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A polarization-independent multilayer dielectric diffraction grating with a low aspect ratio and high diffraction efficiency was designed and fabricated. The diffraction grating designed with a grating density of 1200 lines/mm had an aspect ratio of 0.59, mean polarization-independent diffraction efficiency in the Littrow angle of ± 2.5 ∘ , and 1030–1080 nm wavelength range of 97.2%. The designed grating was fabricated using ion assisted deposition and reactive ion etching techniques. The mean polarization-independent diffraction efficiency of the fabricated grating was 96.1%, and its standard deviation was 0.68%. The fabricated diffraction grating was irradiated with a 1064 nm cw laser, with a power density of 30 k W / c m 2 , for 1 min to measure the temperature change before and after the laser application. It was verified that the temperature variation of the diffraction grating without heat treatment was 8.8°C, and the temperature variation after heat treatment at 400°C decreased to 2.3°C.

Straightforward growth of nanostructured low-bandgap materials is a key issue in mass production for electronic device applications. We report here facile nanowall growth of MoS2-MoSX using sputter deposition and investigate the electronic properties of the nanowalls. MoS2-MoSX nanowalls become gradually thicker and taller, with primarily (100)-plane growth directions, with increasing deposition time. Nanowalls combine with nearby walls when a rapid thermal annealing (RTA, 200 °C–500 °C) process is applied. All samples have conventional low-bandgap semiconductor behavior with exponential resistance increase as measurement temperature decreases. The 750 nm-thick MoS2-MoSX nanowalls have a sheet carrier mobility of up to 2 cm2·V−1·s−1 and bulk carrier concentration of ~1017–1019 cm−3 range depending on RTA temperature. Furthermore, perpendicular field-dependent magnetoresistance at 300 K shows negative magnetoresistance behavior, which displays resistance decay by applying a magnetic field (MR ratio in the −1 % range at 5 T). Interestingly, 400 °C RTA treated samples show a resistance upturn when applying an external magnetic field of more than 3 T. Our research suggests tuneability of MoS2 nanowall size and mesoscopic electronic transport properties.

Recently, silicon etching have received much attention for display industry, nano imprint technology, silicon photonics, and MEMS application. After the etching process, removing of etch mask and residue of sidewall is very important. The investigation of the etched mask removing was carried out by using the ashing, HF dipping and acid cleaning process. Experiment shows that oxygen component of reactive gas and photoresist react with silicon and converting them into the mask fence. It is very difficult to remove by using ashing or acid cleaning process because mask fence consisted of Si and O compounds. However, dilute HF dipping is very effective process for SiOx layer removing. Finally, we found optimized condition for etched mask removing.

During the etching process, the wafer surface temperature is an important parameter which influences the reaction probabilities of incident species, the vapor pressure of etch products, and the redeposition of reaction products on feature surfaces. In this study, the authors investigated that the effect of substrate temperature on the etch rate of Al2O3 thin film and selectivity of Al2O3 thin film over hard mask material (such as SiO2) thin film in inductively coupled plasma as functions of Cl2 addition in BCl3/Ar plasma, rf power, and dc-bias voltage based on the substrate temperature in range of 10–80 °C. The elements existed on the surface were analyzed by energy dispersive x-ray and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.

High-k thin lms (HfO2 and Al2O3) were etched in HBr/Ar high-density plasma. HfO2 and Al2O3 with high dielectric constants are promising candidates for the gates of metal-oxide-semiconductor devices. The maximum etch rates for HfO2 and Al2O3 were 49.1 nm/min and 42.5 nm/min, respectively. The etch rates of both HfO2 and Al2O3 thin lms were faster for higher contents of HBr. The chemical states of high-k thin lms were investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The comparisons of the as-deposited and the etched thin lms for Hf 4f , Al 2p and O 1s showed few changes in the peak shapes and their binding energies were moved to higher energy after exposure to a HBr plasma. No new peaks due to etching byproducts appeared. Clean side wall and the steep etch pro les for high-k thin lms could be obtained using a 100 % HBr plasma. These results indicate that HfO2 and Al2O3 thin lms can be e ectively removed by using a chemical etching process.

The etch of (NKN) thin film was performed in inductively coupled plasma. It was found that the 1sccm addition (5%) into plasma caused a non-monotonic behavior of the NKN etch rate. The maximum etch rate of NKN was 95.3 nm/min at (1 sccm)/ (16 sccm)/Ar (4 sccm), 800 W ICP power, 1 Pa pressure and 400 W bias power. The NKN etch rate shows a monotonic behavior a s the bias power increases. The analysis of the narrow scan spectra of XPS for both a s-deposited and etched NKN films allowed one to assume ion assisted etch mechanism. The most probable reason for the maximum etch rate can be defined as a concurrence of chemical and physical etch pathways.

