125 research outputs found

    Defects and Their Origin in Thin Films of (001) Alkaline Earth Oxides

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    MgO is used as an optical isolation layer for waveguides epitaxially grown on Si. Crystalline perfection of MgO is critical because it serves as a substrate for the single crytal, perovskite guiding layer. Imperfections in the MgO will result in imperfections in the guiding layer and lead to large optical losses for the planar waveguide structure. It is shown that the most common defect to form in thin MgO films are twin boundaries between {l_brace}111{r_brace}-type planes. Highest density of twins is observed when (001) MgO is grown directly on silicon/MgO interlayers containing Ba. Twinning is shown to accommodate the large size of Ba impurities incorporated in the MgO films through formation of internal grain boundaries and oper surface other than the growing (001) of MgO

    Tunnel magnetoresistance in La_(0.7)Ca_(0.3)MnO_(3)/PrBa_(2)Cu_(3)O_(7)/La_(0.7)Ca_(0.3)MnO_(3)

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    We report large tunneling magnetoresistance in La_(0.7)Ca_(0.3)MnO_(3) (8 nm)/PrBa_(2)Cu_(3)O_(7) (2.4 nm)/La_(0.7)Ca_(0.3)MnO_(3) (50 nm) junctions. The coherent growth of the cuprate on the manganite allows the deposition of ultrathin barriers which are continuous and flat over long lateral distances. Epitaxial strain causes the top layer to be a weaker ferromagnet without a significant decrease in the spin polarization

    In-depth analysis of chloride treatments for thin-film CdTe solar cells

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    CdTe thin-film solar cells are now the main industrially established alternative to silicon-based photovoltaics. These cells remain reliant on the so-called chloride activation step in order to achieve high conversion efficiencies. Here, by comparison of effective and ineffective chloride treatments, we show the main role of the chloride process to be the modification of grain boundaries through chlorine accumulation, which leads an increase in the carrier lifetime. It is also demonstrated that while improvements in fill factor and short circuit current may be achieved through use of the ineffective chlorides, or indeed simple air annealing, voltage improvement is linked directly to chlorine incorporation at the grain boundaries. This suggests that focus on improved or more controlled grain boundary treatments may provide a route to achieving higher cell voltages and thus efficiencies

    Emerging Diluted Ferromagnetism in High-T-c Superconductors Driven by Point Defect Clusters

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    Defects in ceramic materials are generally seen as detrimental to their functionality and applicability. Yet, in some complex oxides, defects present an opportunity to enhance some of their properties or even lead to the discovery of exciting physics, particularly in the presence of strong correlations. A paradigmatic case is the high-temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3O7-delta(Y123), in which nanoscale defects play an important role as they can immobilize quantized magnetic flux vortices. Here previously unforeseen point defects buried in Y123 thin films that lead to the formation of ferromagnetic clusters embedded within the superconductor are unveiled. Aberration-corrected scanning transmission microscopy has been used for exploring, on a single unit-cell level, the structure and chemistry resulting from these complex point defects, along with density functional theory calculations, for providing new insights about their nature including an unexpected defect-driven ferromagnetism, and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism for bearing evidence of Cu magnetic moments that align ferromagnetically even below the superconducting critical temperature to form a dilute system of magnetic clusters associated with the point defects

    The origin of paramagnetic magnetization in field-cooled YBa2Cu3O7 films

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    Temperature dependences of the magnetic moment have been measured in YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-\delta} thin films over a wide magnetic field range (5 <= H <= 10^4 Oe). In these films a paramagnetic signal known as the paramagnetic Meissner effect has been observed. The experimental data in the films, which have strong pinning and high critical current densities (J_c ~ 2 \times 10^6 A/cm^2 at 77 K), are quantitatively shown to be highly consistent with the theoretical model proposed by Koshelev and Larkin [Phys. Rev. B 52, 13559 (1995)]. This finding indicates that the origin of the paramagnetic effect is ultimately associated with nucleation and inhomogeneous spatial redistribution of magnetic vortices in a sample which is cooled down in a magnetic field. It is also shown that the distribution of vortices is extremely sensitive to the interplay of film properties and the real experimental conditions of the measurements.Comment: RevTex, 8 figure
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