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At least 685 records · Page 38
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2012

Critical shell thickness for InAs-Al{sub x}In{sub 1-x}As(P) core-shell nanowires

InAs nanowires with Al{sub x}In{sub 1-x}P or Al{sub x}In{sub 1-x}As shells were grown on GaAs substrates by the Au-assisted vapour-liquid-solid method in a gas source molecular beam epitaxy system. Core diameters and shell thicknesses were measured by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). These measurements were then related to selected area diffraction patterns to verify either interface coherency or relaxation through misfit dislocations. A theoretical strain model is presented to determine the critical shell thickness for given core diameters. Zincblende stiffness parameters are transformed to their wurtzite counterparts via a well known tensor transformation. An energy criterion is then given to determine the shell thickness, at which coherency is lost and dislocations become favourable. Our model only considers axial strain relieved by edge dislocations since they were the only type of dislocation observed directly by TEM.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Influence of wall thickness on the stability of the resistive wall mode in tokamak plasmas

The influence of finite wall thickness on the stability of the resistive wall mode (RWM) in a tokamak is determined using a simple cylindrical plasma model in which the dissipation required to stabilize the mode is provided by neoclassical parallel ion viscosity. For present-day tokamaks, which possess relatively thin walls, finite wall thickness effects are found to have relatively little influence on the RWM stability boundaries, which are almost the same as those calculated in the thin-wall limit. On the other hand, for next-step devices, which are likely to possess much thicker walls than present-day tokamaks, finite wall thickness effects are found to significantly impede the ability of plasma rotation to stabilize the RWM all the way to the perfect-wall stability limit.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Hollow cylindrical plasma filament waveguide with discontinuous finite thickness cladding

We have explored here a hollow cylindrical laser plasma multifilament waveguide with discontinuous finite thickness cladding, in which the separation between individual filaments is in the range of several millimeters and the waveguide cladding thickness is in the order of the microwave penetration depth. Such parameters give a closer representation of a realistic laser filament waveguide sustained by a long stable propagation of femtosecond (fs) laser pulses. We report how the waveguide losses depend on structural parameters like normalized plasma filament spacing, filament to filament distance or pitch, normal spatial frequency, and radius of the plasma filament. We found that for typical plasma parameters, the proposed waveguide can support guided modes of microwaves in extremely high frequency even with a cladding consisting of only one ring of plasma filaments. The loss of the microwave radiation is mainly caused by tunneling through the discontinuous finite cladding, i.e., confinement loss, and is weakly dependent on the plasma absorption. In addition, the analysis indicates that the propagation loss is fairly large compared with the loss of a plasma waveguide with a continuous infinite thickness cladding, while they are comparable when using a cladding contains more than one ring. Compared to free space propagation, this waveguide still presents a superior microwave transmission to some distance in the order of the filamentation length; thus, the laser plasma filaments waveguide may be a potential channel for transporting pulsed-modulated microwaves if ensuring a long and stable propagation of fs laser pulses.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

The change of electrical transport characterizations in Ga doped ZnO films with various thicknesses

GZO films with different thicknesses were prepared at room temperature by magnetron sputtering and the structure is characterized using two-dimensional X-ray diffraction along with transmission electron microscope and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The films show a textured orientation along the c-axis and an average transmittance of over 90%. The films of 100 and 200 nm are characterized by a semiconductor behavior in the temperature range of 80-320 K, while the conduction behavior turns into a metallic transport at 160 K as the film thickness increases to 400 nm. Temperature dependence of the conductivity manifests a weak localization effect dominated in the semiconductor behavior. The transition between semiconductor and metallic behavior with increasing the thickness is shown to be associated to crystallinity of the films which is improved with decreasing defects and lattice distortion. It is suggested that the improvement of crystallinity should be favored by reduction of the weak localization effect and in turn enhance the semiconductor-to-metal transition.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2013

Development of long-lived thick carbon stripper foils for high energy heavy ion accelerators by a heavy ion beam sputtering method

In the past decade, we have developed extremely long-lived carbon stripper foils of 1-50 {mu}g/cm{sup 2} thickness prepared by a heavy ion beam sputtering method. These foils were mainly used for low energy heavy ion beams. Recently, high energy negative Hydrogen and heavy ion accelerators have started to use carbon stripper foils of over 100 {mu}g/cm{sup 2} in thickness. However, the heavy ion beam sputtering method was unsuccessful in production of foils thicker than about 50 {mu}g/cm{sup 2} because of the collapse of carbon particle build-up from substrates during the sputtering process. The reproduction probability of the foils was less than 25%, and most of them had surface defects. However, these defects were successfully eliminated by introducing higher beam energies of sputtering ions and a substrate heater during the sputtering process. In this report we describe a highly reproducible method for making thick carbon stripper foils by a heavy ion beam sputtering with a Krypton ion beam.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2013

