As the scaling of the device dimensions in CMOS devices runs into physical limitations, new materials beyond Si with high electron and hole mobilities such as Ge, SiGe, and III-V materials are introduced. Challenges of CMP for these materials are reviewed in this paper. First we discussed the challenge of the new integration schemes to CMP. Loading effects can result in different growth rates for varying feature sizes, which results in a critical dimension dependent overburden. This makes it more difficult to meet the targets of the CMP process with respect to oxide loss and Ge/SiGe/III-V dishing. Secondly we discuss the challenge for the reduction of the defects during CMP for these new materials. Finally the challenge that is relevant especially for the introduction of III-V materials is studied. During the polishing of III-V materials, toxic gases as well as III-V containing liquid waste will be created. The chemical mechanism of the waste control is discussed.

The electrical characteristics of Au/Ni/Ti/ n-SiC contacts have been examined as a function of implant dose (1013-1014 ions/cm2) at 5 KeV and temperature of annealing (750-1000 °C). Measurements of specific contact resistance, ρc, were approximately constant at lower implant doses until increasing at 1 x 1015 ions/cm2 for both C and P ions. Annealing at a temperature of 1000 °C has reduced the value of ρc by an order of magnitude to ∼1 x 10-6 Ω.cm2 at implant doses of 1013-1014 ions/cm2. Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES) has shown that annealing at 1000 °C resulted in a strong indiffusion of the metallization layers at the interface.

In ab initio modeling of doped semiconductors, estimation of defect formation energies involving substitutional sites of ternary compounds is ambiguous due to an approximate treatment of chemical potential of the substituted atoms. We propose a model of assigning fractions of the formation energy to individual atoms of a ternary semiconductor and test it on InGaAs. The accuracy of this approximation is on the order of 0.1 eV/atom and is expected to be sufficient for many practical purposes.

Interaction of GaAs with sulfur can be immensely beneficial in reducing the deleterious effect of surface states on recombination attributes. Bonding of sulfur on GaAs is also important for developing novel molecular devices and sensors, where a molecular channel can be connected to GaAs surface via thiol functional group. However, the primary challenge lies in increasing the stability and effectiveness of the sulfur passivated GaAs. We have investigated the effect of single and double step surface passivation of n-GaAs(100) by using the sulfide and fluoride ions. Our single-step passivation involved the use of sulfide and fluoride ions individually. However, the two kinds of double-step passivations were performed by treating the n-GaAs surface. In the first approach GaAs surface was firstly treated with sulfide ions and secondly with fluoride ions, respectively. In the second double step approach GaAs surface was first treated with fluoride ions followed by sulfide ions, respectively. Sulfidation was conducted using the nonaqueous solution of sodium sulfide salt. Whereas the passivation steps with fluoride ion was performed with the aqueous solution of ammonium fluoride. Both sulfidation and fluoridation steps were performed either by dipping the GaAs sample in the desired ionic solution or electrochemically. Photoluminescence was conducted to characterize the relative changes in surface recombination velocity due to the single and double step surface passivation. Photoluminescence study showed that the double-step chemical treatment where GaAs was first treated with fluoride ions followed by the sulfide ions yielded the highest improvement. The time vs. photoluminescence study showed that this double-step passivation exhibited lower degradation rate as compared to widely discussed sulfide ion passivated GaAs surface. We also conducted surface elemental analysis using Rutherford Back Scattering to decipher the near surface chemical changes due to the four passivation methodologies we adopted. The double-step passivations affected the shallower region near GaAs surface as compared to the single step passivations.

We report on the formation of shallow junctions with high activation in both n+/p and p+/n Ge junctions using ion implantation and Flash Lamp Annealing (FLA). The shallowest junction depths (Xj) formed for the n+/p and p+/n junctions were 7.6 nm and 6.1 nm with sheet resistances (Rs) of 860 ohms/sq. and 704 ohms/sq., respectively. By reducing knocked-on oxygen during ion implantation in the n+/p junctions, Rs was decreased by between 5% and 15%. The lowest Rs observed was 235 ohms/sq. with a junction depth of 21.5 nm. Hall measurements clearly revealed that knocked-on oxygen degraded phosphorus activation (carrier concentration). In the p+/n Ge junctions, we show that ion implantation damage induced high boron activation. Using this technique, Rs can be reduced from 475 ohms/sq. to 349 ohms/sq. These results indicate that the potential for forming ultra-shallow n+/p and p+/n junctions in the nanometer range in Ge devices using FLA is very high, leading to realistic monolithically-integrated Ge CMOS devices that can take us beyond Si technology.

The carbon dots were investigated to reveal their light-emitting mechanism. The fluorescence spectra of carbon dots show typically two different types of photoluminescence: the excitation-independent component in the short wavelength, and the excitation-dependent component in the longer wavelength. The UV-Vis spectrum of carbon dots shows the absorption maximum of 340 nm which should be accredited to the n-π* transition of the carbonyl group in carbon dots. Absolute quantum yields of carbon dots dispersed in Polyvinyl alcohol is around 15% when the excitation wavelength is less than 425 nm, but decreases continuously when the excitation wavelength increases. The decay lifetimes of the carbon dots also show an abrupt change at excitation wavelength 425 nm. Time resolved photoluminescence was implemented from 31K to 291K to study the photoluminescence decay dynamics of carbon dots, resulting in the continuously decreasing of the lifetime as the temperature increases.

