| 1. |
- Burcea, Razvan, et al.
(författare)
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Effect of induced defects on conduction mechanisms of noble-gas-implanted ScN thin films
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Applied Physics. - : AIP Publishing. - 0021-8979 .- 1089-7550. ; 134:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Noble-gas implantation was used to introduce defects in n-type degenerate ScN thin films to tailor their transport properties. The electrical resistivity increased significantly with the damage levels created, while the electron mobility decreased regardless of the nature of the ion implanted and their doses. However, the transport property characterizations showed that two types of defects were formed during implantation, named point-like and complex-like defects depending on their temperature stability. The point-like defects changed the electrical conduction mode from metallic-like to semiconducting behavior. In the low temperature range, where both groups of defects were present, the dominant operative conduction mechanism was the variable range hopping conduction mode. Beyond a temperature of about 400 K, the point-like defects started to recover with an activation energy of 90 meV resulting in a decrease in resistivity, independent of the incident ion. The complex-like defects were, therefore, the only remaining group of defects after annealing above 700 K. These latter, thermally stable at least up to 750 K, introduced deep acceptor levels in the bandgap resulting in an increase in the electrical resistivity with higher carrier scattering while keeping the metallic-like behavior of the sample. The generation of both types of defects, as determined by resistivity measurements, appeared to occur through a similar mechanism within a single collision cascade.
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| 2. |
- Ekström, Erik, et al.
(författare)
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Microstructure control and property switching in stress-free van der Waals epitaxial VO2 films on mica
- 2023
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Ingår i: Materials & design. - : Elsevier. - 0264-1275 .- 1873-4197. ; 229
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Realizing stress-free inorganic epitaxial films on weakly bonding substrates is of importance for applications that require film transfer onto surfaces that do not seed epitaxy. Film-substrate bonding is usually weakened by harnessing natural van der Waals layers (e.g., graphene) on substrate surfaces, but this is difficult to achieve in non-layered materials. Here, we demonstrate van der Waals epitaxy of stress-free films of a non-layered material VO2 on mica. The films exhibit out-of-plane 010 texture with three in-plane orientations inherited from the crystallographic domains of the substrate. The lattice parameters are invariant with film thickness, indicating weak film-substrate bonding and complete interfacial stress relaxation. The out-of-plane domain size scales monotonically with film thickness, but the in-plane domain size exhibits a minimum, indicating that the nucleation of large in-plane domains supports subsequent island growth. Complementary ab initio investigations suggest that VO2 nucleation and van der Waals epitaxy involves subtle polarization effects around, and the active participation of, surface potassium atoms on the mica surface. The VO2 films show a narrow domain-size-sensitive electrical-conductivity-temperature hysteresis. These results offer promise for tuning the properties of stress-free van der Waals epitaxial films of non-layered materials such as VO2 through microstructure control.
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| 3. |
- Le Febvrier, Arnaud, et al.
(författare)
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p-type behavior of CrN thin films via control of point defects
- 2022
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Ingår i: Physical Review B. - : American Physical Society. - 2469-9950 .- 2469-9969. ; 105:10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We report the results of a combined experimental and theoretical study on nonstoichiometric CrN1+δ thinfilms grown by reactive magnetron sputtering on c-plane sapphire and MgO (100) substrates in an Ar/N2 gasmixture using different percentages of N2. There is a transition from n-type to p-type behavior in the layersas a function of nitrogen concentration varying from 48 to 52 at. % in CrN films. The compositional changefollows a similar trend for all substrates, with a N/Cr ratio increasing from approximately 0.7 to 1.06–1.11 byincreasing the percentage of N2 in the gas flow ratio. As a result of the change in stoichiometry, the latticeparameter and the Seebeck coefficient increase together with the increase of N in CrN1+δ ; in particular, theSeebeck value coefficient transitions from –50 μV K–1 for CrN0.97 to +75μV K–1 for CrN1.1. Density functionaltheory calculations show that Cr vacancies can account for the change in the Seebeck coefficient, since they pushthe Fermi level down in the valence band, whereas N interstitial defects in the form of N2 dumbbells are neededto explain the increasing lattice parameter. Calculations including both types of defects, which have a strongtendency to bind together, reveal a slight increase in the lattice parameter and a simultaneous formation of holesin the valence band. To explain the experimental trends, we argue that both Cr vacancies and N2 dumbbells,possibly in combined configurations, are present in the films. We demonstrate the possibility of controlling thesemiconducting behavior of CrN with intrinsic defects from n to p type, opening possibilities to integrate thiscompound in energy-harvesting thermoelectric devices.
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| 4. |
- Santos, Antonio J., et al.
(författare)
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Simultaneous Optical and Electrical Characterization of GaN Nanowire Arrays by Means of Vis-IR Spectroscopic Ellipsometry
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Physical Chemistry C. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1932-7447 .- 1932-7455. ; 124:2, s. 1535-1543
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We report an original and straightforward method for both optical and electrical characterization of vertical GaN nanowire arrays epitaxially grown on silicon through visible-infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry methods. For the initial purpose of adding new inputs to the ellipsometry model, focused ion-beam tomography experiments were conducted to extract porosity/depth profiles of these systems. To reproduce the optical free-carrier behavior in the infrared, the ellipsometric data acquired were fitted to an anisotropic Bruggeman model including Tauc-Lorentz and Drude oscillators, which enabled the determination of carrier density and in-grain mobility. The nice agreement of these results with those obtained by combining Hall effect measurements, X-ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy studies supported the validity of the proposed method, opening new horizons in the characterization of nanowire-based semiconducting layers.
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