In this study, we carried out an investigation of the etching characteristics (etch rate, selectivity to and ) of TiN thin films in the /Ar inductively coupled plasma. The maximum etch rate of for TiN thin films was obtained at (80%)/Ar(20%) gas mixing ratio. At the same time, the etch rate was measured as function of the etching parameters such as RF power, Bias power, and process pressure. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis showed an efficient destruction of the oxide bonds by the ion bombardment as well as showed an accumulation of low volatile reaction products on the etched surface. Based on these data, the ion-assisted chemical reaction was proposed as the main etch mechanism for the containing plasmas.

The ferroelectric Bi3.25La0.75Ti3O12 (BLT) thin film and HfO2 layer were fabricated using both metal-organic decomposition and atomic-layer deposition methods. The HfO2 thin film was deposited as a buffer layer between Si substrate and BLT thin films. The electrical and structural properties of the metal-ferroelectric-insulator-semiconductor (MFIS) structure were investigated by varying the HfO2 layer thickness. Transmission electron microscopy showed no interdiffusion and reaction occurring when the HfO2 film is used as a buffer layer. The width of the memory window in the capacitance-voltage curves for the MFIS structure was decreased with increasing thickness of the HfO2 buffer layer. The experimental results showed that the BLT-based MFIS structure is suitable for nonvolatile-memory field-effect transistors with a large memory window.

ZnS is an attractive material for future optical and electrical devices since it has a direct and wide band gap to provide blue emission at room temperature. In this study, inductively coupled plasma was used to etch ZnS:Mn thin films. The maximum etch rate of 164.2 nm/min for ZnS:Mn was obtained at a gas mixing ratio, an rf power of 700 W, a dc bias voltage of -200V, a total gas flow of 20 sccm, and a chamber pressure of 1Pa. The etch behaviors of ZnS:Mn thin films under various plasma parameters showed that the ZnS:Mn were effectively removed by the chemically assisted physical etching mechanism. The surface reaction of the ZnS:Mn thin films was investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The XPS analysis revealed that Mn had detected on the surface ZnS:Mn etched in plasma.

In this study, we carried out an investigation of the etching characteristics(etch rate, selectivity) of thin films in the inductively coupled plasma. It was found that variations of input power and negative dc-bias voltage are investigated by the monotonic changes of the etch rate as it generally expected from the corresponding variations of plasma parameters. At the same time, a change in either gas pressure or in gas mixing ratio result in non-monotonic etch rate that reaches a maximum at 2 Pa and for gas mixture, respectively. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis showed an efficient destruction of the oxide bonds by the ion bombardment as well as showed an accumulation of low volatile reaction products on the etched surface. Based on these data, the ion-assisted chemical reaction was proposed as the main etch mechanism for the plasmas.

The effect of Eu contents on the ferroelectric properties of (BET) thin films has been investigated. Bismuth Europium titanate thin films with a Eu contents were prepared on the substrate by metal-organic decomposition technique. The structure and the morphology of the films were analyzed using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning microscopy (FE-SEM), respectively. From the XRD analysis, it was found that BET thin films have polycrystalline structure, and the layered-perovskite phase is obtained when the Eu contents exceeds 0.2 (x > 0.2). Also, the ferroelectric characteristics of the BET thin films were found to be dependent on the Eu content. Particularly, the BET films doped with x

The development of anisotropic etching process for (Pb,Sr)TiO3 (PST) thin films is an important task to provide a small feature size and an accurate pattern transfer. Etching characteristics of PST thin films were investigated using inductively coupled plasma etching system as functions of Cl2∕Ar gas mixing ratio. The PST etch rate increased with the increase of chlorine radical and ion energy intensity. It was found that the increasing of Ar content in gas mixture lead to sufficient increasing of etch rate. The maximum etch rate of PST film is 56.2nm∕min at Cl2∕(Cl2+Ar) of 0.2. It was proposed that the sputter etching is a dominant etching mechanism while the contribution of chemical reaction is relatively low due to low volatility of etching products.

This article describes the synthesis and the purification of carbon nanotubes. Large quantities of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) with few defects and very small amount of amorphous carbon coating have been synthesized by catalytic decomposition of methane over well-dispersed iron particles supported on MgO at the temperature range from 800to1000°C. It was found that the quality of carbon nanotubes was slightly increased as increasing growth temperature while the yield was decreased to some degree. It was also found that the as-grown SWNTs can be separated easily from the support by a simple acidic treatment rather than thermal oxidation to obtain a product with high yields of SWNTs. Above 94wt% high purity SWNTs were obtained by combining two-step processes of thermal oxidation in air and acid treatment without multistep filtration. The as-grown and purified SWNTs were also characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, and Raman spectroscopy.

