Suchergebnisse

In the present study, we investigate the impact of pulse power (Ppulse) on the ion flux and the properties of TiN films using reactive high-power impulse magnetron sputtering. Ppulse was adjusted in the range of 5–25 kW, while keeping the total average power constant through regulating the pulsing frequency. It is found that the required N2 flow, to produce stoichiometric TiN, decreases as Ppulse is increased, which is due to a decrease in the deposition rate. The plasma conditions when stoichiometric TiN is formed were investigated in detail. In situ ion mass spectrometry measurements of the ion energy distribution functions reveal two distinct ion populations, ions originating from sputtered atoms (Ti+, Ti2+, and N+) and ions originating from the working gas (Ar+, Ar2+, and N2+). The average ion energies (Eave) of the sputtered ions show an increase with increasing Ppulse, while Eave for the gas ions remains almost unaffected. The relative flux intensity Ti2+/Ti+ showed an increasing trend, from 0.28 to 0.47, as Ppulse was increased from 5 to 25 kW. The ion flux changes affect the growth of the TiN film such that 111-textured films are grown for low Ppulse while higher Ppulse results in mixed orientations. In addition, the hardness of the deposited film increases with increasing Ppulse, while the compressive film stress increases significantly at a higher Ppulse. In this way, optimum deposition conditions were identified at Ppulse = 8.3 kW, where a relatively low compressive stress of 0.89 GPa and high hardness of 22.67 GPa were measured. ; Funding agencies: Swedish Research CouncilSwedish Research Council [VR 2018-04139]; Swedish Government Strategic Research Area in Materials Science on Functional Materials at the Linkoping University (Faculty Grant SFO-Mat-LiU) [2009-00971]

The effects of a positive pulse following a high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) pulse are studied using energy-resolved mass spectrometry. This includes exploring the influence of a 200 mu s long positive voltage pulse (U-rev = 10-150 V) following a typical HiPIMS pulse on the ion-energy distribution function (IEDF) of the various ions. We find that a portion of the Ti+ flux is affected and gains an energy which corresponds to the acceleration over the full potential U-rev. The Ar+ IEDF on the other hand illustrates that a large fraction of the accelerated Ar+, gain energies corresponding to only a portion of U-rev. The Ti+ IEDFs are consistent with the assumption that practically all the TO-, that are accelerated during the reverse pulse, originates from a region adjacent to the target, in which the potential is uniformly increased with the applied potential U-rev while much of the Ar+ originates from a region further away from the target over which the potential drops from U-rev to a lower potential consistent with the plasma potential achieved without the application of U-rev. The deposition rate is only slightly affected and decreases with U-rev, reaching 90% at U-rev = 150 V. Both the Ti IEDF and the small deposition rate change indicate that the potential increase in the region close to the target is uniform and essentially free of electric fields, with the consequence that the motion of ions inside the region is not much influenced by the application of U-rev. In this situation, Ti will flow towards the outer boundary of the target adjacent region, with the momentum gained during the HiPIMS discharge pulse, independently of whether the positive pulse is applied or not. The metal ions that cross the boundary in the direction towards the substrate, and do this during the positive pulse, all gain an energy corresponding to the full positive applied potential U-rev. ; Funding Agencies|Swedish Research Council [VR 621-2014-4882]; Swedish Government Strategic Research Area in Materials Science on Functional materials at Linkoping University [2009-00971]

Plasmonic response of free charges confined in nanostructures of plasmonic materials is a powerful means for manipulating the light-material interaction at the nanoscale and hence has influence on various relevant technologies. In particular, plasmonic materials responsive in the mid-infrared range are technologically important as the mid-infrared is home to the vibrational resonance of molecules and also thermal radiation of hot objects. However, the development of the field is practically challenged with the lack of low-loss materials supporting high quality plasmons in this range of the spectrum. Here, we demonstrate that degenerately doped InN nanocrystals (NCs) support tunable and low-loss plasmon resonance spanning the entire midwave infrared range. Modulating free-carrier concentration is achieved by engineering nitrogen-vacancy defects (InN1-x, 0.017 amp;lt; x amp;lt; 0.085) in highly degenerate NCs using a nonequilibrium gas-phase growth process. Despite the significant reduction in the carrier mobility relative to intrinsic InN, the mobility in degenerate InN NCs (amp;gt;60 cm(2)/(V s)) remains considerably higher than the carrier mobility reported for other materials NCs such as doped metal oxides, chalcogenides, and noble metals. These findings demonstrate feasibility of controlled tuning of infrared plasmon resonances in a low-loss material of III-V compounds and open a gateway to further studies of these materials nanostructures for infrared plasmonic applications. ; Funding Agencies|Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation [KAW 14.0276]; Swedish Government Strategic Research Area in Materials Science on Functional Materials at Linkoping University (faculty Grant SFO-Mat-LiU) [2009-00971]; EPSRC [EP/M024938/1]

