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At least 883 records · Page 49
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2013

Strain on field effect transistors with single–walled–carbon nanotube network on flexible substrate

We have systematically analyzed the effect of strain on the electrical properties of flexible field effect transistors with a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) network on a polyethersulfone substrate. The strain was applied and estimated at the microscopic scale (<1 μm) by using scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with indigenously designed special bending jig. Interestingly, the strain estimated at the microscopic scale was found to be significantly different from the strain calculated at the macroscopic scale (centimeter-scale), by a factor of up to 4. Further in-depth analysis using SEM indicated that the significant difference in strain, obtained from two different measurement scales (microscale and macroscale), could be attributed to the formation of cracks and tears in the SWCNT network, or at the junction of SWCNT network and electrode during the strain process. Due to this irreversible morphological change, the electrical properties, such as on current level and field effect mobility, lowered by 14.3% and 4.6%, respectively.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Strain induced modification in phonon dispersion curves of monolayer boron pnictides

In the frame work of density functional theory, the biaxial strain induced phonon dispersion curves of monolayer boron pnictides (BX, X = N, P, As, and Sb) have been investigated. The electron-ion interactions have been modelled using ultrasoft pseudopotentials while exchange-correlation energies have been approximated by the method of local density approximation in the parameterization of Perdew-Zunger. The longitudinal and transverse acoustic phonon modes of boron pnictide sheets show linear dependency on wave vector k{sup →} while out of plane mode varies as k{sup 2}. The in-plane longitudinal and out of plane transverse optical modes in boron nitride displaying significant dispersion similar to graphene. We have analyzed the biaxial strain dependent behaviour of out of plane acoustic phonon mode which is linked to ripple for four BX sheets using a model equation with shell elasticity theory. The strain induces the hardening of this mode with tendency to become more linear with increase in strain percentage. The strain induced hardening of out of plane acoustic phonon mode indicates the absence of rippling in these compounds. Our band structure calculations for both unstrained and strained 2D h-BX are consistent with previous calculations.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Adjustable magnetoelectric effect of self-assembled vertical multiferroic nanocomposite films by the in-plane misfit strain and ferromagnetic volume fraction

The strain-mediated magnetoelectric (ME) property of self-assembled vertical multiferroic nanocomposite films epitaxially grown on cubic substrates was calculated by a nonlinear thermodynamic theory combined with the elastic theory. The dependent relations of phase state of ferroelectric films with the in-plane misfit strain, out-of-plane misfit strain, temperature, and volume fraction of ferromagnetic phase were confirmed. The effects of in-plane misfit strain and ferromagnetic volume fraction on the polarization and dielectric constant of ferroelectric films at room temperature were elaborately analyzed for the vertical BaTiO{sub 3}-CoFe{sub 2}O{sub 4} and PbTiO{sub 3}-CoFe{sub 2}O{sub 4} nanocomposite films. Our calculated results confirmed the relationship among ME effect and in-plane misfit strain and ferromagnetic volume fraction in the nanocomposite films. The ME voltage coefficients of vertical BaTiO{sub 3}-CoFe{sub 2}O{sub 4} and PbTiO{sub 3}-CoFe{sub 2}O{sub 4} nanocomposite films displayed various maximums and abrupt points at special phases and phase transition boundaries. The ME voltage coefficients of lead-free BaTiO{sub 3}-CoFe{sub 2}O{sub 4} nanocomposite films epitaxially grown on different substrates could reach a comparative value of ∼2 V·cm{sup −1}·Oe{sup −1} under the controllable in-plane misfit strain induced by substrate clamping. Our results provided an available method for the optimal design of vertical multiferroic nanocomposites with adjustable ME effect by optimizing the ferromagnetic volume fraction and substrate type.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Manipulation of electronic and magnetic properties of M{sub 2}C (M = Hf, Nb, Sc, Ta, Ti, V, Zr) monolayer by applying mechanical strains

Tuning the electronic and magnetic properties of a material through strain engineering is an effective strategy to enhance the performance of electronic and spintronic devices. In this paper, first-principles calculations based on density functional theory are carried out to investigate the electronic and magnetic properties of M{sub 2}C(M = Hf, Nb, Sc, Ta, Ti, V, Zr, known as MXenes) subjected to biaxial symmetric mechanical strains. At the strain-free state, all these MXenes exhibit no spontaneous magnetism except for Ti{sub 2}C and Zr{sub 2}C which show a magnetic moment of 1.92 and 1.25 μ{sub B}/unit, respectively. As the tensile strain increases, the magnetic moments of MXenes are greatly enhanced and a transition from nonmagnetism to ferromagnetism is observed for those nonmagnetic MXenes at zero strains. The most distinct transition is found in Hf{sub 2}C, in which the magnetic moment is elevated to 1.5 μ{sub B}/unit at a strain of 1.80%. We further show that the magnetic properties of Hf{sub 2}C are attributed to the band shift mainly composed of Hf(5d) states.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Prediction of Debye-Scherrer diffraction patterns in arbitrarily strained samples

