate of 30°C/min were carried out. The interaction of the metallization with compound semiconductor substrates was observed after the heat treatment by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) using samples prepared by cross-sectional technique. In the course of the present work a large volatile component (arsenic and phosphorus) loss was observed for the samples coated by single layer metallization (at 410° C for Pd/GaAs and at 580°C for Pd/InP) and two peaks were registered in the case of Au/Pd metallization. In the latter case the cause of the second evaporation peak is the interaction between diffused gold and compound semiconductor. The SEM images of the surfaces demonstrate a significant change of the surface morphology at the singularities of the EGA curves. The grains grown into the semiconductors are shown by the cross-sectional images of the heat treated samples

Strain-free bulk-like GaN grown by hydride-vapor-phase-epitaxy on two-step epitaxial lateral overgrown GaN template

Crack-free bulk-like GaN with high crystalline quality has been obtained by hydride-vapor-phase-epitaxy (HVPE)growth on a two-step epitaxial lateral overgrown GaN template on sapphire. During the cooling down stage, the as-grown 270-μm-thick GaN layer was self-separated from the sapphire substrate. Plan-view transmission electron microscopyimages show the dislocation density of the free-standing HVPE-GaN to be ∼2.5×10 exp 7  cm exp −2 on the Ga-polar face. A low Ga vacancy related defect concentration of about 8×10 exp 15 cm exp−3 is extracted from positron annihilation spectroscopy data. The residual stress and the crystalline quality of the material are studied by two complementary techniques. Low-temperature photoluminescence spectra show the main neutral donor bound exciton line to be composed of a doublet structure at 3.4715 (3.4712) eV and 3.4721 (3.4718) eV for the Ga- (N-) polar face with the higher-energy component dominating. These line positions suggest virtually strain-free material on both surfaces with high crystalline quality as indicated by the small full width at half maximum values of the donor bound exciton lines. The E1(TO) phonon mode position measured at 558.52 cm exp −1 (Ga face) by infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry confirms the small residual stress in the material, which is hence well suited to act as a lattice-constant and thermal-expansion-coefficient matched substrate for further homoepitaxy, as needed for high-quality III-nitride device applications.Peer reviewe

A view of the implanted SiC damage by Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy, spectroscopic ellipsometry, and transmission electron microscopy

4H-SiC single crystalline substrates were implanted at room temperature with 150 keV Al+ ions using fluences of 4 1014, 1 1015, and 2 1015 cm−2 with current density of 2.5 A cm−2. The samples were subsequently annealed at 1100 °C in N2 for 1 h in order to analyze their structural recovery. The disorder induced in both sublattices by the Al+ ions was studied by backscattering spectrometry in channeling geometry with a 3.5 MeV He2+ beam. The results were compared with the optical properties of the samples measured by spectroscopic ellipsometry. In a previous work, we concluded that during the postimplantation annealing of a highly damaged SiC crystalline material the short distance order can be recovered, while the long distance disorder remains. We also presented the possibility to have grains of different polytypes oriented faraway from the original direction. Now, this alternative is confirmed by the cross-sectional transmission and high resolution electron microscopy studies, carried out to obtain information about the crystal structure.Ministerio de Cienncias y Tecnología español-MAT2002-02843 (70% de fondos FEDER)Acuerdo de Colaboración Científica Húngaro-Españo-lE27 / 2001Fondo de Investigaciones Científicas de Hungría (OTKA)-T032029, T047011, T043704 y K6172

Mg(2)Si(x)Sn(1-x)heterostructures on Si(111) substrate for optoelectronics and thermoelectronics

Thin (50-90 m) non-doped and doped (by Al atoms) Mg2Sn0.6Si0.4 and Mg(2)Sn(0.4)Si(0.6)films with roughness of 1.9-3.7 nm have been grown by multiple deposition and single annealing at 150 degrees C of multilayers formed by repetition deposition of three-layers (Si-Sn-Mg) on Si(111) p-type wafers with 45 cm resistivity. Transmission electron microscopy has shown that the first forming layer is an epitaxial layer of hex-Mg2Sn(300) on Si(111) substrate with thickness not more than 5-7 nm. Epitaxial relationships: hex-Mg2Sn(300)parallel to Si(111), hex-Mg2Sn[001]parallel to Si[-112] and hex-Mg2Sn[030]parallel to Si[110] have been found for the epitaxial layer. But inclusions of cub-Mg2Si were also observed inside hex-Mg2Sn layer. It was found that the remaining part of the film thickness is in amorphous state and has a layered distribution of major elements: Mg, Sn and Mg without exact chemical composition. It was established by optical spectroscopy data that both type films are semiconductor with undispersed region lower 0.18 eV with n(o) = 3.59 +/- 0.01, but only two direct interband transitions with energies 0.75-0.76 eV and 1.2 eV have been determined. The last interband transition has been confirmed by photoreflectance data at room temperature. Fourier transmittance spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy data have established the formation of stannide, silicide and ternary compositions

Electron microscopy study on the influence of B-implantation on Ni induced lateral crystallization in amorphous Si

Nickel Metal Induced Lateral Crystallization (Ni-MILC) emerged as a viable technique for crystallization of a-Si films decreasing the crystallization temperature. Boron (B) implantation on a-Si films significantly enhances the crystallization rate of the Ni-MILC process. The structural characteristics of the implanted by Boron and subsequently crystallized by MILC a-Si films are studied by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and they are compared to intrinsic a-Si films which were deposited on top, as well as beside the boron implanted a-Si film. During the annealing, spontaneous nucleation occurs in the B-doped films far from the a-c interface, revealing a shorter incubation period in the B-doped films