ALBERT

Notes: Top synthetic spin valves with structure Ta/NiFe/CoFe/Cu/CoFe(P1)/Ru/CoFe(P2)/FeMn/Ta on Si (100) substrate with natural oxide were prepared by dc magnetron sputtering system. We have changed only the thickness of the free layer and the thickness difference (P1−P2) in the two ferromagnetic layers separated by Ru, and investigated the effect of magnetic film thickness on the interlayer coupling field in a spin valve with a synthetic antiferromagnet. As the free layer thickness decreased from 70 to 20 Å, the interlayer coupling field was increased due to the magnetostatic coupling (orange peel coupling). In the case of the thickness difference in the pinned layers, the interlayer coupling field agreed with the modified Néel model suggested in the top synthetic spin valve structures. However, in the case of tP1=tP2, and tP1=tP2+5 Å, it was found that the interlayer coupling field could not be explained by the modified Néel model. The deviation of the modified Néel model at the dip zone could be due to the large canting of the pinned layers, which depend on applied field and different thickness in synthetic antiferromagnetic structure. The dependence of Cu thickness on the interlayer coupling field was investigated and 10 Oe of the interlayer coupling field was obtained when the Cu thickness is 32 Å. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: We have fabricated a vertically aligned 4-domain nematic liquid crystal display cell with thin film transistor. Unlike the conventional method constructing 4-domain, i.e., protrusion and surrounding electrode which needs additional processes, in this study the pixel design forming 4-domain with interdigital electrodes is suggested. In the device, one pixel is divided into two parts. One part has a horizontal electric field in the vertical direction and the other part has a horizontal one in the horizontal direction. Such fields in the horizontal and vertical direction drive the liquid crystal director to tilt down in four directions. In this article, the electro-optic characteristics of cells with 2 and 4 domain have been studied. The device with 4 domain shows faster response time than normal twisted-nematic and in-plane switching cells, wide viewing angle with optical compensation film, and more stable color characteristics than 2-domain vertical alignment cell with similar structure. © 2000 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: The enhanced positive magnetoresistance effect has been observed in GaAs containing nanoscale magnetic clusters. The ferromagnetic metallic clusters were embedded into GaAs by Mn ion implantation and rapid thermal annealing. Positive magnetoresistance in these structures has been observed and attributed to the enhanced geometric magnetoresistance effect in inhomogeneous semiconductors with metallic inclusions. The additional enhancement of positive magnetoresistance under light illumination is due to the higher mobility of photoexcited electrons in comparison with the mobility of holes in p-type GaAs prepared by Mn ion implantation. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: The changes in soft magnetic properties on amorphous Fe73.5Cu1Nb3Si13.5B9 alloy after neutron irradiation are studied by complex permeability spectra, magnetoimpedance ions and M–H curve measurements. The total integration fluence of fast neutrons (nf,En〉1 MeV) is varied from 1.92×1014nf cm−2 to 4.85×1016nf cm−2. Two different types of relaxation processes in permeability spectra, which were observed in low and high frequency regions, are related to the domain wall motion and the rotational magnetization, respectively. As neutron irradiation fluence increases, the permeability due to domain wall motion decreases but the permeability due to rotational magnetization increases. The anisotropy field estimated from magnetoimpedance profile decreases with neutron irradiation fluence. The measurement of M–H curves shows the improvement of softness after neutron irradiation of 4.85×1016nf cm−2, due to the enhancement of rotational magnetization. © 2000 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: We use a combination of in situ and postdeposition experimental probes together with ab initio calculations of strain coefficients and formation energies associated with specific C configurations in the Si lattice to determine C incorporation pathways and lattice site distributions in fully coherent Si1−yCy alloy layers grown by molecular-beam epitaxy on Si(001) as a function of deposition temperature Ts (380 °C–680 °C) and C fraction y (0–0.026). Lattice strain and Raman spectroscopy measurements demonstrate that all C, irrespective of y, is incorporated into substitutional lattice sites in Si1−yCy(001) layers grown at Ts≤480 °C. Increasing Ts≥580 °C leads to strong C surface segregation, as shown by in situ angle-resolved x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, yielding additional pathways for C incorporation. Photoluminescence measurements indicate that an increasing fraction of the incorporated C in the higher-temperature layers resides in dicarbon complexes. Reflection high-energy electron diffraction and cross sectional transmission electron microscopy reveal surface roughening at Ts≥580 °C with the formation of bulk planar structures, interconnected by {113} segments, that are periodic along [001] with a periodicity which decreases with increasing Ts. We interpret the planar structures as layers of C-rich Si1−yCy which form in the presence of excess surface C resulting from segregation. Our ab initio density functional calculations show that substitutional C arranged in an ordered Si4C phase is 0.34 eV per C atom more stable than isolated substitutional C atoms. © 2002 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: Highly oriented indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films were grown by pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) on glass and single-crystal yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) substrates. The structural, electrical, and optical properties of these films were investigated as a function of oxygen partial pressure. Films were deposited at substrate temperature of 300 °C in mixed gases (12 mTorr of argon and 1–50 mTorr of oxygen) using a KrF excimer laser (248 nm and 30 ns full width at half maximum) at a fluence of 1.2 J/cm2. ITO films (300 nm thick), deposited by PLD on YSZ at 300 °C in a gas mixture of 12 mTorr of argon and 6 mTorr of oxygen, exhibit a low electrical resistivity (1.6×10−4 Ω cm) with a high transparency (∼74%) at 550 nm. ITO films deposited on both glass and YSZ substrates have been used as an anode contact in organic light-emitting diodes. A comparison of the device performance for the two substrates shows that the device fabricated on the ITO/YSZ has a higher external quantum efficiency than that of the device fabricated on the ITO glass.

