Search Results (87)

Silicon oxynitride (SiO_xN_y, hereafter denoted as SiON) thin films represent an intermediate phase between silicon dioxide (SiO₂) and silicon nitride (Si₃N₄). Through systematic compositional ratio adjustments, the refractive index can be precisely tuned across a wide range from 1.45 to 2.3. However, the underlying mechanism governing the influence of elemental composition on film structural quality remains insufficiently understood. To address this knowledge gap, we systematically investigate the effects of key industrial plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) parameters—including precursor gas selection and flow rate ratios—on SiON film properties. Our experimental measurements reveal that stoichiometric SiO_xN_y (x = y) achieves a minimum surface roughness of 0.18 nm. As oxygen content decreases and nitrogen content increases, progressive replacement of Si-O bonds by Si-N bonds correlates with increased structural defect density within the film matrix. Capacitance–voltage (C-V) characterization demonstrates a corresponding enhancement in device capacitance following these compositional modifications. Recent studies confirm that controlled modulation of film stoichiometry enables precise tailoring of dielectric properties and capacitive behavior, as demonstrated in SiON-based power electronics, thereby advancing applications in related fields. Full article

Yb_xEr_yZnO thin films with a low concentration (x = 5%, y = 0, 1, 3%) were made on glass substrates using the spray pyrolysis method. The films were characterized through the use of specific techniques to investigate their structural, optical, and electrical properties. The XRD structural analysis of the films revealed that they are polycrystalline with a hexagonal wurtzite structure and a preferential orientation in the (002) direction. The optical characterization of the co-doped layers in the range of 200 to 800 nm revealed that co-doping had a significant impact on the values of transmission. A well-defined peak in the infrared domain centered around 980 nm was observed in photoluminescence measurements. This peak signifies the transition between the electronic levels ²F_5/2 (ground state) and ²F_7/2 (excited state), proving that photons are efficiently transferred between the ZnO matrix and the Yb³⁺ ion. All layers exhibited n-type conduction and an electrical resistivity decrease to 6.0 × 10⁻² Ω cm according to Hall effect measurements at room temperature. Full article

With the rapid development of fifth-generation (5G) mobile communication technology, the performance requirements for radio frequency front-end surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices have become increasingly stringent. Surface acoustic wave devices on piezoelectric thin film-based layered structures with high electromechanical coupling coefficients and low-frequency temperature compensation characteristics have emerged as a key solution. In this work, a SAW resonator based on an Al/41° Y-X LiNbO₃/SiO₂/poly-Si/Si multi-layered structure is proposed. FEM modeling of the proposed resonator and the influences of the thicknesses of the LiNbO₃, SiO₂, and Al electrodes on performances such as the parasitic noise, bandwidth, and electromechanical coupling coefficient are analyzed. Optimal parameters for the multi-layer piezoelectric structure are identified for offering large coupling up to 24%. Based on these findings, a single-port SAW resonator with an Al/41° Y-X LiNbO₃/SiO₂/poly-Si/Si substrate structure is fabricated. The experimental results align well with the simulation results; meanwhile, the SAW filter based on the proposed resonator demonstrates that a center frequency of 2.3 GHz, a 3-dB fractional bandwidth of 23.48%, and a minimum in-band insertion loss of only 0.343 dB are simultaneously achieved. This study provides guidance for the development of multi-layer film SAW resonator-based filters with high-performance. Full article

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) of Y₂O₃ thin films was investigated using Y(MeCp)₂(iPr-nPrAMD) precursor and H₂O reactant. The self-limiting reaction mechanism of ALD-Y₂O₃ thin films was confirmed at a growth temperature of 260 °C. And, the saturated growth rate was confirmed to be ~0.11 nm/cycle. Also, it was demonstrated that a wide ALD temperature window from 150 °C to 290 °C maintains a consistent growth rate. ALD-Y₂O₃ thin films were found to have a typical cubic polycrystalline structure, independent of growth temperature, which can be attributed to their stoichiometric composition of Y₂O₃, negligible carbon impurity, and high film density, analogous to the Y₂O₃ bulk. Even at a low growth temperature of 150 °C, ALD-Y₂O₃ exhibited a markedly lower plasma etching rate (~0.77 nm/min) than that (~4.6 nm/min) of ALD-Al₂O₃ when using RIE at a plasma power of 400 W with a mixed gas of Ar/CF₄/O₂. Furthermore, the growth temperature of Y₂O₃ thin films had minimal impact on the etching rate. Full article

