High-Quality Few-Layer Graphene on Single-Crystalline SiC thin Film Grown on Affordable Wafer for Device Applications.

Graphene is promising for next-generation devices. However, one of the primary challenges in realizing these devices is the scalable growth of high-quality few-layer graphene (FLG) on device-type wafers; it is difficult to do so while balancing both quality and affordability. High-quality graphene is grown on expensive SiC bulk crystals, while graphene on SiC thin films grown on Si substrates (GOS) exhibits low quality but affordable cost.

Operation Mechanism of GaN-based Transistors Elucidated by Element-Specific X-ray Nanospectroscopy.

With the rapid depletion of communication-frequency resources, mainly due to the explosive spread of information communication devices for the internet of things, GaN-based high-frequency high-power transistors (GaN-HEMTs) have attracted considerable interest as one of the key devices that can operate in the high-frequency millimeter-wave band. However, GaN-HEMT operation is destabilized by current collapse phenomena arising from surface electron trapping (SET), which has not been fully understood thus far. Here, we conduct quantitative mechanistic studies on SET in GaN-HEMTs by applying element- and site-specific photoelectron nanospectroscopy to a GaN-HEMT device under operation.

Overcoming the efficiency limit of organic light-emitting diodes using ultra-thin and transparent graphene electrodes.

We propose an effective way to enhance the out-coupling efficiencies of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) using graphene as a transparent electrode. In this study, we investigated the detrimental adsorption and internal optics occurring in OLEDs with graphene anodes. The optical out-coupling efficiencies of previous OLEDs with transparent graphene electrodes barely exceeded those of OLEDs with conventional transparent electrodes because of the weak microcavity effect.

In Situ SR-XPS Observation of Ni-Assisted Low-Temperature Formation of Epitaxial Graphene on 3C-SiC/Si.

Low-temperature (~1073 K) formation of graphene was performed on Si substrates by using an ultrathin (2 nm) Ni layer deposited on a 3C-SiC thin film heteroepitaxially grown on a Si substrate. Angle-resolved, synchrotron-radiation X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (SR-XPS) results show that the stacking order is, from the surface to the bulk, Ni carbides(Ni3C/NiCx)/graphene/Ni/Ni silicides (Ni2Si/NiSi)/3C-SiC/Si. In situ SR-XPS during the graphitization annealing clarified that graphene is formed during the cooling stage.

Orbital-specific tunability of many-body effects in bilayer graphene by gate bias and metal contact.

Graphene, a 2D crystal bonded by π and σ orbitals, possesses excellent electronic properties that are promising for next-generation optoelectronic device applications. For these a precise understanding of quasiparticle behaviour near the Dirac point (DP) is indispensable because the vanishing density of states (DOS) near the DP enhances many-body effects, such as excitonic effects and the Anderson orthogonality catastrophe (AOC) which occur through the interactions of many conduction electrons with holes. These effects renormalize band dispersion and DOS, and therefore affect device performance.

In situ-grown hexagonal silicon nanocrystals in silicon carbide-based films.

Silicon nanocrystals (Si-NCs) were grown in situ in carbide-based film using a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition method. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy indicates that these nanocrystallites were embedded in an amorphous silicon carbide-based matrix. Electron diffraction pattern analyses revealed that the crystallites have a hexagonal-wurtzite silicon phase structure.

Surface Chemistry Involved in Epitaxy of Graphene on 3C-SiC(111)/Si(111).

Surface chemistry involved in the epitaxy of graphene by sublimating Si atoms from the surface of epitaxial 3C-SiC(111) thin films on Si(111) has been studied. The change in the surface composition during graphene epitaxy is monitored by in situ temperature-programmed desorption spectroscopy using deuterium as a probe (D(2)-TPD) and complementarily by ex situ Raman and C1s core-level spectroscopies. The surface of the 3C-SiC(111)/Si(111) is Si-terminated before the graphitization, and it becomes C-terminated via the formation of C-rich (6√3 × 6√3)R30° reconstruction as the graphitization proceeds, in a similar manner as the epitaxy of graphene on Si-terminated 6H-SiC(0001) proceeds.