Effect of the thickness of BiFeO{sub 3} layers on the magnetic and electric properties of BiFeO{sub 3}/La{sub 0.7}Sr{sub 0.3}MnO{sub 3} heterostructures

BiFeO{sub 3} layers with various thicknesses were fabricated on La{sub 0.7}Sr{sub 0.3}MnO{sub 3} covered SrTiO{sub 3} substrates by a laser molecular-beam epitaxy system. The ferromagnetic transition temperature (T{sub c}) and magnetic coercive field (H{sub c}) of BiFeO{sub 3}/La{sub 0.7}Sr{sub 0.3}MnO{sub 3} heterostructures are larger than those of the La{sub 0.7}Sr{sub 0.3}MnO{sub 3} film. With increasing the thickness of the BiFeO{sub 3} layer, T{sub c}, H{sub c}, and ferroelectric coercive field of the BiFeO{sub 3}/La{sub 0.7}Sr{sub 0.3}MnO{sub 3} heterostructures decrease, while the dielectric permittivity, remanent polarization, and resistance ratio of the ON and OFF states increase. The variations of the magnetic and electric properties with the thickness could be due to the effects of the epitaxial strain and the interface layer.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2013

Effects of Co layer thickness and annealing temperature on the magnetic properties of inverted [Pt/Co] multilayers

The effects of Co layer thickness and annealing temperature on the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) properties of inverted [Pt (0.2 nm)/Co (t{sub Co})]{sub 6} multilayers (where t{sub Co} indicates the thickness of the Co layer) have been investigated. The cross-sectional microstructure, as observed from the high-resolution transmission electron microscope images, shows a clear layered structure with atomically flat interfaces both in the as-deposited state as well as after annealing, indicating the interface effects for PMA. The effective PMA energy density (K{sub eff}) increases significantly with an increase in t{sub Co} from 0.2 to 0.28 nm and then becomes almost saturated with further increases in t{sub Co}, followed by a slight reduction at the highest Co thickness, t{sub Co} = 0.6 nm. In order to explain the t{sub Co} dependence on K{sub eff}, the intrinsic PMA energy density (K{sub i}) is calculated by additionally measuring a similar set of results for the saturation magnetization. The K{sub i} value increases nearly linearly with the increase in t{sub Co} from 0.2 to 0.5 nm, followed by saturation at a higher t{sub Co} value of 0.6 nm. Owing to a close relationship between K{sub i} and the quality of the interfaces, these results indicate a similar t{sub Co} dependence on the quality of the interfaces. This is further supported from the magnetic measurements of the samples annealed at the highest temperature of 500 °C, where a second phase is formed, which show a similar t{sub Co} dependence on the amount of the second phase. The K{sub i} value is nearly independent of the annealing temperature at t{sub Co} ≤ 0.4 nm, above which a substantial reduction is observed, when the annealing temperature exceeds 500 °C.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2013

Effect of thickness and Ti interlayers on stresses and texture transformations in thin Ag films during thermal cycling

The driving forces for the (111) to (100) texture transformation often observed during annealing of thin face-centered cubic metal films were investigated. Thin passivated silver films were produced with and without Ti adhesion layers. Stresses were measured in situ during heating to induce the texture transformation, and the texture was characterized using x-ray diffraction. Sufficiently thin films did not transform and sufficiently thick films transformed fully. Intermediate thickness films transformed to an extent dependent on thickness, leading to stable mixed textures. In the prevailing thermodynamic model, texture transformation is attributed to minimization of strain and interface energies. However, calculations using the measured stresses, known elastic constants, and estimated interface energies in this model reveal that the stresses are not sufficient to cause the texture transformation and, furthermore, that variations in interface energy cannot lead to the observed behavior. The results suggest that neither the interface energy nor the stress plays decisive roles in the texture transformation.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2013

A reliable control system for measurement on film thickness in copper chemical mechanical planarization system