The effects of various additives (Y₂O₃, Ga₂O₃, and WO₃) on photocatalytic degradation efficiency under UV light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and the optical properties of TiO₂ Degussa P25 were investigated using ketoprofen and diclofenac, two non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs commonly detected in German rivers. Experimental results demonstrated that thin films containing these additives exhibited similar photocatalytic degradation efficiencies as pure TiO₂, achieving a 30% degradation of ketoprofen over 150 min. In contrast, the Y₂O₃/TiO₂ thin film showed significantly improved performance, achieving a 46% degradation of ketoprofen in 180 min. Notably, the Y₂O₃/TiO₂ system was three times more effective in degrading diclofenac compared to pure TiO₂. Additionally, the Y₂O₃/TiO₂ photocatalyst retained its activity over three successive cycles with only a slight decrease in efficiency. The photocatalytic degradation of both organic pollutants followed first-order kinetics with all photocatalysts. The investigation included SEM imaging to assess the surface homogeneity of the thin films and UV-vis solid-state spectroscopy to evaluate the impact of the additives on the energy band gap of TiO₂. Full article

Highly efficient surface acoustic wave (SAW) transducers offer significant advantages for microfluidic atomization. Aiming at highly efficient atomization, we innovatively accomplish dual-surface simultaneous atomization by strategically positioning the liquid supply outside the IDT aperture edge. Initially, we optimize Lamb wave transducers and specifically investigate their performance based on the ratio of substrate thickness to acoustic wavelength. When this ratio $h/\lambda$ is approximately 1.25, the electromechanical coupling coefficient of A₀-mode Lamb waves can reach around 5.5% for 128° Y-X LiNbO₃. We then study the mechanism of droplet atomization with the liquid supply positioned outside the IDT aperture edge. Experimental results demonstrate that optimized Lamb wave transducers exhibit clear dual-surface simultaneous atomization. These transducers provide equivalent amplitude acoustic wave vibrations on both surfaces, causing the liquid thin film to accumulate at the edges of the dual-surface and form a continuous mist. Full article

(Cu,C)Ba₂Ca₃Cu₄O_y is a nontoxic cuprate superconducting material with a superconducting transition temperature of about 116 K. Recently, it was found that bulk samples of this material synthesized under high pressure hold the highest irreversibility line among all the superconductors, which is very promising for its application in the liquid nitrogen temperature field. In this work, high-temperature (Cu,C)Ba₂Ca₃Cu₄O_y superconducting films with large irreversible fields were prepared on SrLaAlO₄(00l) substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The substrate temperature during deposition proved to be the most important parameter determining the morphology and critical temperature of the superconductors, with 680 °C considered to be the optimum temperature. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results showed that the (Cu,C)Ba₂Ca₃Cu₄O_y films prepared under optimal conditions exhibited epitaxial growth with the a-axis perpendicular to the film surface and the b- and c-axes parallel to the substrate, with no evidence of any other orientation. In addition, resistivity measurements showed that the onset transition temperature (T_c^onset) was approximately 116 K, the zero-resistance critical temperature (T_c0) was around 53 K, and the irreversible field (H_irr) was about 9 T at 37 K for (Cu,C)Ba₂Ca₃Cu₄O_y films under optimal temperature. This is the first example of the successful growth of superconducting (Cu,C)Ba₂Ca₃Cu₄O_y films on SrLaAlO₄(00l) substrates. This will facilitate high-performance applications of (Cu,C)Ba₂Ca₃Cu₄O_y superconducting materials in the liquid nitrogen temperature field. Full article

High-throughput methods are extremely important in today’s materials science, especially in the case of thin film characterization. The micro-combinatorial method enables the deposition and characterization of entire multicomponent thin film systems within a single sample. In this paper, we report the application of this method for the comprehensive TEM characterization of the Y-Ti-O layer system. Variable composition samples (Y_xTi_1−xO_y) were prepared by dual DC magnetron sputtering, covering the entire (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) concentration range. The structure and morphology of phases formed in both as-deposited and annealed samples at 600, 700, and 800 °C were revealed as a function of Y-Ti composition (x). A comprehensive map showing the appropriate amorphous and crystalline phases, and their occurrence regions of the whole Y-Ti-O layer system, was revealed. Thanks to the applied method, it was shown with ease that at the given experimental conditions, the Y₂Ti₂O₇ phase with a pyrochlore structure forms already at 700 °C without the TiO₂ and Y₂O₃ by-phases, which is remarkably lower than the required temperature for most physical preparation methods, demonstrating the importance and benefits of creating phase maps in materials science and technology. Full article

