Band Offset Measurements in Atomic-Layer-Deposited Al2O3/Zn0.8Al0.2O Heterojunction Studied by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy.

Pure aluminum oxide (Al2O3) and zinc aluminum oxide (Zn x Al1-x O) thin films were deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD). The microstructure and optical band gaps (E g ) of the Zn x Al1-x O (0.2 ≤ x ≤ 1) films were studied by X-ray diffractometer and Tauc method. The band offsets and alignment of atomic-layer-deposited Al2O3/Zn0.8Al0.2O heterojunction were investigated in detail using charge-corrected X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. In this work, different methodologies were adopted to recover the actual position of the core levels in insulator materials which were easily affected by differential charging phenomena. Valence band offset (ΔE V) and conduction band offset (ΔE C) for the interface of the Al2O3/Zn0.8Al0.2O heterojunction have been constructed. An accurate value of ΔE V = 0.82 ± 0.12 eV was obtained from various combinations of core levels of heterojunction with varied Al2O3 thickness. Given the experimental E g of 6.8 eV for Al2O3 and 5.29 eV for Zn0.8Al0.2O, a type-I heterojunction with a ΔE C of 0.69 ± 0.12 eV was found. The precise determination of the band alignment of Al2O3/Zn0.8Al0.2O heterojunction is of particular importance for gaining insight to the design of various electronic devices based on such heterointerface.

Nano-oxide thin films deposited via atomic layer deposition on microchannel plates.

Microchannel plate (MCP) as a key part is a kind of electron multiplied device applied in many scientific fields. Oxide thin films such as zinc oxide doped with aluminum oxide (ZnO:Al2O3) as conductive layer and pure aluminum oxide (Al2O3) as secondary electron emission (SEE) layer were prepared in the pores of MCP via atomic layer deposition (ALD) which is a method that can precisely control thin film thickness on a substrate with a high aspect ratio structure. In this paper, nano-oxide thin films ZnO:Al2O3 and Al2O3 were prepared onto varied kinds of substrates by ALD technique, and the morphology, element distribution, structure, and surface chemical states of samples were systematically investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS), respectively. Finally, electrical properties of an MCP device as a function of nano-oxide thin film thickness were firstly studied, and the electrical measurement results showed that the average gain of MCP was greater than 2,000 at DC 800 V with nano-oxide thin film thickness approximately 122 nm. During electrical measurement, current jitter was observed, and possible reasons were preliminarily proposed to explain the observed experimental phenomenon.