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At least 1,567 records · Page 87
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

Electrical and structural characterizations of crystallized Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/GaN interfaces formed by in situ metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} films were grown in situ by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition at 900 °C on GaN of both Ga- and N-face polarities. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy revealed that the Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} films were crystalline and primarily γ-phase. The Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/Ga-GaN and Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/N-GaN interfaces were both atomically sharp, and the latter further exhibited a biatomic step feature. The corresponding current-voltage (J-V) characteristics were measured on a metal-Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}-semiconductor capacitor (MOSCAP) structure. The leakage current was very high when the Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} thickness was comparable with the size of the crystalline defects, but was suppressed to the order of 1 × 10{sup −8} A/cm{sup 2} with larger Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} thicknesses. The interface states densities (D{sub it}) were measured on the same MOSCAPs by using combined ultraviolet (UV)-assisted capacitance-voltage (C-V), constant capacitance deep level transient spectroscopy (CC-DLTS), and constant capacitance deep level optical spectroscopy (CC-DLOS) techniques. The average D{sub it} measured by CC-DLTS and CC-DLOS were 6.6 × 10{sup 12} and 8.8 × 10{sup 12} cm{sup −2} eV{sup −1} for Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/Ga-GaN and 8.6 × 10{sup 12} and 8.6 × 10{sup 12 }cm{sup −2} eV{sup −1} for Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/N-GaN, respectively. The possible origins of the positive (negative) polarization compensation charges in Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/Ga-GaN (Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/N-GaN), including the filling of interface states and the existence of structure defects and impurities in the Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} layer, were discussed in accordance with the experimental results and relevant studies in the literature.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Measurement of valence-band offset at native oxide/BaSi{sub 2} interfaces by hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

Undoped n-type BaSi{sub 2} films were grown on Si(111) by molecular beam epitaxy, and the valence band (VB) offset at the interface between the BaSi{sub 2} and its native oxide was measured by hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES) at room temperature. HAXPES enabled us to investigate the electronic states of the buried BaSi{sub 2} layer non-destructively thanks to its large analysis depth. We performed the depth-analysis by varying the take-off angle (TOA) of photoelectrons as 15°, 30°, and 90° with respect to the sample surface and succeeded to obtain the VB spectra of the BaSi{sub 2} and the native oxide separately. The VB maximum was located at −1.0 eV from the Fermi energy for the BaSi{sub 2} and −4.9 eV for the native oxide. We found that the band bending did not occur near the native oxide/BaSi{sub 2} interface. This result was clarified by the fact that the core-level emission peaks did not shift regardless of TOA (i.e., analysis depth). Thus, the barrier height of the native oxide for the minority-carriers in the undoped n-BaSi{sub 2} (holes) was determined to be 3.9 eV. No band bending in the BaSi{sub 2} close to the interface also suggests that the large minority-carrier lifetime in undoped n-BaSi{sub 2} films capped with native oxide is attributed not to the band bending in the BaSi{sub 2}, which pushes away photogenerated minority carriers from the defective surface region, but to the decrease of defective states by the native oxide.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Effect of Si interface surface roughness to the tunneling current of the Si/Si{sub 1-x}Ge{sub x}/Si heterojunction bipolar transistor

In this work we discuss the surface roughness of Si interface impact to the tunneling current of the Si/Si{sub 1-x}Ge{sub x}/Si heterojunction bipolar transistor. The Si interface surface roughness can be analyzed from electrical characteristics through the transversal electron velocity obtained as fitting parameter factor. The results showed that surface roughness increase as Ge content of virtual substrate increase This model can be used to investigate the effect of Ge content of the virtual substrate to the interface surface condition through current-voltage characteristic.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Ab-initio simulations of higher Miller index Si:SiO{sub 2} interfaces for fin field effect transistor and nanowire transistors

Models of three representative higher Miller index interfaces, Si(310):SiO{sub 2}, Si(410):SiO{sub 2}, and Si(331):SiO{sub 2}, have been built by an ab-initio molecular dynamics method. We show that each interface can be made as a fully bonded network without any defects and has a reasonable electronic structure for use in fin field effect transistors or gate-all-around nanowire devices. The differences in numbers of oxygen bridges are attributed to the intermediate sub-oxide components and the atomic step structure. The interface bonding schemes to passivate different densities of dangling bonds on different facets are also analyzed.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Schottky barrier heights at the interfaces between pure-phase InAs nanowires and metal contacts