This article presents lithium niobate (LiNbO₃) based on shear horizontal (SH0) resonators, utilizing a suspended structure, for radio frequency (RF) applications. It demonstrates the design, analysis, and fabrication of SH0 resonators based on a 36Y-cut LiNbO₃ thin film. The spurious-free SH0 resonator achieves an electromechanical coupling coefficient ($k_t^2$) of 42.67% and a quality factor (Q_r) of 254 at the wave-propagating orientation of 0° in the 36Y-cut plane. Full article

In the present work, an insight on the morpho/structural properties of semitransparent organic devices for buildings’ integrated photovoltaics is presented, and issues related to interface and bulk stability are addressed. The organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells under investigation are characterized by a blend of PM6:Y6 as a photo-active layer, a ZnO ETL (electron transporting layer), a HTL (hole transporting layer) of HTL-X and a transparent electrode composed by Ag nanowires (AgNWs). The devices’ active nanomaterials, processed as thin films, and their mutual nanoscale interfaces are investigated by a combination of in situ Energy Dispersive X-ray Reflectometry (EDXR) and ex situ Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and micro-Raman spectroscopy. In order to discriminate among diverse concomitant aging pathways potentially occurring upon working conditions, the effects of different stress factors were investigated: light and temperature. Evidence is gained of an essential structural stability, although an increased roughness at the ZnO/PM6:Y6 interface is deduced by EDXR measurements. On the contrary, an overall stability of the system subjected to thermal stress in the dark was observed, which is a clear indication of the photo-induced origin of the observed degradation phenomenon. Micro-Raman spectroscopy brings light on the origin of such effect, evidencing a photo-oxidation process of the active material in the device, using hygroscopic organic HTL, during continuous illumination in ambient moisture conditions. The process may be also triggered by a photocatalytic role of the ZnO layer. Therefore, an alternative configuration is proposed, where the hygroscopic HTL-X is replaced by the inorganic compound MoOx. The results show that such alternative configuration is stable under light stress (solar simulator), suggesting that the use of Molybdenum Oxide, limiting the photo-oxidation of the bulk PM6:Y6 active material, can prevent the cell from degradation. Full article

The strain engineering effects induced by different means, e.g., the substrate lattice mismatch and/or chemical doping, on the functional properties of perovskite thin films have triggered interest in the use of these materials in different applications such as energy storage/generation or photonics. The effects of the film’s thickness and strain state of the structure for the lead-free perovskite ferrite-based materials (BiFeO₃-BFO; Y-doped BiFeO₃-BYFO; LaFeO₃-LFO) on their functional properties are highlighted here. As was previously demonstrated, the dielectric properties of BFO epitaxial thin films are strongly affected by the film thickness and by the epitaxial strain induced by the lattice mismatch between substrate and film. Doping the BiFeO₃ ferroelectric perovskite with rare-earth elements or inducing a high level of structural deformation into the crystalline structure of LaFeO₃ thin films have allowed the tuning of functional properties of these materials, such as dielectric, optical or photocatalytic ones. These changes are presented in relation to the appearance of complex ensembles of nanoscale phase/nanodomains within the epitaxial films due to strain engineering. However, it is a challenge to maintain the same level of epitaxial strain present in ultrathin films (<10 nm) and to preserve or tune the positive effects in films of thicknesses usually higher than 30 nm. Full article

The preparation of semiconducting carbon nanotube (s-CNT) thin films by solution processing has become the mainstream approach nowadays. However, residual polymers are always inevitable during the sorting of s-CNTs in solution. These residual polymers will degrade the electrical properties of the CNTs. Although several post-treatment approaches have been reported to be effective in improving the performance of the device, there is no deep analysis and comprehensive comparison of these approaches, so there is no overall guidance on the optimum treatment of CNTs for performance improvement. In this work, we characterize CNT thin film with three post-treatment methods, including annealing (A), yttrium oxide coating and decoating (Y), and annealing combined with YOCD (A + Y), and evaluate and compare the performance of Field Effect Transistors (FETs) based on the above mentioned CNT thin film. The result shows that the CNT thin film treated by the A + Y method is the clearest and flattest; the average roughness determined from the overall AFM image is reduced by 28% (from 1.15–1.42 nm (O) to 0.826–1.03 nm (A + Y)), which is beneficial in improving the device contact quality, uniformity, and stability. The on-state current (I_on) of the FETs with CNTs treated by A, Y, and A + Y is improved by 1.2 times, 1.5 times, and 1.75 times, respectively, compared with that of FETs fabricated by untreated CNTs (O for original CNTs), indicating that the A + Y is the optimum post-treatment method for the A + Y and combines the effect of the other two methods. Accordingly, the contact and channel resistance (2R_c and R_ch) of the CNT FETs treated by different post-treatment methods including A, Y, and A + Y is reduced by 0.18/0.24 times, 0.37/0.32 times, and 0.48/0.41 times, respectively. The ratio of improvement in device performance is about 1:2 for the contact and channel sections for a transistor with a 500 nm channel length, and this ratio will go up further with the channel length scaling; together with the decay in the channel resistance optimization effect in the scaling device, it is necessary to adopt more methods to effectively reduce the contact resistance further. Full article