In recent years, a variety of film thickness measurement techniques for copper chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) are subsequently proposed. In this paper, the eddy-current technique is used. In the control system of the CMP tool developed in the State Key Laboratory of Tribology, there are in situ module and off-line module for measurement subsystem. The in situ module can get the thickness of copper film on wafer surface in real time, and accurately judge when the CMP process should stop. This is called end-point detection. The off-line module is used for multi-points measurement after CMP process, in order to know the thickness of remained copper film. The whole control system is structured with two levels, and the physical connection between the upper and the lower is achieved by the industrial Ethernet. The process flow includes calibration and measurement, and there are different algorithms for two modules. In the process of software development, C++ is chosen as the programming language, in combination with Qt OpenSource to design two modules’ GUI and OPC technology to implement the communication between the two levels. In addition, the drawing function is developed relying on Matlab, enriching the software functions of the off-line module. The result shows that the control system is running stably after repeated tests and practical operations for a long time.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2013

Application of MMC model on simulation of shearing process of thick hot-rolled high strength steel plate

Shear operation is widely used as the first step in sheet metal forming to cut the sheet or plate into the required size. The shear of thick hot-rolled High Strength Steel (HSS) requires large shearing force and the sheared edge quality is relatively poor because of the large thickness and high strength compared with the traditional low carbon steel. Bad sheared edge quality will easily lead to edge cracking during the post-forming process. This study investigates the shearing process of thick hot-rolled HSS plate metal, which is generally exploited as the beam of heavy trucks. The Modified Mohr-Coulomb fracture criterion (MMC) is employed in numerical simulation to calculate the initiation and propagation of cracks during the process evolution. Tensile specimens are designed to obtain various stress states in tension. Equivalent fracture strains are measured with Digital Image Correlation (DIC) equipment to constitute the fracture locus. Simulation of the tension test is carried out to check the fracture model. Then the MMC model is applied to the simulation of the shearing process, and the simulation results show that the MMC model predicts the ductile fracture successfully.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Influence of the SiO{sub 2} interlayer thickness on the density and polarity of charges in Si/SiO{sub 2}/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} stacks as studied by optical second-harmonic generation

By accurately tuning the SiO{sub 2} interlayer thickness the density and polarity of charges in Si/SiO{sub 2}/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} stacks can be controlled. We report on the number density, polarity, and physical location of charges present in the stacks as studied by optical second-harmonic generation (SHG). Depending on the SiO{sub 2} interlayer thickness (1–150 nm) the effective charge density in the Si/SiO{sub 2}/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} stacks ranges from 10{sup 13} to 10{sup 11} cm{sup −2} for both n- and p-type silicon. The polarity of the charges switches from negative to positive around a SiO{sub 2} interlayer thickness of 5–10 nm at which point the effective charge density in the stacks is negligible. This switch in polarity is apparent from spectroscopic, time-dependent, and azimuthal SHG measurements. The observed trends in charge density and polarity can be explained by tunneling of electrons into defect states at the SiO{sub 2}/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} interface as well as the presence of fixed and bulk charges at the Si/SiO{sub 2} interface and in the SiO{sub 2}, respectively. This charge mechanism appears to hold generally for Si/SiO{sub 2}/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} stacks as similar results were observed for SiO{sub 2} films prepared by various techniques.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Thickness and ordering temperature of surface NiO/Ni systems

We estimate the thickness and ordering temperature of an antiferromagnetic and passivation surface oxide through exchange bias coupling. The surface NiO, which is generated through the exposure of a Ni/Cu(001) surface to oxygen, is taken as a model system on which to perform the estimation. Since no exchange bias is found in the surface NiO/Ni/Cu(001), we have built a sandwich structure of NiO/n ML Ni/10 ML Co/Cu(001) to measure the n dependence of exchange bias. With n ⩽ 2, a large exchange bias field is found above 300 K, which could be due to the direct contact between the oxides and the Co layer. With 3 ⩽ n ⩽ 6, a smaller exchange bias field is found with a blocking temperature of 190 K. This implies that the thickness of NiO is, at most, 3 ML. Discovering the thickness and ordering temperature of the surface NiO provides us to explore the potential applications by using surface NiO.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

A study on the evolution of dielectric function of ZnO thin films with decreasing film thickness

Dielectric function, band gap, and exciton binding energies of ultrathin ZnO films as a function of film thickness have been obtained with spectroscopic ellipsometry. As the film thickness decreases, both real (ε{sub 1}) and imaginary (ε{sub 2}) parts of the dielectric function decrease significantly, and ε{sub 2} shows a blue shift. The film thickness dependence of the dielectric function is shown related to the changes in the interband absorption, discrete-exciton absorption, and continuum-exciton absorption, which can be attributed to the quantum confinement effect on both the band gap and exciton binding energies.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

