Co/NiO bilayers have been grown on MgO(001), MgO(110) and MgO(111) substrates in an ultra high vacuum sputtering chamber. Growth mode and surface morphology are investigated by X-ray diffraction, Reflection High Energy Electron Diffraction (RHEED), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM). NiO layers grow epitaxially whatever the substrate orientation. Flat surfaces are observed on NiO/MgO(001) whereas on MgO(110) the NiO surface exhibits a roof-like morphology consisting in (100) and (010) facets elongated along the [001] direction. On MgO(111), the NiO surface presents pyramids with {100} facets. A temperature dependence of the cobalt layer structure is observed: on NiO(001) at room temperature it grows in its high temperature face-centered cubic structure (fcc), whereas it has the hexagonal close-packed structure (hcp) when deposited at slightly higher temperatures.

Tin oxide (SnO2) thin films have been grown on Si (100) and Al2O3 substrates by pulsed Nd:YAG (532nm) and KrF excimer (248 nm) laser deposition methods using SnO2 targets. X-ray diffraction measurement showed that the almost amorphous microstructure transformed into a crystalline SnO2 phase and preferred orientation varied from (101) to (110) on Si (100) with increasing oxygen gas pressure. This result suggests that oxygen gas pressure affects the phase formation, crystalline structure and preferred orientation of the films. Gas sensing properties of SnO2 thin films by PLD method were also investigated over the temperature range 300 – 600°C, using 0.31vol%H2 as a test gas. The oxygen gas pressure results in a notable change in gas sensing properties of SnO2 thin films.

Synchrotron X-ray scattering was used to study the temperature and coverage dependence of the root-mean-square (rms) surface roughness, σ, during the homoepitaxial growth on Cu(001). At temperatures between 370 and 160K, the rms roughness was found to increase as a power law, σ =Θβ, with the coverage Θ. The roughness exponent, β, amounts to ∼1/2 for T≤200K, and it monotonically decreases with increasing T, reaching β∼1/3 at T=370K. The mean-square roughness measured at a constant coverage of 15ML, σ2 15 ML, also depends on the temperature of the substrate: between 370 and 200K, σ2 15 ML becomes progressively larger at lower temperatures, but at 110K a reentrant smoother growth is observed.

We present and discuss results of the calculations for SrTiO3 (100) surface relaxation with different terminations (SrO and TiO2) using a semi-empirical shell model (SM) as well as abinitio methods based on Hartree-Fock (HF) and Density Functional Theory (DFT) formalisms. Using the SM, the positions of atoms in 16 near-surface layers placed atop a slab of rigid ions are optimized. This permits us determination of surface rumpling and surfaceinduced dipole moments (polarization) for different terminations. We also compare results of the ab initio calculations based on both HF with the DFT-type electroncorrelation corrections, several DFT with different exchange-correlation functionals, and hybrid exchange techniques. OurSM results for the (100) surfaces are in a good agreement with both our ab initio calculations and LEED experiments.

Thin polyethersulfone (PES) films were irradiated with boron ions at doses between 1013-1016B+/cm2 and energies of 50, 130 and 180 keV. The induced changes of structural and optical properties were studied in detail. The influence on sensoric properties (moisture uptake, conductivity) was also in the focus of interest. The results of vibrational spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) indicate that in dependence on dose and energy of implanted boron ions the sulfone bonds are destroyed, and carbon-rich, amorphous and graphite-like structures are formed. This structural changes cause an increase of the conductivity of the surface films to a value of 10−8 Ω−1 at a dose of 1016 B+/cm2 from an as- prepared value of 10−15 Ω −1 and an increase of the saturation concentration during the moisture uptake.

Sol-Gel derived Pb0.85La0.15TiO3 PLT15) thin films were deposited on solution derived RuO2/Si, RuO2/Pt/Si and Pt bottom electrodes. Dielectric, tangent loss, hysteresis, J-E, measurements were also carried out on these films. X-ray results established the single phase perovskite formation with no secondary phases of PLT15 thin film on these electrodes. PLT15 thin films on RuO2 bottom electrode showed relatively inferior ferroelectric and dielectric behavior as compared to Pt electrode. Low leakage currents (10-8 A/cm2 at 10 kV/cm) and the observed J-E characteristics have been attributed to poor film-electrode interface. Observed electrical and dielectric properties have been correlated with the film-electrode interface. The interface characteristics were further augmented by depth profile analysis using Auger Electron Spectroscopy.

Recently, many results were reported by many institutes and companies all over the world for diamond particles or thin films synthesized on crystalline substrates, such as molybdenum, silicon etc. But diamond on amorphous or oxide substrates, were rarely reported. In this study, we used material of amorphous and oxide for substrates, for example quartz glass, Alumina.

We used unique apparatus of diamond synthesis. With our apparatus, completely closed system was used, no reaction gas was introduced to the chamber and no reactant gas was evacuated from it. We used graphite rod for heater and carbon source, at the same time.

And we compared results with this unique closed system and with conventional flow system. Carbon sources of gaseous state (methane) and solid state ( graphite ), and closed and flow system result the deference of synthesized diamond particles.

