| 1. |
- Zichi, Julien, et al.
(författare)
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Optimizing the stoichiometry of ultrathin NbTiN films for high-performance superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors
- 2019
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Ingår i: Optics Express. - : OPTICAL SOC AMER. - 1094-4087. ; 27:19, s. 26579-26587
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The requirements in quantum optics experiments for high single-photon detection efficiency. low timing jitter, low dark count rate and short dead time have been fulfilled with the development of superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors. Although they offer a detection efficiency above 90%, achieving a high time resolution in devices made of amorphous materials is a challenge, particularly at temperatures above 0.8 K. Devices made from niobium nitride and niobium titanium nitride allow us to reach the best timing jitter but. in turn, have stronger requirements in terms of film quality to achieve a high efficiency. Here we take advantage of the flexibility of reactive co-sputter deposition to tailor the composition of NbxTi1-xN superconducting films and show that a Nb fraction of x = 0.62 allows for the fabrication of detectors from films as thick as 9 nm and covering an active area of 20 mu m. with a wide detection saturation plateau at telecom wavelengths and in particular at 1550 nm. This is a signature of an internal detection efficiency saturation, achieved while maintaining the high time resolution associated with NbTiN and operation at 2.5K. With our optimized recipe, we reliably fabricated detectors with high critical current densities reaching a saturation plateau at 1550 nm with 80% system detection efficiency and with a FWHM timing jitter as low as 19.5 ps. Open Access Publishing Agreement
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| 2. |
- Casillas Trujillo, Luis, et al.
(författare)
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Experimental and theoretical evidence of charge transfer in multi-component alloys : how chemical interactions reduce atomic size mismatch
- 2021
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Ingår i: Materials Chemistry Frontiers. - : Royal Society of Chemistry. - 2052-1537. ; 5:15, s. 5746-5759
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ab initio simulations of a multi-component alloy using density functional theory (DFT) were combined with experiments on thin films of the same material using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to study the connection between the electronic and atomic structures of multi-component alloys. The DFT simulations were performed on an equimolar HfNbTiVZr multi-component alloy. Structure and charge transfer were evaluated using relaxed, non-relaxed, as well as elemental reference structures. The use of a fixed sphere size model allowed quantification of charge transfer, and separation into different contributions. The charge transfer was generally found to follow electronegativity trends and results in a reduced size mismatch between the elements, and thus causes a considerable reduction of the lattice distortions compared to a traditional assumption based on tabulated atomic radii. A calculation of the average deviation from the average radius (i.e. the so-called δ-parameter) based on the atomic Voronoi volumes gave a reduction of δ from ca. 6% (using the volumes in elemental reference phases) to ca. 2% (using the volumes in the relaxed multi-component alloy phase). The reliability of the theoretical results was confirmed by XPS measurements of a Hf22Nb19Ti18V19Zr21 thin film deposited by sputter deposition. The experimentally observed core level binding energy shifts (CLS), as well as peak broadening due to a range of chemical surroundings, for each element showed good agreement with the calculated DFT values. The single solid solution phase of the sample was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) including energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) with nm-resolution. These observations show that the HfNbTiVZr solid solution phase is non-ideal, and that chemical bonding plays an important part in the structure formation, and presumably also in the properties. Our conclusions should be transferable to other multi-component alloy systems, as well as some other multi-component material systems, and open up interesting possibilities for the design of material properties via the electronic structure and controlled charge transfer between selected metallic elements in the materials.
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| 3. |
- Fritze, Stefan, et al.
(författare)
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Influence of Deposition Temperature on the Phase Evolution of HfNbTiVZr High-Entropy Thin Films
- 2019
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Ingår i: Materials. - : MDPI. - 1996-1944. ; 12:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this study, we show that the phase formation of HfNbTiVZr high-entropy thin films is strongly influenced by the substrate temperature. Films deposited at room temperature exhibit an amorphous microstructure and are 6.5 GPa hard. With increasing substrate temperature (room temperature to 275 degrees C), a transition from an amorphous to a single-phased body-centred cubic (bcc) solid solution occurs, resulting in a hardness increase to 7.9 GPa. A higher deposition temperature (450 degrees C) leads to the formation of C14 or C15 Laves phase precipitates in the bcc matrix and a further enhancement of mechanical properties with a peak hardness value of 9.2 GPa. These results also show that thin films follow different phase formation pathways compared to HfNbTiVZr bulk alloys.
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| 4. |
- Srinath, Aishwarya, 1991-, et al.
(författare)
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An investigation of the corrosion resistances of magnetron sputtered TaW-rich, Nb-rich, and multicomponent CrNbTaTiW alloys
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The corrosion resistances of magnetron sputtered nearequimolar, TaW-rich, and Nb-rich CrNbTiTaW alloys, with and without 8 at.% carbon, were studied in aqueous chloride-containing environments. Electrochemical tests and scanning electron images showed that all the CrNbTaTiW alloys were highly corrosion resistant in 1.0 M HCl. The results conclusively showed that passivated nearequimolar CrNbTaTiW coatings have comparable corrosion performances to passivated Nb- and TaW-rich alloys in 0.01 M HCl + 0.1 M NaCl. Carbon affected the rate of surface repassivation in polarisation measurements of the films whose oxide had been partially reduced, but had a minor influenceon the corrosion resistances once a mature oxide was formed. No conclusive relationships between microstructure and corrosion resistance were established. The comparable corrosion resistances of the multicomponent CrNbTiTaW, Nb-rich and TaW-rich alloys were attributed to the presence of extremely stable surface oxides of Nb and Ta which prevented losses of Ti and Cr. The near surface regions of all the alloys before and after corrosion appeared to be depleted in W compared to the bulk.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Srinath, Aishwarya, et al.