The prediction of Debye-Scherrer diffraction patterns from strained samples is typically conducted in the small strain limit. Although valid for small deviations from the hydrostat (such as the conditions of finite strength typically observed in diamond anvil cells) this assertion is likely to fail for the large strain anisotropies (often of order 10% in normal strain) found in uniaxially loaded dynamic compression experiments. In this paper, we derive a general form for the (θ{sub B},ϕ) dependence of the diffraction for an arbitrarily deformed polycrystalline sample in any geometry, and of any crystal symmetry. We show that this formula is consistent with ray traced diffraction for highly strained computationally generated polycrystals, and that the formula shows deviations from the widely used small strain solutions previously reported.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Role of strain on electronic and mechanical response of semiconducting transition-metal dichalcogenide monolayers: An ab-initio study

We characterize the electronic structure and elasticity of monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides MX{sub 2} (M = Mo, W, Sn, Hf and X = S, Se, Te) based on 2H and 1T structures using fully relativistic first principles calculations based on density functional theory. We focus on the role of strain on the band structure and band alignment across the series of materials. We find that strain has a significant effect on the band gap; a biaxial strain of 1% decreases the band gap in the 2H structures, by as a much as 0.2 eV in MoS{sub 2} and WS{sub 2}, while increasing it for the 1T cases. These results indicate that strain is a powerful avenue to modulate their properties; for example, strain enables the formation of, otherwise impossible, broken gap heterostructures within the 2H class. These calculations provide insight and quantitative information for the rational development of heterostructures based on this class of materials accounting for the effect of strain.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Indirect-to-direct band gap transition in relaxed and strained Ge{sub 1−x−y}Si{sub x}Sn{sub y} ternary alloys

Sn-containing group IV semiconductors create the possibility to independently control strain and band gap thus providing a wealth of opportunities to develop an entirely new class of low dimensional systems, heterostructures, and silicon-compatible electronic and optoelectronic devices. With this perspective, this work presents a detailed investigation of the band structure of strained and relaxed Ge{sub 1−x−y}Si{sub x}Sn{sub y} ternary alloys using a semi-empirical second nearest neighbors tight binding method. This method is based on an accurate evaluation of the deformation potential constants of Ge, Si, and α-Sn using a stochastic Monte-Carlo approach as well as a gradient based optimization method. Moreover, a new and efficient differential evolution approach is also developed to accurately reproduce the experimental effective masses and band gaps. Based on this, we elucidated the influence of lattice disorder, strain, and composition on Ge{sub 1−x−y}Si{sub x}Sn{sub y} band gap energy and directness. For 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.4 and 0 ≤ y ≤ 0.2, we found that tensile strain lowers the critical content of Sn needed to achieve a direct band gap semiconductor with the corresponding band gap energies below 0.76 eV. This upper limit decreases to 0.43 eV for direct gap, fully relaxed ternary alloys. The obtained transition to direct band gap is given by y > 0.605 × x + 0.077 and y > 1.364 × x + 0.107 for epitaxially strained and fully relaxed alloys, respectively. The effects of strain, at a fixed composition, on band gap directness were also investigated and discussed.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

On the doping limit for strain stability retention in phosphorus doped Si:C

Strain stability of phosphorus doped pseudomorphically strained Si:C alloy is investigated via high-resolution X-ray diffractometry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and Hall measurement. Significant strain relaxations are found under post-annealing treatment far below β-SiC precipitation threshold temperature, especially for the highest phosphorus doped case. Most of the substitutional carbon is retained and no further β-SiC formation can be found for all samples investigated. Volume compensation through gettering of interstitial atoms around substitutional carbon is considered as a probable mechanism for the observed strain relaxation. The strain relaxation effect can be further reduced with HF treatment prior to post-annealing process. We found an upper limit for ion implant dose (<1 × 10{sup 14} atom/cm{sup 2}) for the retention of strain stability in phosphorus doped Si:C.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Structural, optical, and electrical properties of strained La-doped SrTiO{sub 3} films