The thickness of the Al2O3 layer used in the magnetic tunneling junctions FM1/Al2O3/FM2 is less than 2 nm, here FM1 is for the ferromagnetic layer 1 and FM2 is for ferromagnetic layer 2. In order to obtain ultra-thin Al2O3 layer with higher breakdown voltage and pinhole free, extremely smooth surface roughness of this layer is required. The influence of the sputtering gas pressure, DC pulsed frequency, DC pulsed power, substrate bias and buffer layer on surface roughness and properties of Al thin films were studied. The single layer Al films are usually amorphous, texture (111) Al films can be obtained while using thin Ta 5 nm or Ta5/NiFe2 as underlayer. Very smooth Al thin film can be sputtered on Si/SiO2 (100) wafer with Ta/NiFe buffer layer at f=15 kHz (DC pulsed frequency) and with RF substrate biasing (Vpp is about 21 V). High quality MTJs with high MR ratio up to 44.6% and high field sensitivity up to 19.3%/Oe were finally demonstrated after optimization of thin film deposition process.

In recent STM experiments on multilayer island decay on Cu(111) in UHV a novel rapid interlayer mass transport was observed. This new transport mechanism may accelerate island stack decay by several orders of magnitude. Initial explanations for the onset of rapid decay events were based on the correlation between the occupation of surface states and the presence of a step edge barrier for adatom hopping over the island edges. We present new experimental data measured for Ag(111) which are in contradiction to the former interpretation of rapid interlayer mass transport. We show that all experimental results may be explained by considering an exchange mechanism when island edges in a stack are in close proximity.

Thin films of TiNi shape memory alloy (SMA) have been prepared by pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) at different substrate temperatures. The stoichiometry, crystallinity, and morphology of the deposited films were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atom force microscopy (AFM). The transformation behavior and crystallization temperatures were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). It is found that the Ni content of the deposited films ranges from 46.7 to 52.0 at.%. The crystallization temperature of the amorphous films is around 460°C. The activation energy of the crystallization process is determined by Kissinger's method to be 301 kJ/mol. The martensitic transformation temperature of the annealed Ti-51.5 at.% Ni film is –20.8°C.

Nanostructure copper whisker growth was observed in an atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (CVD) system, which used copper acetylacetonate vapor and 10-15 torr of water vapor as reactants, with 0.04-0.10 torr of chromium acetylacetonate vapor added as growth promoting catalyst. Water vapor initiated nucleation of these helical, spiral shape Cu(111) and (200) polycrystalline whiskers. While chromium acetylacetonate accelerated the growth rate. Copper whiskers had radii from 0.1 to 0.24 μm, lengths from 1 to 10 μm, and distribution density of 0.20-3.6 whiskers/μm2. Dependence of such whisker characteristics on temperature, partial pressures of H2O and chromium acetylacetonate was used to construct a kinetic model. From the Arrhenius equation, data analysis for whisker growth rate against deposition temperature showed that the activation energy for whisker growth along radial direction is 12.4 kcal/mol, and 19.6 kcal/mol for growth along axial direction. Based on such data and SEM observations, a base vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) model involving BCF theory was proposed to describe the governing mechanism for the axial growth. This model interpreted the competitive growth phenomena in both radial and axial directions, and controlling steps for radial and axial growth being assigned to mass transfer and surface reaction, respectively.

Metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) was used to prepare ZnO/Cu2O mixed films. The process condition studied were: deposition temperature from 360oC to 440oC, partial pressures of oxygen, 190-380 torr, precursor copper acetylacetonate (Cu(acac)2), 0.21 torr, and zinc acetylacetonate(Zn(acac)2), 0.45 torr. AES and XPS analysis showed average elemental content being Cu, 52-66%, Zn, 11-20%, O, 30-40%. Copper presented primarily as Cu(I) ions, and Zn as Zn(II) ions. SEM, SAM and XRD indicated that deposited films were polycrystalline with composite structure. Some films had a continuous ZnO thin layer with flat surface, equiax fine grained. On the top of ZnO layer were covered by discrete, irregular shape, coarse Cu2O grains. Primary Cu2O phases were (110), (111), and (200) orientation. ZnO phases were (002), and (103). SEM showed the impact of deposition temperature on Cu2O grain size. Such data were used to estimate the activation energy for grain growth. In fact, to our experiences from these studies, binary metal oxide CVD showed a wide spectrum of film microstructure and morphology. These phenomena reflect the result caused by both thermodynamics as film composition, and kinetics as mass transfer/ surface reaction rate.

Yttria fully stabilized zirconia (YSZ) thin films have been successfully synthesized with atmospheric combustion chemical vapor deposition (ACCVD) technique with liquid fuel. Key processing parameters, such as the ratio of oxygen to liquid fuel in the flame, the concentration of metal reagents in the solution, the temperature of the substrate and substrate material, have been investigated. The as-grown films are characterized with X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. Within the range of experimental parameters, the phase of the film is predominantly of cubic structure. The phase and crystallinity of the films are strongly dependent upon the experimental variables.