(författare)
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Influence of the nitrogen content on the corrosion resistances of multicomponent AlCrNbYZrN coatings
- 2021
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Ingår i: Corrosion Science. - : Elsevier BV. - 0010-938X .- 1879-0496. ; 188
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this study, the relationship between the nitrogen content and the corrosion resistances of non-equimolar multicomponent AlCrNbYZrN films (N = 13-49 at.%) is probed. While there was no linear relationship between nitrogen content and corrosion resistance, the results clearly show that the corrosion resistances of the films were instead determined by their nitrogen-induced porosities i.e. the less porous the sample, the higher the corrosion resistance. The 23, 30 and 37 at.% N samples were denser while the 13 at.% N sample was porous and the 49 at.% N film had an underdense nanocrystalline columnar cross section permitting the ingress of electrolyte.
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| 7. |
- Srinath, Aishwarya, et al.
(författare)
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Near-surface analysis of magnetron sputtered AlCrNbYZrNx high entropy materials resolved by HAXPES
- 2024
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Ingår i: Applied Surface Science. - : Elsevier. - 0169-4332 .- 1873-5584. ; 666
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES) was used to perform a non-destructive depth profile of AlCrNbYZrNx (x = 0 to ∼50 at.%) thin films. The outermost native oxide of the pristine thin films contained the highest coordination oxides of every metal. Substoichiometric oxides or oxynitrides were found underneath. After exposure to 1.0 M HCl, increases in the most highly coordinated oxides of Cr, Nb, and Al in films with up to 37 at.% N were observed, suggesting that the low coordination oxides and oxynitrides in the subsurface had been further oxidised and were intermediary compounds in the passivation process. Al and Y oxides were lost to the HCl electrolyte, in agreement with their respective Pourbaix diagrams. The film with 49 at.% N showed little to no change in the data due to its high porosity which led to the oxide being detected at all probed depths. The metal core level spectra revealed a preferential order in which nitrogen bonded with the different metals. Nitrogen interacted first with Y, then Zr, then Al and Nb, and lastly Cr as the nitrogen content was increased.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- von Fieandt, Kristina, et al.
(författare)
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Influence of N content on structure and mechanical properties of multi-component Al-Cr-Nb-Y-Zr based thin films by reactive magnetron sputtering
- 2020
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Ingår i: Surface & Coatings Technology. - : ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA. - 0257-8972 .- 1879-3347. ; 389
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Al-Cr-Nb-Y-Zr-N films have been deposited with reactive dc magnetron sputtering at various N-2 flow ratios to achieve films with different nitrogen content, from purely metallic to fully nitrided films. The structure evolved from mainly amorphous with a minor crystalline intermetallic phase for the film without nitrogen, to nanocomposites with a cubic crystalline phase in an amorphous matrix for intermediate nitrogen content (15-41 at.% N), and at higher nitrogen content (46-51 at.% N) to crystalline solid solution nitrides with a NaCl-type structure. Partial elemental segregation on the nanoscale was found in all studied samples and the films exhibited different segregation behaviour depending on the nitrogen content, implying that the structural evolution on the nanoscale of films in this material system complex and highly composition-dependent. The hardness increased with increasing nitrogen content, reaching a maximum at about 30 GPa at for the nitride films with 50 at.% N. Deformation behaviour, studied by indentation measurements, of the nitride films was found to be ductile, where no sign of crack formation could be observed. This can be attributed to a metallic phase in the columnar boundaries caused by partial elemental segregation of mainly yttrium. Hence, films within in this material system, although the nanostructure is found to be relatively complex, show very promising mechanical properties and the structural complexity can be used as a guide for designing nitride materials that combine high hardness with ductility.
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| 10. |
- von Fieandt, Kristina, et al.
(författare)
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Optical and electrical properties of hard (Hf,Nb,Ti,V,Zr)N-x thin films
- 2021
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Ingår i: Vacuum. - : Elsevier. - 0042-207X .- 1879-2715. ; 193
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- (Hf,Nb,Ti,V,Zr)N-x coatings with nitrogen content between 0 and 49 at.% were deposited by sputter deposition, and thoroughly characterised. Nitrogen-free coatings were found to have a bcc structure, low hardness (8 GPa), and an electrical resistivity of 144 mu Omega cm. The nitride coatings (43-49 at.% N) had NaCl-type structure, consistent with a multi-component solid solution phase. Photoelectron core level binding energies indicate that the electronic structure of the multi-component nitride differs from that of the binary nitrides, probably a result of charge transfer between the metal atoms. The nitride coatings exhibited a dense microstructure and a hardness between 29 and 33 GPa, and electrical resistivities of 141-254 mu Omega cm. They also exhibited a minimum in the optical reflectance, similar to that of TiN, indicating plasmonic properties. The position of this minimum was found to be shifted to smaller wavelengths (272-339 nm) compared to a TiN reference (428 nm) and varied with nitrogen content. The tuneability of the optical properties, in combination with the potential to influence the electronic structure through charge transfer between metal atoms point to new interesting routes to design optical materials, and a new class of optical materials based on the concept of multi-component nitrides.
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