Understanding of the Schottky barriers formed at metal contact-InAs nanowire interfaces is of great importance for the development of high-performance InAs nanowire nanoelectronic and quantum devices. Here, we report a systematical study of InAs nanowire field-effect transistors (FETs) and the Schottky barrier heights formed at the contact-nanowire interfaces. The InAs nanowires employed are grown by molecular beam epitaxy and are high material quality single crystals, and the devices are made by directly contacting the nanowires with a series of metals of different work functions. The fabricated InAs nanowire FET devices are characterized by electrical measurements at different temperatures and the Schottky barrier heights are extracted from the measured temperature and gate-voltage dependences of the channel current. We show that although the work functions of the contact metals are widely spread, the Schottky barrier heights are determined to be distributed over 35–55 meV, showing a weak but not negligible dependence on the metals. The deduced Fermi level in the InAs nanowire channels is found to be in the band gap and very close to the conduction band. The physical origin of the results is discussed in terms of Fermi level pinning by the surface states of the InAs nanowires and a shift in pinned Fermi level induced by the metal-related interface states.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Anti-phase boundaries at the SrTiO{sub 3}/Si(001) interface studied using aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy

In this work, the atomic structure of anti-phase boundary defects at the SrTiO{sub 3}/Si (001) interface is investigated by aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy. Atomic-resolution images reveal an abrupt SrTiO{sub 3}/Si interface with no intermediate oxide layer. Both single and double Si atomic columns (“dumbbells”) from different terraces of the Si(001) surface are visible at the interface. Anti-phase boundaries (APB) consisting of two adjacent TiO{sub 2} planes in the SrTiO{sub 3} (STO) film resulting either from Si surface steps or from the merging of crystalline domains from different surface nucleation sites are identified. These APBs occur on either {110} or {010} planes and both types have displacement vectors of a{sub STO}/2〈110〉.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Understanding the influence of capillary waves on solvation at the liquid-vapor interface

This work investigates the question if surface capillary waves (CWs) affect interfacial solvation thermodynamic properties that determine the propensity of small molecules toward the liquid-vapor interface. We focus on (1) the evaluation of these properties from molecular simulations in a practical manner and (2) understanding them from the perspective of theories in solvation thermodynamics, especially solvent reorganization effects. Concerning the former objective, we propose a computational method that exploits the relationship between an external field acting on the liquid-vapor interface and the magnitude of CWs. The system considered contains the solvent, an externally applied field (f) and the solute molecule fixed at a particular location. The magnitude of f is selected to induce changes in CWs. The difference between the solvation free energies computed in the presence and in the absence of f is then shown to quantify the contribution of CWs to interfacial solvation. We describe the implementation of this method in the canonical ensemble by using a Lennard-Jones solvent and a non-ionic solute. Results are shown for three types of solutes that differ in the nature of short-ranged repulsive (hard-core) interactions. Overall, we observe that CWs have a negligible or very small effect on the interfacial solvation free energy of a solute molecule fixed near the liquid-vapor interface for the above systems. We also explain how the effects of pinning or dampening of CWs caused by a fixed solute are effectively compensated and do not contribute to the solvation free energy.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2016

The influence of interface on spin pumping effect in Ni{sub 80}Fe{sub 20} /Tb bilayer

Focusing on the interface effect of the Ni{sub 80}Fe{sub 20} (Py)/terbium (Tb) bilayer, the influence of interface on the magnetization dynamic damping is investigated systematically. Two series of Py (12 nm)/Tb (d nm) films with and without copper (Cu) (1 nm) interlayer are deposited on silicon (Si) substrates by DC magnetron sputtering at room temperature. From vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) measurements, the saturation magnetization (M{sub s}) decreases with increasing Tb thickness in Py/Tb bilayer while the decrease of M{sub s} is suppressed efficiently by inserting a Cu layer with even 1 nm of thickness. From the frequency dependence of ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) linewidth, we can obtain the Gilbert damping coefficient (α), α is found to exhibit an extreme enhancement in comparison to the single Py layer and shows an increasing trend with increasing Tb thickness. By inserting the Cu layer, α decreases significantly. From theoretical fitting, the spin diffusion length (λ{sub SD}) and spin mixing conductance (g{sup ↑↓}) are determined. It shows that the interface structure influences the spin mixing conductance but not the spin diffusion length.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Theoretical study of vibrational energy transfer of free OH groups at the water-air interface

Recent experimental studies have shown that the vibrational dynamics of free OH groups at the water-air interface is significantly different from that in bulk water. In this work, by performing molecular dynamics simulations and mixed quantum/classical calculations, we investigate different vibrational energy transfer pathways of free OH groups at the water-air interface. The calculated intramolecular vibrational energy transfer rate constant and the free OH bond reorientation time scale agree well with the experiment. It is also found that, due to the small intermolecular vibrational couplings, the intermolecular vibrational energy transfer pathway that is very important in bulk water plays a much less significant role in the vibrational energy relaxation of the free OH groups at the water-air interface.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2016