We investigated the effect of substrate surface roughness on c-axis preferred orientation of ZnO films deposited by radio frequency (rf) magnetron sputtering. We used as substrates a bare Si(100), evaporated Au/Si(100), evaporated Al/Si(100), and sputtered Al/Si(100), of which rms roughness by atomic force microscope (AFM) were 0.127, 1.71, 2.11, and 6.5∼11.8 nm, respectively. The crystallinity and the c-axis preferred orientation of ZnO films strongly depended on the surface roughness of the used substrates.

We review recent systematic investigations of the dynamics of the classical Euler buckling of compressed solid membranes and thin sheets. We relate the membrane buckling dynamics to phase ordering phenomena. Evolving membranes develop wavelike patterns whose wavelength grows, via coarsening, as a power of time. We find that evolving membranes are similar to interfaces of thin films in molecular-beam epitaxy growth with slope selection: They are characterized by the presence of mounds whose typical size grows as a power of time. The morphologies of the evolving membranes are characterized by the presence of a network of growing ridges where the elastic energy is mostly concentrated. We used this fact to develop a scaling theory of the buckling dynamics that gives analytic estimates of the coarsening exponents. Our findings show that the membrane buckling dynamics is characterized by a distinct scaling behavior not found in other coarsening phenomena.

We report on the competitive phase separation of copper and tin thin film deposits on a pre–patterned Si(100) surface. The initial pattern on Si(100) was achieved through a thermal decomposition process of an ex–situ grown oxide film. Copper and tin phase separation on silicon is a competitive process with Cu forming preferrably silicide. Sn is observed to cover the silicide clusters when present in a sufficient amount. The pre–patterning of the surface introduces a new length scale in the problem. Our data suggest that this length scale plays a role while the clustering (ripening) length scale is of the same order, i.e., during nucleation and the early phase separation, but that both length scales become independent once the length scale of ripening significantly exceeds the length scale of the surface pattern.

Zinc sulfide doped with manganese is extensively used for thin film electroluminescent device applications. In order to assess the key material and process challenges, ZnS:Mn layers were fabricated by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition in the 250°-500°C range on an AlTiO/InSnO/glass stack. The microstructure of the ZnS:Mn films was examined by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) as part of a larger study which fully characterizes these films by a variety of structural and chemical characterization techniques, including Rutherford Backscattering, Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy and X-ray Diffraction. For all the growth conditions, the films were found to be polycrystalline having predominantly 2H hexagonal ZnS structure. The ZnS grains are found to grow columnar as the film thickness increases, also widening in the direction parallel to the substrate surface and reaching the 100 - 200 nm average lateral size at the 650 nm film thickness. The presence of the 8H ZnS polytype was detected in the low-temperature ZnS:Mn films by TEM selected area electron diffraction and confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis. Dark field TEM imaging correlated this 8H ring with very small (∼2.5 nm) grains present throughout the low temperature film with a slightly higher density at the film/substrate interface. The 700°C post-deposition annealing was found to initiate a solid state transformation to the cubic (3C) ZnS crystal structure, and resulted in an average grain size of ∼250 nm at the surface of the annealed film.

We report about the electrodeposition of a transparent, p-type semiconductor in etched channelsof a thin polyester foil. The embedded semiconductor columns are robust against mechanical stress exerted on the foil, as the soft polyester matrix exerts only small forces on the embedded material. Dissolving the polyester results in freestanding semiconductor columns with height-to-diameter ratios in excess of 100.

Measurement of the ion energy distributions (IED's) of N2+ ions produced in an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) source revealed that adding argon to the nitrogen gas before excitation in the source increased the nitrogen ion current. Adding helium resulted in an increase of the most probable ion energy, and a higher-energy component of the N2+ IED at about 20 eV. Preliminary calculations of the electron energy distributions (EED's) correlate well to the IED's for both inert gas additions. Experiments were performed to determine the effect of these modified energy distributions of the reactive species on titanium nitride thin film growth rates, microstructure and mechanical properties. Deposition experiments were conducted using the ICP source and an unbalanced magnetron with a titanium cathode. Results showed that the argon inert gas addition resulted in increased deposition rate and reduced 3-D features. Film roughness was decreased to 1.61 nm from 2.05 nm when helium was mixed with the nitrogen. Mixing both argon and helium with the nitrogen yielded combined effects of deposition rate increase, reduced 3-D features and increased smoothness. The inert gas additions increased hardness of the TiN films from 17.3 GPa to 21.1 GPa with the argon addition and to 25.0 GPa with the helium addition

Thin copper films have been deposited on single crystal copper substrates and characterized using a UHV Scanning Tunneling Microscope to probe the effect of atomic insertions during hyperthermal ion deposition. At low temperatures, atomic insertions are predicted to provide a net downhill current that offsets the roughening effect due to uphill “Schwoebel” currents leading to a net smoothing of the surface. Films have been grown at several different energies targeted to observe a crossover from insertion driven smoothing to adatom-vacancy dominated roughening. Copper thin films are deposited near 20 eV using a mass selected ion deposition system that allows precise control (+/− 2 eV) over the energy of constituent atoms. Experimental observations are compared with a sophisticated Kinetic Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamics hybrid (KMC-MD) simulation.