Charge transport between nickel oxide nanoparticles and CdSe/ZnS alloyed core/shell nanocrystals is investigated. The crystal structure and composition of the nickel oxide nanoparticles are evaluated using X-ray diffraction, Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies. The nanoparticles are near-stoichiometric with very low defect densities. The optical properties of the materials are studied by measuring the absorbance and time resolved photoluminescence spectra. The band gap of the nickel oxide nanoparticles is around 4.42 eV. The CdSe/ZnS nanocrystals exhibit shorter average lifetimes when mixed with nickel oxide nanoparticle powder. The lifetime quenching can be attributed to the efficient charge transport from the CdSe/ZnS nanocrystals to nickel oxide nanoparticles due to the relative valence band alignment.

InSb has been considered as a promising material for spintronic applications owing to its pronounced spin effects as a result of large intrinsic electronic g-factor. In addition, embedding InSb quantum nanostructures in a GaAs matrix could create type-II band alignment, where radiation lifetimes are longer than those of the typical type-I systems. Such characteristics are promising for memory devices and infrared photonic applications. The growth of InSb/GaAs quantum nanostructures by strain driven mechanism using molecular beam epitaxy with low growth temperature, slow growth rate, Sb soaking process prior to In deposition, and small amount of In deposition typically creates a mixture of twin and single nano-stripe structures with truncated pyramid shape. In this work, we further investigate the growth mechanism of such twin InSb/GaAs nano-stripes by controlling the growth conditions, consisting of nanostructure growth duration and growth temperature. When the growth temperature is kept to less than 300°C and In deposition is set to only a few monolayers, we found that 25-40% of formed nanostructures are twin InSb/GaAs nano-stripes. However, when the In deposition is stopped immediately after the spotty reflection high-energy electron diffraction patterns are observed, the ratio of twin nano-stripes to single ones is increased to 50-60%. We therefore describe the growth mechanism of twin nano-stripes as the early state of single nano-stripe formation, where the twin nano-stripes are initially formed during the first monolayer of InSb formation as a result of large lattice mismatch of 14.6%. When In deposition is increased to a few monolayers, the gap between twin nano-stripes is filled up and consequently forms the single nano-stripes instead. With this particular twin nano-stripe growth mechanism, the preservation of high ratio of twin nano-stripe formation can be expected by further reducing the growth temperature, i.e. less than 260°C. These twin nano-stripes may find applications in the fields of spintronics and novel interference nano-devices.

A comparative study of ferroelectric and non-ferroelectric-gated organic field-effect transistors (FETs) have been carried out by using a small molecule semiconductor 6,13 bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl) pentacene (TIPS-pentacene) to understand the fundamental aspects of carrier transport in FET architectures. Temperature-dependent current-voltage characteristics from non-ferroelectric dielectric-gated FETs show a clear activated transport, independent of the dielectric constant. While using the ferroelectric dielectric polymer poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) (PVDF-TrFE), where the dielectric constant may be tuned by changing the temperature, a negative temperature coefficient of the carrier mobility is observed beyond 200 K. The polarization fluctuation dominant transport inherent to a ferroelectric dielectric in conjunction with the discrete nature of traps in TIPS-pentacene results in an effective de-trapping of the shallow trap states into more mobile states.

We report on the preparation of conjugated polymer nanofibers via template-synthesis. A femtosecond laser machined fused silica template, with a micro-patterned array of high-aspect ratio surface nanopores, was first spin-coated with a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) solution to form a water-soluble release layer. The PVA-lined template was then coated with a conjugated poly(3-hexylselenophene) (P3HS) – solvent solution. The solvent was allowed to dissipate, and the resulting {template / PVA liner / conjugated P3HS film} stack was then submerged in water to dissolve the PVA and release the conjugated polymer film from the template. The resulting conjugated polymer film exhibits an array of micro-patterned polymer nanofibers that constitute a negative replica of the PVA-lined template. The nanofibers come arranged in a vertical architecture that spans over the surface of the supporting film.

A 6,13-Bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)pentacene (TIPS-pentacene) based high-voltage organic thin film transistor (HVOTFT) has been demonstrated via a low temperature (< 100°C) solution-processed fabrication method on borosilicate glass. High-voltage is an area not well developed in the organic transistor field and can be of benefit to various applications requiring such an operating range beyond that of conventional thin film transistors. Here, our HVOTFT exhibited a mobility μ of 0.005 cm2 V-1 s-1 and a breakdown voltage of VDS > 120 V, the latter being due a space-charge limiting device architecture in which the channel is partially gated. Non-saturating I-V characteristic behavior was observed. This is in contrast with our vacuum-deposited pentacene HVOTFTs which exhibited breakdown voltages of VDS > 400 V. TIPS-pentacene was grown via a drop-casting deposition, with its crystallinity and grain size deduced under XRD and SEM analysis. The HVOTFT was fabricated with a dielectric stack of a high-k Bi1.5Zn1Nb1.5O7 (BZN) and parylene-C.

Polymeric thin film based electronic and optoelectronic materials and devices are attractive for potential space and certain radiation related applications due to their inherent features such as being light weight, flexible, biocompatible and environmental friendly, etc. Proton radiation is a major form of ionizing radiation in space, yet very few literature and data are available on proton radiation effects on conjugated polymer systems. In this study, UV-Vis absorption spectra of several conjugated polymers and/or their composite thin films were measured and compared right before and after a 200 MeV proton beam irradiation at different dosages, and the results revealed that proton radiation has very little or negligible impact up to 800 Rads on the optoelectronic properties of several polymers and their composite thin films.