The structural, optical, and room-temperature electrical properties of strained La-doped SrTiO{sub 3} epitaxial thin films are investigated. Conductive La-doped SrTiO{sub 3} thin films with concentration varying from 5 to 25% are grown by molecular beam epitaxy on four different substrates: LaAlO{sub 3}, (LaAlO{sub 3}){sub 0.3}(Sr{sub 2}AlTaO{sub 6}){sub 0.7}, SrTiO{sub 3}, and DyScO{sub 3}, which result in lattice mismatch strain ranging from −2.9% to +1.1%. We compare the effect of La concentration and strain on the structural and optical properties, and measure their effect on the electrical resistivity and mobility at room temperature. Room temperature resistivities ranging from ∼10{sup −2} to 10{sup −5} Ω cm are obtained depending on strain and La concentration. The room temperature mobility decreases with increasing strain regardless of the sign of the strain. The observed Drude peak and Burstein-Moss shift from spectroscopic ellipsometry clearly confirm that the La addition creates a high density of free carriers in SrTiO{sub 3}. First principles calculations were performed to help understand the effect of La-doping on the density of states effective mass as well as the conductivity and DC relaxation time.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Tunable electronic and optical properties of monolayer silicane under tensile strain: A many-body study

The electronic structure and optical response of silicane to strain are investigated by employing first-principles calculations based on many-body perturbation theory. The bandgap can be efficiently engineered in a broad range and an indirect to direct bandgap transition is observed under a strain of 2.74%; the semiconducting silicane can even be turned into a metal under a very large strain. The transitions derive from the persistent downward shift of the lowest conduction band at the Γ-point upon an increasing strain. The quasi-particle bandgaps of silicane are sizable due to the weak dielectric screening and the low dimension; they are rapidly reduced as strain increases while the exciton bound energy is not that sensitive. Moreover, the optical absorption edge of the strained silicane significantly shifts towards a low photon energy region and falls into the visible light range, which might serve as a promising candidate for optoelectronic devices.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2014

Strain mapping at the nanoscale using precession electron diffraction in transmission electron microscope with off axis camera

Precession electron diffraction is an efficient technique to measure strain in nanostructures by precessing the electron beam, while maintaining a few nanometre probe size. Here, we show that an advanced diffraction pattern treatment allows reproducible and precise strain measurements to be obtained using a default 512 × 512 DigiSTAR off-axis camera both in advanced or non-corrected transmission electron microscopes. This treatment consists in both projective geometry correction of diffraction pattern distortions and strain Delaunay triangulation based analysis. Precision in the strain measurement is improved and reached 2.7 × 10{sup −4} with a probe size approaching 4.2 nm in diameter. This method is applied to the study of the strain state in InGaAs quantum-well (QW) devices elaborated on Si substrate. Results show that the GaAs/Si mismatch does not induce in-plane strain fluctuations in the InGaAs QW region.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Instrument for evaluating the electrical resistance and wavelength-resolved transparency of stretchable electronics during strain

A complete analysis of strain tolerance in a stretchable transparent conductor (TC) should include tracking of both electrical conductivity and transparency during strain; however, transparency is generally neglected in contemporary analyses. In this paper, we describe an apparatus that tracks both parameters while TCs of arbitrary composition are deformed under stretching-mode strain. We demonstrate the tool by recording the electrical resistance and light transmission spectra for indium tin oxide-coated plastic substrates under both linearly increasing strain and complex cyclic strain processes. The optics are sensitive across the visible spectrum and into the near-infrared region (∼400-900 nm), and without specifically optimizing for sampling speed, we achieve a time resolution of ∼200 ms. In our automated analysis routine, we include a calculation of a common TC figure of merit (FOM), and because solar cell electrodes represent a key TC application, we also weigh both our transparency and FOM results against the solar power spectrum to determine “solar transparency” and “solar FOM.” Finally, we demonstrate how the apparatus may be adapted to measure the basic performance metrics for complete solar cells under uniaxial strain.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2015

Fast strain wave induced magnetization changes in long cobalt bars: Domain motion versus coherent rotation

A high frequency (88 MHz) traveling strain wave on a piezoelectric substrate is shown to change the magnetization direction in 40 μm wide Co bars with an aspect ratio of 10{sup 3}. The rapidly alternating strain wave rotates the magnetization away from the long axis into the short axis direction, via magnetoelastic coupling. Strain-induced magnetization changes have previously been demonstrated in ferroelectric/ferromagnetic heterostructures, with excellent fidelity between the ferromagnet and the ferroelectric domains, but these experiments were limited to essentially dc frequencies. Both magneto-optical Kerr effect and polarized neutron reflectivity confirm that the traveling strain wave does rotate the magnetization away from the long axis direction and both yield quantitatively similar values for the rotated magnetization. An investigation of the behavior of short axis magnetization with increasing strain wave amplitude on a series of samples with variable edge roughness suggests that the magnetization reorientation that is seen proceeds solely via coherent rotation. Polarized neutron reflectivity data provide direct experimental evidence for this model. This is consistent with expectations that domain wall motion cannot track the rapidly varying strain.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Strain-induced gap transition and anisotropic Dirac-like cones in monolayer and bilayer phosphorene

