Single-Crystalline All-Oxide α-γ-ß Heterostructures for Deep-Ultraviolet Photodetection.

Recent advancements in gallium oxide (Ga2O3)-based heterostructures have allowed optoelectronic devices to be used extensively in the fields of power electronics and deep-ultraviolet photodetection. While most previous research has involved realizing single-crystalline Ga2O3 layers on native substrates for high conductivity and visible-light transparency, presented and investigated herein is a single-crystalline ß-Ga2O3 layer grown on an α-Al2O3 substrate through an interfacial γ-In2O3 layer. The single-crystalline transparent conductive oxide layer made of wafer-scalable γ-In2O3 provides high carrier transport, visible-light transparency, and antioxidation properties that are critical for realizing vertically oriented heterostructures for transparent oxide photonic platforms. Physical characterization based on X-ray diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy imaging confirms the single-crystalline nature of the grown films and the crystallographic orientation relationships among the monoclinic ß-Ga2O3, cubic γ-In2O3, and trigonal α-Al2O3, while the elemental composition and sharp interfaces across the heterostructure are confirmed by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry. Furthermore, the energy-band offsets are determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy at the ß-Ga2O3/γ-In2O3 interface, elucidating a type-II heterojunction with conduction- and valence-band offsets of 0.16 and 1.38 eV, respectively. Based on the single-crystalline ß-Ga2O3/γ-In2O3/α-Al2O3 all-oxide heterostructure, a vertically oriented DUV photodetector is fabricated that exhibits a high photoresponsivity of 94.3 A/W, an external quantum efficiency of 4.6 × 104%, and a specific detectivity of 3.09 × 1012 Jones at 250 nm. The present demonstration lays a strong foundation for and paves the way to future all-oxide-based transparent photonic platforms.

Deep-Ultraviolet Photodetection Using Single-Crystalline ß-Ga2O3/NiO Heterojunctions.

In recent years, ß-Ga2O3/NiO heterojunction diodes have been studied, but reports in the literature lack an investigation of an epitaxial growth process of high-quality single-crystalline ß-Ga2O3/NiO thin films via electron microscopy analysis and the fabrication and characterization of an optoelectronic device based on the resulting heterojunction stack. This work investigates the thin-film growth of a heterostructure stack comprising n-type ß-Ga2O3 and p-type cubic NiO layers grown consecutively on c-plane sapphire using pulsed laser deposition, as well as the fabrication of solar-blind ultraviolet-C photodetectors based on the resulting p-n junction heterodiodes. Several characterization techniques were employed to investigate the heterostructure, including X-ray crystallography, ion beam analysis, and high-resolution electron microscopy imaging. X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed the single-crystalline nature of the grown monoclinic and cubic (2̅01) ß-Ga2O3 and (111) NiO films, respectively, whereas electron microscopy analysis confirmed the sharp layer transitions and high interface qualities in the NiO/ß-Ga2O3/sapphire double-heterostructure stack. The photodetectors exhibited a peak spectral responsivity of 415 mA/W at 7 V reverse-bias voltage for a 260 nm incident-light wavelength and 46.5 pW/µm2 illuminating power density. Furthermore, we also determined the band offset parameters at the thermodynamically stable heterointerface between NiO and ß-Ga2O3 using high-resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The valence and conduction band offsets values were found to be 1.15 ± 0.10 and 0.19 ± 0.10 eV, respectively, with a type-I energy band alignment.

Impurities and Electronic Property Variations of Natural MoS2 Crystal Surfaces.

Room temperature X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS), high resolution Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (HR-RBS), Kelvin probe method, and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) are employed to study the properties of a freshly exfoliated surface of geological MoS2 crystals. Our findings reveal that the semiconductor 2H-MoS2 exhibits both n- and p-type behavior, and the work function as measured by the Kelvin probe is found to vary from 4.4 to 5.3 eV. The presence of impurities in parts-per-million (ppm) and a surface defect density of up to 8% of the total area could explain the variation of the Fermi level position. High resolution RBS data also show a large variation in the MoSx composition (1.8 < x < 2.05) at the surface. Thus, the variation in the conductivity, the work function, and stoichiometry across small areas of MoS2 will have to be controlled during crystal growth in order to provide high quality uniform materials for future device fabrication.

Ultrafast carrier trapping of a metal-doped titanium dioxide semiconductor revealed by femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy.

We explored for the first time the ultrafast carrier trapping of a metal-doped titanium dioxide (TiO2) semiconductor using broad-band transient absorption (TA) spectroscopy with 120 fs temporal resolution. Titanium dioxide was successfully doped layer-by-layer with two metal ions, namely tungsten and cobalt. The time-resolved data demonstrate clearly that the carrier trapping time decreases progressively as the doping concentration increases. A global-fitting procedure for the carrier trapping suggests the appearance of two time components: a fast one that is directly associated with carrier trapping to the defect state in the vicinity of the conduction band and a slow one that is attributed to carrier trapping to the deep-level state from the conduction band. With a relatively long doping deposition time on the order of 30 s, a carrier lifetime of about 1 ps is obtained. To confirm that the measured ultrafast carrier dynamics are associated with electron trapping by metal doping, we explored the carrier dynamics of undoped TiO2. The findings reported here may be useful for the implementation of high-speed optoelectronic applications and fast switching devices.

