The microwave response of MgB2 /Al2O3 superconducting thin films

Microwave characteristics of MgB2/Al2O3 superconducting thin films were investigated by coplanar resonator technique. The thin films studied have different grain sizes resulting from different growth techniques. The experimental results can be described very well by a grain-size model which combines coplanar resonator theory and Josephson junction network model. It was found that the penetration depth and surface resistance of thin films with smaller grain sizes are larger than those of thin films with larger grain sizes.

Research of Trap and Electron Density Distributions in the Interface of Polyimide/Al2O3 Nanocomposite Films Based on IDC and SAXS

The distributions of traps and electron density in the interfaces between polyimide （PI） matrix and Al2O3 nanoparticles are researched using the isothermal decay current and the small-angle x-ray scattering （SAXS） tests. According to the electron density distribution for quasi two-phase mixture doped by spherical nanoparticles, the electron densities in the interfaces of PI/Al2O3 nanocomposite films are evaluated. The trap level density and carrier mobility in the interface are studied. The experimental results show that the distribution and the change rate of the electron density in the three layers of interface are different, indicating different trap distributions in the interface layers. There is a maximum trap level density in the second layer, where the maximum trap level density for the nanocomposite film doped by 25 wt% is 1.054 × 10^22 eV·m^-3 at 1.324eV, resulting in the carrier mobility reducing. In addition, both the thickness and the electron density of the nanocomposite film interface increase with the addition of the doped Al2O3 contents. Through the study on the trap level distribution in the interface, it is possible to further analyze the insulation mechanism and to improve the performance of nano-dielectric materials.

Electron Cyclotron Resonance Plasma-Assisted Atomic Layer Deposition of Amorphous Al_2O_3 Thin Films

Without extra heating, Al2O3 thin films were deposited on a hydrogen-terminated Si substrate etched in hydrofluoric acid by using a self-built electron cyclotron resonance （ECR） plasma-assisted atomic layer deposition （ALD） device with Al（CH3）3 （trimethylaluminum; TMA） and O2 used as precursor and oxidant, respectively. During the deposition process, Ar was in- troduced as a carrier and purging gas. The chemical composition and microstructure of the as-deposited Al2O3 films were characterized by using X-ray diffraction （XRD）, an X-ray photo- electric spectroscope （XPS）, a scanning electron microscope （SEM）, an atomic force microscope （AFM） and a high-resolution transmission electron microscope （HRTEM）. It achieved a growth rate of 0.24 nm/cycle, which is much higher than that deposited by thermal ALD. It was found that the smooth surface thin film was amorphous alumina, and an interfacial layer formed with a thickness of ca. 2 nm was observed between theAl2O3 film and substrate Si by HRTEM. We conclude that ECR plasma-assisted ALD can growAl2O3 films with an excellent quality at a high growth rate at ambient temperature.

Plasma-Assisted ALD of an Al_2O_3 Permeation Barrier Layer on Plastic

Atomic layer deposition （ALD） technique is used in the preparation of organic/inorganic layers, which requires uniform surfaces with their thickness down to several nanometers. For film with such thickness, the growth mode defined as the arrangement of clusters on the surface during the growth is of significance. In this work, Al2O3 thin film was deposited on various interfacial species of pre-treated polyethylene terephthalate （PET, 12 μm） by plasma assisted atomic layer deposition （PA-ALD）, where trimethyl aluminium was used as the Al precursor and O2 as the oxygen source. The interracial species, -NH3, -OH, and -COOH as well as SiCHO （derived from monomer of HMDSO plasma）, were grafted previously by plasma and chemical treatments. The growth mode of PA-ALD Al2O3 was then investigated in detail by combining results from in-situ diagnosis of spectroscopic ellipsometry （SE） and ex-situ characterization of as-deposited layers from the morphologies scanned by atomic force microscopy （AFM）. In addition, the oxygen transmission rates （OTR） of the original and treated plastic films were measured. The possible reasons for the dependence of the OTR values on the surface species were explored.

Enhancing the thermal conductivity of polymer-assisted deposited Al_2O_3 film by nitrogen doping

Polymer-assisted deposition technique has been used to deposit Al2O3 and N-doped Al2O3 （AION） thin films on Si（100） substrates. The chemical compositions, crystallinity, and thermal conductivity of the as-grown films have been characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy （XPS）, X-ray diffraction （XRD）, and 3-omega method, respectively. Amorphous and polycrystalline Al2O3 and AlON thin films have been formed at 700 ℃ and 1000 ℃. The thermal conductivity results indicated that the effect of nitrogen doping on the thermal conductivity is determined by the competition of the increase of Al-N bonding and the suppression of crystallinity. A 67% enhancement in thermal conductivity has been achieved for the samples grown at 700 ℃, demonstrating that the nitrogen doping is an effective way to improve the thermal performance of polymer-assisted-deposited Al2O3 thin films at a relatively low growth temperature.

Low voltage organic devices and circuits with aluminum oxide thin film dielectric layer

Low voltage operating organic devices and circuits have been realized using atomic layer deposition deposited aluminum oxide thin film as dielectric layer. The dielectric film has per unit area capacitance of 165 nF/cm2 and leakage current of 1 nA/cm2 at 1 MV/cm. The devices and circuits use the small-molecule hydrocarbon pentacene as the active semiconductor material. Transistors,inverters,and ring oscillators with operating voltage lower than 5 V were obtained. The mobility of organic field-effect transistors was extracted to be 0.16 cm2/Vs in saturation range,the threshold voltage is 0.3 V,and the on/off current ratio is larger than 105. The gain of inverters is estimated to be 12 at -5 V supply voltage,and the propagation delay is 0.25 ms per stage in 5-stage ring oscillators.