Surface and interface analysis of nanomaterials at microfocus beamline (BL-16) of Indus-2

Analysis of chemical nature and electronic structure at the interface of a thin film medium is important in many technological applications as well as to understand overall efficiency of a thin film device. Synchrotron radiation based x-ray spectroscopy is a promising technique to study interface nature of the nanomaterials with atomic resolutions. A combined x-ray reflectivity and grazing incidence x-ray fluorescence measurement facility has been recently constructed at the BL-16 microfocus beamline of Indus-2 synchrotron facility to accomplish surface-interface microstructural characterization of thin layered materials. It is also possible to analyze contaminates or adsorbed ad-atoms on the surface of the thin nanostructure materials. The BL-16 beamline also provides an attractive platform to perform a variety of analytical research activities especially in the field of micro x-ray fluorescence and ultra-trace elements analysis using Synchrotron radiation. We describe various salient features of the BL-16 reflectometer experimental station and the detailed description of its capabilities through the measured results, obtained for various thin layered nanomaterials.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2016

Dependence of reflection and transmission of soliton on angle of incidence at an interface between chalcogenide fibre and gallium nanoparticle film by phase plane trajectories

In the present paper, we study propagation of a soliton at an interface formed between special type of chalcogenide fibre and gallium in three different phases with the help of equivalent particle theory. Critical angle of incidence and critical power required for transmission and reflection of soliton beam have investigated. Here it is found that if the incident angle of the beam or initial velocity of the equivalent particle is insufficient to overcome the maximum increase in potential energy then the particle (light beam) is reflected by the interface and if this incident angle is greater than a critical angle then light beam will be transmitted by the interface. From an equation these critical angles for α-gallium, one of a metastable phase and liquid gallium are calculated and concluded that at large incident angles, the soliton is transmitted through the boundary, whereas at small incidence angles the soliton get reflected on keeping the power of incident beam constant. These results are explained by phase plane trajectories of the effective potential which are experimentally as well as theoretically proved.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Evaluation of band offset at amorphous-Si/BaSi{sub 2} interfaces by hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

The 730 nm-thick undoped BaSi{sub 2} films capped with 5 nm-thick amorphous Si (a-Si) intended for solar cell applications were grown on Si(111) by molecular beam epitaxy. The valence band (VB) offset at the interface between the BaSi{sub 2} and the a-Si was measured by hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to understand the carrier transport properties by the determination of the band offset at this heterointerface. We performed the depth-analysis by varying the take-off angle of photoelectrons as 15°, 30°, and 90° with respect to the sample surface to obtain the VB spectra of the BaSi{sub 2} and the a-Si separately. It was found that the barrier height of the a-Si for holes in the BaSi{sub 2} is approximately −0.2 eV, whereas the barrier height for electrons is approximately 0.6 eV. This result means that the holes generated in the BaSi{sub 2} layer under solar radiation could be selectively extracted through the a-Si/BaSi{sub 2} interface, promoting the carrier separation in the BaSi{sub 2} layer. We therefore conclude that the a-Si/BaSi{sub 2} interface is beneficial for BaSi{sub 2} solar cells.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Open ISEmeter: An open hardware high-impedance interface for potentiometric detection

In this work, a new open hardware interface based on Arduino to read electromotive force (emf) from potentiometric detectors is presented. The interface has been fully designed with the open code philosophy and all documentation will be accessible on web. The paper describes a comprehensive project including the electronic design, the firmware loaded on Arduino, and the Java-coded graphical user interface to load data in a computer (PC or Mac) for processing. The prototype was tested by measuring the calibration curve of a detector. As detection element, an active poly(vinyl chloride)-based membrane was used, doped with cetyltrimethylammonium dodecylsulphate (CTA{sup +}-DS{sup −}). The experimental measures of emf indicate Nernstian behaviour with the CTA{sup +} content of test solutions, as it was described in the literature, proving the validity of the developed prototype. A comparative analysis of performance was made by using the same chemical detector but changing the measurement instrumentation.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2016

Temperature dependence of contact resistance at metal/MWNT interface

Although contact resistance of carbon nanotube (CNT) is one of the most important factors for practical application of electronic devices, a study regarding temperature dependence on contact resistance of CNTs with metal electrodes has not been found. Here, we report an investigation of contact resistance at multiwalled nanotube (MWNT)/Ag interface as a function of temperature, using MWNT/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite. Electrical resistance of MWNT/PDMS composite revealed negative temperature coefficient (NTC). Excluding the contact resistance with Ag electrode, the NTC effect became less pronounced, showing lower intrinsic resistivity with the activation energy of 0.019 eV. Activation energy of the contact resistance of MWNT/Ag interface was determined to be 0.04 eV, two times larger than that of MWNT-MWNT network. The increase in the thermal fluctuation assisted electron tunneling is attributed to conductivity enhancement at both MWNT/MWNT and MWNT/Ag interfaces with increasing temperature.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Tuning back contact property via artificial interface dipoles in Si/organic hybrid solar cells