The effect of mix on capsule yields as a function of shell thickness and gas fill

An investigation of direct drive capsules with different shell thicknesses and gas fills was conducted to examine the amount of shock induced (Richtmyer-Meshkov) mix versus Rayleigh-Taylor mix from deceleration of the implosion. The RAGE (Eulerian) code with a turbulent mix model was used to model these capsules for neutron yields along with time-dependent mix amounts. The amount of Richtmyer-Meshkov induced mix from the shock breaking out of the shell is about 0.1 μg (0.15 μm of shell material), while the Rayleigh-Taylor mix is of order 1 μg and determines the mixed simulation yield. The simulations were able to calculate a yield over mix (YOM) ratio (experiment/mix simulation) between 0.5 and 1.0 for capsules with shell thicknesses ranging from 7.5 to 20 μm and with gas fills between 3.8 and 20 atm of D{sub 2} or DT. The simulated burn averaged T{sub ion} values typically lie with 0.5 keV of the data, which is within the measurement error. For capsules with shell thicknesses >25 μm, the YOM values drop to 0.10 ± 0.05, suggesting that some unmodeled effect needs to be accounted for in the thickest capsules.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

The influence of the AlN barrier thickness on the polarization Coulomb field scattering in AlN/GaN heterostructure field-effect transistors

The electron mobility scattering mechanisms in AlN/GaN heterostuctures with 3 nm and 6 nm AlN barrier thicknesses were investigated by temperature-dependent Hall measurements. The effect of interface roughness (IFR) scattering on the electron mobility was found to be enhanced by increasing AlN barrier thickness. Moreover, using the measured capacitance-voltage and current-voltage characteristics of the fabricated heterostructure field-effect transistors (HFETs) with different Schottky areas on the two heterostuctures, the variations of electron mobility with different gate biases were investigated. Due to enhanced IFR scattering, the influence of polarization Coulomb field (PCF) scattering on electron mobility was found to decrease with increasing AlN barrier layer thickness. However, the PCF scattering remained an important scattering mechanism in the AlN/GaN HFETs.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Evaluation of thickness and strain of thin planar layers of InAs on GaAs(001) using spectroscopic ellipsometry

We develop a technique for accurately measuring thickness of planar InAs films grown on (001) GaAs by spectroscopic ellipsometry, using bulk optical constants. We observe that the critical point structure for the E{sub 1} and E{sub 1} + Δ{sub 1} transitions extracted from the measured dielectric properties varies with strain in the layer. Transmission electron microscopy confirms the extracted thickness and measures the residual strain based on the dislocation spacing in the film. At small thickness, the E{sub 1} critical point is seen to markedly deviate from the dependence predicted by deformation potential theory and appears to be consistent with additional quantum confinement effects.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Realistic reflectance spectrum of thin films covering a transparent optically thick substrate

A spectrophotometric strategy is presented and discussed for calculating realistically the reflectance spectrum of an absorbing film deposited over a thick transparent or semi-transparent substrate. The developed route exploits simple mathematics, has wide range of applicability (high-to-weak absorption regions and thick-to-ultrathin films), rules out numerical and curve-fitting procedures as well as model-functions, inherently accounts for the non-measurable contribution of the film-substrate interface as well as substrate backside, and describes the film reflectance spectrum as determined by the experimental situation (deposition approach and parameters). The reliability of the method is tested on films of a well-known material (indium tin oxide) by deliberately changing film thickness and structural quality through doping. Results are found consistent with usual information yielded by reflectance, its inherent relationship with scattering processes and contributions to the measured total reflectance.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Tuning the thickness of electrochemically grafted layers in large area molecular junctions

We have investigated the thickness, the surface roughness, and the transport properties of oligo(1-(2-bisthienyl)benzene) (BTB) thin films grafted on evaporated Au electrodes, thanks to a diazonium-based electro-reduction process. The thickness of the organic film is tuned by varying the number of electrochemical cycles during the growth process. Atomic force microscopy measurements reveal the evolution of the thickness in the range of 2–27 nm. Its variation displays a linear dependence with the number of cycles followed by a saturation attributed to the insulating behavior of the organic films. Both ultrathin (2 nm) and thin (12 and 27 nm) large area BTB-based junctions have then been fabricated using standard CMOS processes and finally electrically characterized. The electronic responses are fully consistent with a tunneling barrier in case of ultrathin BTB film whereas a pronounced rectifying behavior is reported for thicker molecular films.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