Improving thermal stability is of great importance for the industrialization of polymer solar cells (PSC). In this paper, we systematically investigated the high-temperature thermal annealing effect on the device performance of the state-of-the-art polymer:non-fullerene (PM6:Y6) solar cells with an inverted structure. Results revealed that the overall performance decay (19% decrease) was mainly due to the fast open-circuit voltage (V_OC, 10% decrease) and fill factor (FF, 10% decrease) decays whereas short circuit current (J_SC) was relatively stable upon annealing at 150 °C (0.5% decrease). Pre-annealing on the ZnO/PM6:Y6 at 150 °C before the completion of cell fabrication resulted in a 1.7% performance decrease, while annealing on the ZnO/PM6:Y6/MoO₃ films led to a 10.5% performance decay, indicating that the degradation at the PM6:Y6/MoO₃ interface is the main reason for the overall performance decay. The increased ideality factor and reduced built-in potential confirmed by dark J − V curve analysis further confirmed the increased interfacial charge recombination after thermal annealing. The interaction of PM6:Y6 and MoO₃ was proved by UV-Vis absorption and XPS measurements. Such deep chemical doping of PM6:Y6 led to unfavorable band alignment at the interface, which led to increased surface charge recombination and reduced built-in potential of the cells after thermal annealing. Inserting a thin C₆₀ layer between the PM6:Y6 and MoO₃ significantly improved the cells’ thermal stability, and less than 2% decay was measured for the optimized cell with 3 nm C₆₀. Full article

Safe, self-standing, all-solid-state batteries with improved solid electrolytes that have adequate mechanical strength, ionic conductivity, and electrochemical stability are strongly desired. Hybrid electrolytes comprising flexible polymers and highly conductive inorganic electrolytes must be compatible with soft thin films with high ionic conductivity. Herein, we propose a new type of solid electrolyte hybrid comprising a glass–ceramic inorganic electrolyte powder (Li_1+x+yAl_xTi_2−xSi_yP_3−yO₁₂; LICGC) in a poly(ethylene)oxide (PEO)-based polymer electrolyte that prevents decreases in ionic conductivity caused by grain boundary resistance. We investigated the cross-linking processes taking place in hybrid electrolytes. We also prepared chemically cross-linked PEO/LICGC and physically cross-linked poly(norbornene)/LICGC electrolytes, and evaluated them using thermal and electrochemical analyses, respectively. All of the obtained electrolyte systems were provided with homogenous, white, flexible, and self-standing thin films. The main ionic conductive phase changed from the polymer to the inorganic electrolyte at low temperatures (close to the glass transition temperature) as the LICGC concentration increased, and the Li⁺ ion transport number also improved. Cyclic voltammetry using [Li metal|Ni] cells revealed that Li was reversibly deposited/dissolved in the prepared hybrid electrolytes, which are expected to be used as new Li⁺-conductive solid electrolyte systems. Full article

Advances in information technology are hindered by energy dissipation from Joule losses associated with charge transport. In contrast, the process of information based on spin waves propagation (magnons) in magnetic materials is dissipationless. Low damping of spin wave excitations is essential to control the propagation length of magnons. Ferrimagnetic Y₃Fe₅O₁₂ garnets (YIG) exhibit the lowest magnetic damping constants. However, to attain the lowest damping constant, epitaxial growth of YIG on single crystal substrates of Gd₃Ga₅O₁₂ at elevated temperatures is required, which hinders their CMOS integration in electronic devices. Furthermore, their low saturation magnetization and magnetocrystalline anisotropy are challenging for nanoscale device applications. In the search for alternative material systems, polycrystalline ferromagnetic Co₂₅Fe₇₅ alloy films and ferrimagnetic spinel ferrites, such as MgAl_0.5Fe_1.5O₄ (MAFO), have emerged as potential candidates. Their damping constants are comparable, although they are at least one order of magnitude higher than YIG’s. However, Co₂₅Fe₇₅ alloy thin film growth is CMOS compatible, and its magnon diffusion length is 20× longer than in MAFO. In addition, MAFO requires epitaxial growth on lattice-matched MgAl₂O₄ substrates. We discuss the material properties that control the Gilbert damping constant in Co_xFe_1−x alloys and MAFO and conclude that Co_xFe_1−x alloy thin films bring us closer to the realization of the exploitation of spin waves for magnonics. Full article