Integrating carbon nanotubes into silicon by means of vertical carbon nanotube field-effect transistors.

Single-walled carbon nanotubes have been integrated into silicon for use in vertical carbon nanotube field-effect transistors (CNTFETs). A unique feature of these devices is that a silicon substrate and a metal contact are used as the source and drain for the vertical transistors, respectively. These CNTFETs show very different characteristics from those fabricated with two metal contacts. Surprisingly, the transfer characteristics of the vertical CNTFETs can be either ambipolar or unipolar (p-type or n-type) depending on the sign of the drain voltage. Furthermore, the p-type/n-type character of the devices is defined by the doping type of the silicon substrate used in the fabrication process. A semiclassical model is used to simulate the performance of these CNTFETs by taking the conductance change of the Si contact under the gate voltage into consideration. The calculation results are consistent with the experimental observations.

Magnetism by interfacial hybridization and p-type doping of MoS(2) in Fe(4)N/MoS(2) superlattices: a first-principles study.

Magnetic and electronic properties of Fe4N(111)/MoS2(√3 × âˆš3) superlattices are investigated by first-principles calculations, considering two models: (I) Fe(I)Fe(II)-S and (II) N-S interfaces, each with six stacking configurations. In model I, strong interfacial hybridization between Fe(I)/Fe(II) and S results in magnetism of monolayer MoS2, with a magnetic moment of 0.33 µB for Mo located on top of Fe(I). For model II, no magnetism is induced due to weak N-S interfacial bonding, and the semiconducting nature of monolayer MoS2 is preserved. Charge transfer between MoS2 and N results in p-type MoS2 with Schottky barrier heights of 0.5-0.6 eV. Our results demonstrate that the interfacial geometry and hybridization can be used to tune the magnetism and doping in Fe4N(111)/MoS2(√3 × âˆš3) superlattices.

First principles prediction of the magnetic properties of Fe-X6 (X = S, C, N, O, F) doped monolayer MoS2.

Using first-principles calculations, we have investigated the electronic structure and magnetic properties of Fe-X6 clusters (X = S, C, N, O, and F) incorporated in 4 × 4 monolayer MoS2, where a Mo atom is substituted by Fe and its nearest S atoms are substituted by C, N, O, and F. Single Fe and Fe-F6 substituions make the system display half-metallic properties, Fe-C6 and Fe-N6 substitutions lead to a spin gapless semiconducting behavior, and Fe-O6 doped monolayer MoS2 is semiconducting. Magnetic moments of 1.93, 1.45, 3.18, 2.08, and 2.21 µB are obtained for X = S, C, N, O, and F, respectively. The different electronic and magnetic characters originate from hybridization between the X and Fe/Mo atoms. Our results suggest that cluster doping can be an efficient strategy for exploring two-dimensional diluted magnetic semiconductors.

Influence of contact height on the performance of vertically aligned carbon nanotube field-effect transistors.

Vertically aligned carbon nanotube field-effect transistors (CNTFETs) have been experimentally demonstrated (J. Li et al., Carbon, 2012, 50, 4628-4632). The source and drain contact heights in vertical CNTFETs could be much higher than in flat CNTFETs if the fabrication process is not optimized. To understand the impact of contact height on transistor performance, we use a semi-classical method to calculate the characteristics of CNTFETs with different contact heights. The results show that the drain current decreases with increasing contact height and saturates at a value governed by the thickness of the oxide. The current reduction caused by the increased contact height becomes more significant when the gate oxide is thicker. The higher the drain voltage, the larger the current reduction. It becomes even worse when the band gap of the carbon nanotube is larger. The current can differ by a factor of more than five between the CNTEFTs with low and high contact heights when the oxide thickness is 50 nm. In addition, the influence of the contact height is limited by the channel length. The contact height plays a minor role when the channel length is less than 100 nm.

Exchange coupling and its applications in magnetic data storage.

The continuing scaling of magnetic recording is facing more and more scientific and technological challenges because both the read sensor and recording bit are approaching sub-50 nm regime with the ever increasing areal density in hard disk drives. One of the key and indispensable elements for both high-sensitivity sensors and high-density media is the exchange bias between a ferromagnetic and an antiferromagnetic layer or the exchange coupling between two ferromagnets via a non-magnetic spacer. In the nanometer regime, the exchange coupling between ferromagnet and antiferromagnet or two ferromagnets through a conductive spacer is governed by the intergrain exchange interaction which has its origin in electron spins. Interlayer exchange coupling in multilayer or trilayer essentially originates from the quantum confinement effect. In this paper, we first review the physical origin and various theoretical models of the two types of exchange couplings, followed by a review of the applications of the exchange bias and interlayer exchange coupling in data storage with emphasis on the advanced read sensor and advanced media including perpendicular media and patterned media.

Magnetic random access memory (MRAM).

The high density and high speed nonvolatile MTJ MRAMs are reviewed from perspective of the reading and writing operation. The reading operation of the MRAM with different sensing schemes and cell array structures is discussed, in particular the reference resistance generating schemes which are introduced to maximize the cell efficiency and reading reliability. The high density, low cost cross-point cell layout structures are analyzed systematically. The writing operation modes ranging from the half-select, toggle mode, guided SAF direct writing, thermally assisted writing, to the spin transfer switching are investigated both theoretically and experimentally. The thermal factor always plays an important role in determine not only the thermal stability but also the reading and writing reliability.