Back contact property plays a key role in the charge collection efficiency of c-Si/poly(3,4-ethylthiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) hybrid solar cells (Si-HSCs), as an alternative for the high-efficiency and low-cost photovoltaic devices. In this letter, we utilize the water soluble poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO) to modify the Al/Si interface to be an Ohmic contact via interface dipole tuning, decreasing the work function of the Al film. This Ohmic contact improves the electron collection efficiency of the rear electrode, increasing the short circuit current density (J{sub sc}). Furthermore, the interface dipoles make the band bending downward to increase the total barrier height of built-in electric field of the solar cell, enhancing the open circuit voltage (V{sub oc}). The PEO solar cell exhibits an excellent performance, 12.29% power conversion efficiency, a 25.28% increase from the reference solar cell without a PEO interlayer. The simple and water soluble method as a promising alternative is used to develop the interfacial contact quality of the rear electrode for the high photovoltaic performance of Si-HSCs.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Magneto-electric coupling in antiferromagnet/ferroelectric Mn{sub 2}Au/BaTiO{sub 3} interface

Within the crucial issue of the electric field control of magnetism, the use of antiferromagnets (AFMs) coupled to ferroelectrics is much less explored than the ferromagnets counterpart, although the first choice might lead to better performances and larger stability with respect to external perturbations (such as magnetic fields). Here, we explore the possibility to control the magnetic anisotropy of a Mn{sub 2}Au layer by reversing the ferroelectric polarization of BaTiO{sub 3} in Mn{sub 2}Au/BaTiO{sub 3} interfaces. By means of a thorough exploration of many possible geometry configurations, we identify the two most stable, corresponding to compressive and tensile strain at the interface. The first appears to be easy-axis, while the second—easy-plane—with a large induced moment on the interface Ti atom. The reversal of ferroelectric polarization changes the anisotropy by approximately 50%, thus paving the way to the control of AFM properties with an electric field.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Obtaining the solid-liquid interfacial free energy via multi-scheme thermodynamic integration: Ag-ethylene glycol interfaces

The solid-liquid interfacial free energy γ sl is an important quantity in wetting, nucleation, and crystal growth. Although various methods have been developed to calculate γ sl with atomic-scale simulations, such calculations still remain challenging for multi-component interfaces between molecular fluids and solids. In this paper, we present a multi-scheme thermodynamic integration method that is inspired by the “cleaving-wall” method and aimed at obtaining γ sl for such systems using open-source simulation packages. This method advances two aspects of its predecessor methods. First, we incorporate separate schemes to resolve difficulties when manipulating periodic boundary conditions of the supercell using open-source simulation packages. Second, we introduce a numerical approximation to obtain thermodynamic integrands for complex force fields when an analytical differentiation is not readily available. To demonstrate this method, we obtain γ sl for interfaces between Ag(100) and Ag(111) and ethylene glycol (EG). These interfacial free energies mirror interfacial potential energies for each facet. We also estimate entropies of interface formation and these are consistent with theoretical predictions in signs and trends. For the Ag-EG systems, we find that the largest contribution to γ sl is the free energy to create the bare metal surfaces. The second-largest contribution to γ sl is from the liquid-solid interaction. Finally, this user-friendly method will accelerate investigation in a broad range of research topics, such as the thermodynamic effect of structure-directing agents in solution-phase shape-controlled nanocrystal syntheses.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2013

Coherent Vibrational Dynamics and High-Resolution Nonlinear Spectroscopy: A Comparison with the Air/DMSO Liquid Interface

In this report we present a comparative study on the C-H stretching vibrations at air/DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide) interface with both the free-induction decay (FID) coherent vibrational dynamics and sub-wavenumber high resolution sum-frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy measurements. In principle the frequency-domain and time-domain spectroscopic measurements should generate identical information for a given molecular system. However, when the molecular systems are with several coupled or overlapping vibrational modes, to obtain detailed spectroscopic and coherent dynamics information is not as straightforward and rather difficult from either the time-domain or the frequency domain measurements. For the case of air/DMSO interface that is with moderately complex vibrational spectra, we show that the frequency-domain measurement with sub-wavenumber high-resolution SFGVS is probably more advantageous than the time-domain measurement in obtaining quantitative understanding of the structure and coherent dynamics of the molecular interface.

Air/DMSO interface↗