The electronic properties of two-dimensional monolayer and bilayer phosphorene subjected to uniaxial and biaxial strains have been investigated using first-principles calculations based on density functional theory. Strain engineering has obvious influence on the electronic properties of monolayer and bilayer phosphorene. By comparison, we find that biaxial strain is more effective in tuning the band gap than uniaxial strain. Interestingly, we observe the emergence of Dirac-like cones by the application of zigzag tensile strain in the monolayer and bilayer systems. For bilayer phosphorene, we induce the anisotropic Dirac-like dispersion by the application of appropriate armchair or biaxial compressive strain. Our results present very interesting possibilities for engineering the electronic properties of phosphorene and pave a way for tuning the band gap of future electronic and optoelectronic devices.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Understanding the effects of strain on morphological instabilities of a nanoscale island during heteroepitaxial growth

A comprehensive morphological stability analysis of a nanoscale circular island during heteroepitaxial growth is presented based on continuum elasticity theory. The interplay between kinetic and thermodynamic mechanisms is revealed by including strain-related kinetic processes. In the kinetic regime, the Burton-Cabrera-Frank model is adopted to describe the growth front of the island. Together with kinetic boundary conditions, various kinetic processes including deposition flow, adatom diffusion, attachment-detachment kinetics, and the Ehrlich-Schwoebel barrier can be taken into account at the same time. In the thermodynamic regime, line tension, surface energy, and elastic energy are considered. As the strain relief in the early stages of heteroepitaxy is more complicated than commonly suggested by simple consideration of lattice mismatch, we also investigate the effects of external applied strain and elastic response due to perturbations on the island shape evolution. The analytical expressions for elastic fields induced by mismatch strain, external applied strain, and relaxation strain are presented. A systematic approach is developed to solve the system via a perturbation analysis which yields the conditions of film morphological instabilities. Consistent with previous experimental and theoretical work, parametric studies show the kinetic evolution of elastic relaxation, island morphology, and film composition under various conditions. Our present work offers an effective theoretical approach to get a comprehensive understanding of the interplay between different growth mechanisms and how to tailor the growth mode by controlling the nature of the crucial factors.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Strain mapping in an InGaN/GaN nanowire using a nano-focused x-ray beam

Strained InGaN/GaN core-shell nanowires (NWs) are promising candidates for solid state lighting applications due to their superior properties compared to planar films. NW based devices consist of multiple functional layers, which sum up to many hundred nanometers in thickness, that can uniquely be accessed in a non-destructive fashion by hard X-rays. Here, we present a detailed nanoscale strain mapping performed on a single, 400 nm thick and 2 μm long core-shell InGaN/GaN nanowire with an x-ray beam focused down to 100 nm. We observe an inhomogeneous strain distribution caused by the asymmetric strain relaxation in the shell. One side of the InGaN shell was fully strained, whereas the other side and the top part were relaxed. Additionally, tilt and strain gradients were determined at the interface with the substrate.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Optical absorption and intrinsic recombination in relaxed and strained InAs{sub 1–x}Sb{sub x} alloys for mid-wavelength infrared application

The intrinsic carrier recombination lifetime in relaxed and strained InAs{sub 1−x}Sb{sub x} alloys is investigated using the full-band Green's function theory. By computing the phonon-perturbed electron self-energy of the system, both direct and phonon-assisted indirect Auger and radiative processes are studied as functions of antimony molar fractions, lattice temperatures and applied in-plane biaxial strains. To improve the overall accuracy of the calculation, an empirical pseudopotential band structure for the alloy is also fitted to the measured band extrema and effective masses under different biaxial strains. A set of effective screened potentials valid for all the needed antimony fractions x and biaxial strains ϵ, therefore, is obtained and applied to the calculation. The results showed reduced total Auger recombination rates and enhanced radiative recombination rates in InAsSb alloys at room temperature when a compressive strain is applied. Furthermore, the study on the widely employed mid-wavelength infrared detector material, InAs{sub 0.91}Sb{sub 0.09}, strained by an InAs substrate, demonstrated that much longer minority carrier lifetime can be achieved compared to that in the lattice-matched situation when the lattice temperature is above 200 K.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Tensile strain-induced magnetism transition in multilayer graphene with excess electrons: Stability of the edge-quantum well

The stability of edge-quantum well-induced strong magnetism of multilayer armchair graphene nanoribbon (AGNR) with excess electrons was investigated under applied tensile strain by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The results indicated that: (1) The strain along the armchair edge direction led to a transition of the multilayer AGNRs from ferromagnetic state to nonmagnetic state when the strain increased to a critical value; (2) The strain induced bond length changes reduced the stability of the edge-quantum well in terms of the reduction of the electrons capturing capacity; and (3) The spin splitting of the energy bands near the Fermi level reduced with the increase of the strain, resulting in the decrease of the spin moment. This finding suggests that the magnetic properties of graphene have strong dependence on its strain states, which is crucial to the design of graphene-based magnetic devices.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