Room temperature synthesis of HfO2/HfO x heterostructures by ion-implantation.

Implantation of Hf films with oxygen ions is shown to be an effective means of fabricating high-quality HfO2/HfO x heterostructures at room temperature, with the layer composition and thicknesses determined by the ion energy and fluence. Implantation with 3 keV O+ ions to a fluence of 1 × 1017 ions cm-2 produces a polycrystalline (monoclinic-) HfO2 layer extending from the surface to a depth of ∼12 nm, and an underlying graded HfO x layer extending an additional ∼7 nm, while implantation with 6 keV O to a similar fluence produces a near-stoichiometric surface layer of 7 nm thickness and a graded substoichiometric layer extending to depth of ∼30 nm. These structures are shown to be broadly consistent with oxygen range data but more detailed comparison with dynamic Monte Carlo simulations suggests that the near-surface region contains more oxygen than expected from collisional processes alone. The bandgap and dielectric strength of the HfO2 layer produced by 3 keV; 1 × 1017 ions cm-2 implant is shown to be indistinguishable from those of an amorphous film deposited by atomic layer deposition at 200 °C. The utility of these layers is demonstrated by studying the resistive switching properties of metal-oxide-metal test structures fabricated by depositing a top metal contact on the implanted film. These results demonstrate the suitability of ion-implantation for the synthesis of functional oxide layers at room temperature.

Coupling dynamics of Nb/Nb2O5 relaxation oscillators.

The coupling dynamics of capacitively coupled Nb/Nb2O5 relaxation oscillators are shown to exhibit rich collective behaviour depending on the negative differential resistance response of the individual devices, the operating voltage and the coupling capacitance. These coupled oscillators are shown to exhibit stable frequency and phase locking states at source voltages as low as 2.2 V, with frequency control in the range from 0.85 to 16.2 MHz and frequency tunability of ∼8 MHz V-1. The experimental realisation of such compact, scalable and low power coupled-oscillator systems is of particular significance for the development and implementation of large oscillator networks in non-Boolean computing architectures.

Spiral patterns of gold nanoclusters in silicon (100) produced by metal vapour vacuum arc implantation of gold ions.

Self-assembled gold nanoclusters are attractive building blocks for future nanoscale sensors and optical devices due to their exciting catalytic properties. In this work, we report direct bottom-up synthesis of spiral patterns of gold nanoclusters in silicon (100) substrates by Au ion implantation followed by thermal annealing. This unique phenomenon is observed only above a critical threshold implantation dose and annealing temperature. Systematic study by electron microscopy, analytical x-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy shows the temperature- and time-dependent nucleation, growth of Au nanoclusters and evolution of the spiral patterns. The observed patterns of gold nanoclusters bear a resemblance to the spiral growth prevalent in some directionally solidified eutectic alloys. Based on this systematic study of the growth and morphology of nanoclusters, a tentative model has been proposed for the formation mechanism of this unusual self-assembled pattern in an amorphous Si/Au system. This model shows that melting of the implanted layer is essential and without which no spiral patterns are observed. A better understanding of this self-assembly process will open up new ways to fabricate ordered arrays of gold nanoclusters in silicon substrates for seeding selective growth of one-dimensional nanostructures.