LaNiO3 (LNO) electrode was intensively studied as electrodes because LNO has a pseudocubic perovskite crystal structure with a lattice parameter of 3.84A. But the etching process of LNO thin films must be developed in order to realize highly integrated ferroelectric random access memories. In this work, we investigated etching characteristics and mechanisms of LNO thin films using inductively coupled BCl3∕Ar plasma (ICP) system. The maximum etch rate of LNO thin films was 41.1nm∕min at a BCl3(20)∕Ar(80) gas mixing ratio. The positive ions and the ion energy distributions were measured with a quadrupole mass spectrometer (QMS). As rf power and dc bias voltage increased and working pressure decreased, the ion energy and etch rates of LNO thin films were increased. A chemically assisted physical etch of LNO was experimentally confirmed by ICP system and QMS measurements.

The etching mechanism of (Bi4−xLax)Ti3O12 (BLT) thin films in Ar∕Cl2 inductively coupled plasma (ICP) was investigated as a function of gas mixing ratios, process pressure, and ICP powers at fixed other conditions. Etch rates were measured by using an α-step surface profiler. The maximum etch rate of BLT thin films was 117nm at 0.8 Ar∕(Ar+Cl2) gas mixing ratios with following conditions: process pressure of 15mTorr, gas flow rate of 20sccm, ICP power of 700W, and dc bias of −150V. The etch rate was increased as decreasing the process pressure. For a detailed investigation of etching mechanisms of BLT thin films, the ion energy distributions of each positive species were measured using quadrupole mass spectrometer and analyzed those data. Also the electron energy distribution was measured as a function of Ar∕Cl2 gas mixing ratios.

In this study (Pb,Sr)TiO3 (PST) thin films were etched with inductively coupled Cl2∕(Cl2+Ar) plasmas. The etch characteristics of PST thin films as a function of Cl2∕(Cl2+Ar) gas mixtures were analyzed by using a quadrupole mass spectrometer. Systematic studies were carried out as a function of the etching parameters, including the radio frequency power and the working pressure. The maximum PST film etch rate is 56.2nm∕min, because a small addition of Cl2 to the Cl2∕Ar mixture increased the chemical effect. It was proposed that sputter etching is the dominant etching mechanism while the contribution of a chemical reaction is relatively low due to low volatility of the etching products.

BST thin films were etched with inductively coupled CF/(Cl+Ar) plasmas. The etch characteristics of BST thin films as a function of CF/(Cl+Ar) gas mixtures were analyzed using optical emission spectroscopy (OES) and Langmuir probe. The BST films in CF/Cl/Ar plasma is mainly etched by the formation of metal chlorides which depends on the emission intensity of the atomic Cl and the bombarding ion energy. The maximum etch rate of the BST thin films was 53.6 nm/min because small addition of CF to the Cl/Ar mixture increased chemical and physical effect. A more fast etch rate of BST films can be obtained by increasing the DC bias and the RF power, and lowering the working pressure.

The investigations of the (Pb,Sr)TiO3 (PST) etching characteristics in CF4/Ar plasma were carried out using the inductively coupled plasma system. Experiments showed that an increase of the Ar mixing ratio under constant pressure and input power conditions leads to increasing etch rate of PST, which reaches a maximum of 740 A/min when the Ar is 80% of the gas mixture. To understand the etching mechanism, the surface state of the etched PST samples was investigated using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It was found that Pb and Ti atoms were removed mainly by the ion-assisted etching mechanism. At the same time, Sr forms extremely low volatile fluorides and therefore can be removed only by physical (sputter) etching.

We show that the temperature dependence of a silicon waveguide can be controlled well by using a slot waveguide structure filled with a polymer material. Without a slot, the amount of temperature-dependent wavelength shift for TE mode of a silicon waveguide ring resonator is very slightly reduced from 77 pm/ degrees C to 66 pm/ degrees C by using a polymer (WIR30-490) upper cladding instead of air upper cladding. With a slot filled with the same polymer, however, the reduction of the temperature dependence is improved by a pronounced amount and can be controlled down to -2 pm/ degrees C by adjusting several variables of the slot structure, such as the width of the slot between the pair of silicon wires, the width of the silicon wire pair, and the height of the silicon slab in our experiment. This measurement proves that a reduction in temperature dependence can be improved about 8 times more by using the slot structure.