Notes: Electromagnetic properties of an Ag2O doped and an undoped BiPbSrCaCuO superconductor were evaluated to investigate the effect of the pinning center on the magnetic shielding and suspension/levitation phenomena. The residual magnetization M=M+–M− increased with the dopant concentration, a maximum for 2% doping, wherein a fine uniform dispersion of Ag particles was observed. The fine Ag particles form a cluster with increasing dopant as the particles condense with each other and grow, consequently does the number of flux passing through decreases, so the magnetization M decreases. This result indicates that M is proportional to the number of magnetic flux lines passing through the sample, because the smaller the particle size the larger the ratio of the surface area to the volume. Magnetic shielding was evaluated by measuring the induced voltage in the secondary coil by placing the sample in between the primary coil. The voltage was initially set to 0.5 V, and decreased to 0.17 and 0.28 V, respectively, for the undoped and 2% Ag2O doped samples. The much less change in the induced voltage for the 2% doped sample is attributed to increased flux shielding by shielding the vortex current. Simultaneous stable levitation and suspension of 2% Ag2O doped disk samples weighing 0.3 g were observed, respectively, above (3 mm) and beneath (2 mm) a toroidal permanent magnet under a field cooled condition. The role of flux pinning is discussed to account for the phenomena by considering the hysteretic force function. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: The effects of As doping, at concentrations CAs≤4.8×1018 cm−3, on the growth kinetics of Si(001):As layers deposited at temperatures Ts=575–900 °C by gas-source molecular-beam epitaxy from Si2H6 and AsH3 have been investigated. With constant AsH3 and Si2H6 fluxes, film deposition rates RSi increase while CAs decreases with increasing Ts. All incorporated As resides at substitutional electrically active sites for CAs up to 3.8×1018 cm−3 (Ts=800 °C), the highest value yet reported for Si(001):As growth from hydride source gases. Immediately following film growth or partial-monolayer As adsorption on clean Si(001), the samples were quenched to 300 °C and exposed to atomic deuterium (D) until saturation coverage. In situ D2 temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) spectra from both as-deposited Si(001):As and As-adsorbed Si(001) layers are composed of β1 and β2 peaks, due to D2 desorption from Si monodeuteride and dideuteride surface phases, together with a new peak β3 which we attribute to desorption from Si–As mixed dimers. Analyses of the TPD spectra show that, because of the lone-pair electrons associated with each As surface atom, the total dangling-bond coverage, and hence RSi, decreases with increasing incoming flux JAsH3 at constant Ts. From measurements of the steady-state As surface coverage θAs vs CAs and Ts, we obtain an As surface segregation enthalpy ΔHs=−0.92 eV. Dissociative AsH3 adsorption on Si(001) was found to follow second-order kinetics with a relatively Ts-independent reactive sticking probability of 0.3. Associative As2 desorption is also second order with a rate constant kd,As2=1×1013 exp(−3.0 eV/kTs). From the combined set of results, we develop a predictive model with no fitting parameters for CAs vs JAsH3, JSi2H6, and Ts. © 2000 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: The magnetic and structural properties of as-sputtered nanocrystalline Fe–Al–O films, fabricated by a magnetron sputtering apparatus, are investigated as a function of the sputtering input power and the contents of Al and oxygen. A nanocrystalline Fe88.5Al3.5O8.0 film is found to have 4πMs of 18.2 kG, Hc of 0.6 Oe, μeff of 4600 up to 100 MHz. These excellent soft magnetic properties and high frequency characteristics result from nanocrystalline structure, high electrical resistivity, and moderate anisotropy field. These values are sufficient to apply to a high-density recording head. © 2000 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: Fully-coherent Si0.7Ge0.3 layers were deposited on Si(001) by gas-source molecular beam epitaxy (GS-MBE) from Ge2H6/Si2H6 mixtures in order to probe the effect of steady-state hydrogen coverages θH on surface morphological evolution during the growth of compressively strained films. The layers are grown as a function of thickness t at temperatures, Ts=450–550 °C, for which strain-induced roughening is observed during solid-source MBE (SS-MBE) and deposition from hyperthermal beams. With GS-MBE, we obtain three-dimensional (3D) strain-induced growth mounds in samples deposited at Ts=550 °C for which θH is small, 0.11 monolayer (ML). However, mound formation is dramatically suppressed at 500 °C (θH=0.26 ML) and completely eliminated at 450 °C (θH=0.52 ML). We attribute these large differences in surface morphological evolution primarily to θH(Ts)-induced effects on film growth rates R, adatom diffusion rates Ds, and ascending step-crossing probabilities. GS-MBE Si0.7Ge0.3(001) growth at 450 °C remains two dimensional, with a surface width 〈w〉〈0.15 nm, at all film thicknesses t=11–80 nm, since both R and the rate of mass transport across ascending steps are low. Raising Ts to 500 °C increases R faster than Ds leading to shorter mean surface diffusion lengths and the formation of extremely shallow, rounded growth mounds for which 〈w〉 remains essentially constant at (similar, equals)0.2 nm while the in-plane coherence length 〈d〉 increases from (similar, equals)70 nm at t=14 nm to 162 nm with t=75 nm. The low ascending step crossing probability at 500 °C results in mounds that spread laterally, rather than vertically, due to preferential attachment at the mound edges. At Ts=550 °C, the ascending step crossing probability increases due to both higher thermal activation and lower hydrogen coverages. 〈w〉(t) increases by more than a factor of 10, from 0.13 nm at t=15 nm to 1.9 nm at t=105 nm, while the in-plane coherence length 〈d〉 remains constant at (similar, equals)85 nm. This leads, under the strain driving force, to the formation of self-organized 3D {105}-faceted pyramids at 550 °C which are very similar to those observed during SS-MBE. © 2002 American Institute of Physics.