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water-splitting offers a promising method to convert the intermittent solar energy into renewable and storable chemical energy. However, the most studied semiconductors generally exhibit a poor PEC performance including low photocurrent, small photovoltage, and/or large onset potential. In this work, we demonstrate a significant enhancement of photovoltage and photocurrent together with a substantial decrease of onset potential by introducing electrocatalytic and p-type NiO nanoclusters on an n-type cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC) photoanode. Under AM1.5G 100 mW cm(-2) illumination, the NiO-coated 3C-SiC photoanode exhibits a photocurrent density of 1.01 mA cm(-2) at 0.55 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (V-RHE), a very low onset potential of 0.20 V-RHE and a high fill factor of 57% for PEC water splitting. Moreover, the 3C-SiC/NiO photoanode shows a high photovoltage of 1.0 V, which is the highest value among reported photovoltages. The faradaic efficiency measurements demonstrate that NiO also protects the 3C-SiC surface against photo-corrosion. The impedance measurements evidence that the 3C-SiC/NiO photoanode facilitates the charge transfer for water oxidation. The valence-band position measurements confirm the formation of the 3C-SiC/NiO p-n heterojunction, which promotes the separation of the photogenerated carriers and reduces carrier recombination, thus resulting in enhanced solar water-splitting. ; Funding Agencies|Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsradet) [621-2014-5461, 2018-04670, 621-2014-5825]; Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (FORMAS) [2016-00559]; Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (STINT) [CH2016-6722]; AForsk Foundation [16-399]; Stiftelsen Olle Engkvist Byggmastare [189-0243]; EU project CHALLENGE; Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation [KAW 2014.0276]; Swedish Government Strategic Research Area in Materials Science on Functional Materials at Linkoping University (Faculty Grant SFO Mat LiU) [2009 00971]

Efficient metal-ion-irradiation during film growth with the concurrent reduction of gas-ion-irradiation is realized for high power impulse magnetron sputtering by the use of a synchronized, but delayed, pulsed substrate bias. In this way, the growth of stress-free, single phase alpha -W thin films is demonstrated without additional substrate heating or post-annealing. By synchronizing the pulsed substrate bias to the metal-ion rich portion of the discharge, tungsten films with a 110 oriented crystal texture are obtained as compared to the 111 orientation obtained using a continuous substrate bias. At the same time, a reduction of Ar incorporation in the films are observed, resulting in the decrease of compressive film stress from sigma =1.80-1.43GPa when switching from continuous to synchronized bias. This trend is further enhanced by the increase of the synchronized bias voltage, whereby a much lower compressive stress sigma =0.71GPa is obtained at U-s=200V. In addition, switching the inert gas from Ar to Kr has led to fully relaxed, low tensile stress (0.03GPa) tungsten films with no measurable concentration of trapped gas atoms. Room-temperature electrical resistivity is correlated with the microstructural properties, showing lower resistivities for higher U-s and having the lowest resistivity (14.2 mu Omega cm) for the Kr sputtered tungsten films. These results illustrate the clear benefit of utilizing selective metal-ion-irradiation during film growth as an effective pathway to minimize the compressive stress induced by high-energetic gas ions/neutrals during low temperature growth of high melting temperature materials. ; Funding Agencies|Swedish Research CouncilSwedish Research CouncilEuropean Commission [VR 2018-04139]; Swedish Government Strategic Research Area in Materials Science on Functional Materials at Linkoping University [2009-00971]; Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT)Japan Society for the Promotion of Science [17KK0136]

Low-temperature epitaxial growth of refractory transition-metal nitride thin films by means of physical vapor deposition has been a recurring theme in advanced thin-film technology for several years. In the present study, 150-nm-thick epitaxial HfN layers are grown on MgO(001) by reactive high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) with no external substrate heating. Maximum film-growth temperatures T-s due to plasma heating range from 70 to 150 degrees C, corresponding to T-s/T-m = 0.10-0.12 (in which T-m is the HfN melting point in K). During HiPIMS, gas and sputtered metal-ion fluxes incident at the growing film surface are separated in time due to strong gas rarefaction and the transition to a metal-ion-dominated plasma. In the present experiments, a negative bias of 100 V is applied to the substrate, either continuously during the entire deposition or synchronized with the metal-rich portion of the ion flux. Two different sputtering-gas mixtures, Ar/N-2 and Kr/N-2, are employed in order to probe effects associated with the noble-gas mass and ionization potential. The combination of x-ray diffraction, high-resolution reciprocal-lattice maps, and high-resolution cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy analyses establishes that all HfN films have a cube-on-cube orientational relationship with the substrate, i.e., [001](HfN)parallel to[001](MgO) and (100)(HfN)parallel to(100)(MgO). Layers grown with a continuous substrate bias, in either Ar/N-2 or Kr/N-2, exhibit a relatively high mosaicity and a high concentration of trapped inert gas. In distinct contrast, layers grown in Kr/N-2 with the substrate bias synchronized to the metal-ion-rich portion of HiPIMS pulses have much lower mosaicity, no measurable inert-gas incorporation, and a hardness of 25.7 GPa, in good agreement with the results for epitaxial HfN(001) layers grown at T-s = 650 degrees C (T-s/T-m = 0.26). The room-temperature film resistivity is 70 mu Omega cm, which is 3.2-10 times lower than reported values for polycrystalline-HfN layers grown at T-s = 400 degrees C. (c) 2018 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). ; Funding Agencies|Swedish Research Council [VR 621-2014-4882]; Swedish Government Strategic Research Area in Materials Science on Functional Materials at Linkoping University (Faculty Grant SFO-Mat-LiU) [2009-00971]