Yb-doped amorphous carbon thin films were grown on Si substrates at low temperatures (<200 °C) by a simple one-step RF-PEMOCVD system as a potential photonic material for direct integration with Si CMOS back end-of-line processing. Room temperature photoluminescence around 1 µm was observed via direct incorporation of optically active Yb ions from the selected Yb(fod)₃ metal-organic compound. The partially fluorinated Yb(fod)₃ compound assists the suppression of photoluminescence quenching by substitution of C-H with C-F bonds.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe integration of photonic materials into CMOS processing involves the use of new materials. A simple one-step metal-organic radio frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition system (RF-PEMOCVD) was deployed to grow erbium-doped amorphous carbon thin films (a-C:(Er)) on Si substrates at low temperatures (<200 °C). A partially fluorinated metal-organic compound, tris(6,6,7,7,8,8,8-heptafluoro-2,2-dimethyl-3,5- octanedionate) Erbium(+III) or abbreviated Er(fod)₃, was incorporated into a-C based host.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMaterials (Basel)
September 2013
Nanoindentation-induced multiple pop-ins were observed in the load-displacement curves when the mechanical responses of AlN films grown on -plane sapphire substrates were investigated by using Berkovich indenters. No evidence of phase transformation is revealed by cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (XTEM) and selected area diffraction (SAD) analyses. Instead XTEM observations suggest that these "instabilities" resulted from the sudden nucleation of dislocations propagating along the slip systems lying on the {0001} basal planes and the pyramidal planes commonly observed in hexagonal compound semiconductors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNovel cone-shaped carbon nanofiber (CNF)/silicon carbide (SiC)-coated Si-nanocone (Si-NC) composite structures with excellent field emission (FE) performance have been fabricated by a simple microwave plasma chemical vapour deposition process. Transmission electron microscopy analyses reveal that the newly developed cone-shaped composite structures are composed of bamboo-like herringbone CNFs grown vertically on the tips of conical SiC layers with a flat-top Si cone embedded underneath. For this CNF/SiC-coated Si-NC composite array, a ultra-low threshold field of 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe goal of this research was to develop a chemical gas sensing device based on single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) networks. The SWCNT networks are synthesized on Al(2)O(3)-deposted SiO(2)/Si substrates with 10 nm-thick Fe as the catalyst precursor layer using microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD). The development of interconnected SWCNT networks can be exploited to recognize the identities of different chemical gases by the strength of their particular surface adsorptive and desorptive responses to various types of chemical vapors.
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