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- ItemNanometer-resolved mechanical properties around GaN crystal surface steps(Frankfurt, M. : Beilstein-Institut zur Förderung der Chemischen Wissenschaften, 2014) Buchwald, J.; Sarmanova, M.; Rauschenbach, B.; Mayr, S.G.The mechanical properties of surfaces and nanostructures deviate from their bulk counterparts due to surface stress and reduced dimensionality. Experimental indentation-based techniques present the challenge of measuring these effects, while avoiding artifacts caused by the measurement technique itself. We performed a molecular dynamics study to investigate the mechanical properties of a GaN step of only a few lattice constants step height and scrutinized its applicability to indentation experiments using a finite element approach (FEM). We show that the breakdown of half-space symmetry leads to an "artificial" reduction of the elastic properties of comparable lateral dimensions which overlays the effect of surface stress. Contact resonance atomic force microscopy (CR-AFM) was used to compare the simulation results with experiments.
- ItemTopography evolution of germanium thin films synthesized by pulsed laser deposition(New York, NY : American Inst. of Physics, 2017) Schumacher, P.; Mayr, S.G.; Rauschenbach, B.Germanium thin films were deposited by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) onto single crystal Ge (100) and Si (100) substrates with a native oxide film on the surface. The topography of the surface was investigated by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) to evaluate the scaling behavior of the surface roughness of amorphous and polycrystalline Ge films grown on substrates with different roughnesses. Roughness evolution was interpreted within the framework of stochastic rate equations for thin film growth. Here the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation was used to describe the smoothening process. Additionally, a roughening regime was observed in which 3-dimensional growth occurred. Diffusion of the deposited Ge adatoms controlled the growth of the amorphous Ge thin films. The growth of polycrystalline thin Ge films was dominated by diffusion processes only in the initial stage of the growth.
- ItemOn the growth of Co-doped BaFe2As2 thin films on CaF2(Bristol : IOP Publ., 2019) Langer, Marco; Meyer, Sven; Ackermann, Kai; Grünewald, Lukas; Kauffmann-Weiss, Sandra; Aswartham, Saicharan; Wurmehl, Sabine; Hänisch, Jens; Holzapfel, BernhardThe competition between phase formation of BaF2 and Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2 on CaF2 single crystals has been analysed. Ba(Fe0.92Co0.08)2As2 thin films have been deposited by pulsed laser deposition. X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy studies have revealed that the formation of secondary phases and misorientations as well as the growth modes of the Ba(Fe0.92Co0.08)2As2 thin films strongly depend on the growth rate. At high growth rates, formation of BaF2 is suppressed. The dependency of the Ba(Fe0.92Co0.08)2As2 lattice parameters supports the idea of fluorine diffusion into the crystal structure upon suppression of BaF2 formation similar as was proposed for FeSe1-xTex thin films on CaF2. Furthermore, a growth mode transition from a layer growth mechanism to a three-dimensional growth mode at high supersaturation has been found, suggesting similarities between the growth mechanism of iron-based superconductors and high-T c cuprate thin films. © 2019 Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.
- ItemWafer-level uniformity of atomic-layer-deposited niobium nitride thin films for quantum devices(New York, NY : Inst., 2021) Knehr, Emanuel; Ziegler, Mario; Linzen, Sven; Ilin, Konstantin; Schanz, Patrick; Plentz, Jonathan; Diegel, Marco; Schmidt, Heidemarie; Il’iche, Evgeni; Siegel, MichaelSuperconducting niobium nitride thin films are used for a variety of photon detectors, quantum devices, and superconducting electronics. Most of these applications require highly uniform films, for instance, when moving from single-pixel detectors to arrays with a large active area. Plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (ALD) of superconducting niobium nitride is a feasible option to produce high-quality, conformal thin films and has been demonstrated as a film deposition method to fabricate superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors before. Here, we explore the property spread of ALD-NbN across a 6-in. wafer area. Over the equivalent area of a 2-in. wafer, we measure a maximum deviation of 1% in critical temperature and 12% in switching current. Toward larger areas, structural characterizations indicate that changes in the crystal structure seem to be the limiting factor rather than film composition or impurities. The results show that ALD is suited to fabricate NbN thin films as a material for large-area detector arrays and for new detector designs and devices requiring uniform superconducting thin films with precise thickness control.
- ItemEvolution of planar defects during homoepitaxial growth of β-Ga2O3 layers on (100) substrates—A quantitative model(Melville, NY : American Inst. of Physics, 2016) Schewski, R.; Baldini, M.; Irmscher, K.; Fiedler, A.; Markurt, T.; Neuschulz, B.; Remmele, T.; Schulz, T.; Wagner, G.; Galazka, Z.; Albrecht, M.We study the homoepitaxial growth of β-Ga2O3 (100) grown by metal-organic vapour phase as dependent on miscut-angle vs. the c direction. Atomic force microscopy of layers grown on substrates with miscut-angles smaller than 2° reveals the growth proceeding through nucleation and growth of two-dimensional islands. With increasing miscut-angle, step meandering and finally step flow growth take place. While step-flow growth results in layers with high crystalline perfection, independent nucleation of two-dimensional islands causes double positioning on the (100) plane, resulting in twin lamellae and stacking mismatch boundaries. Applying nucleation theory in the mean field approach for vicinal surfaces, we can fit experimentally found values for the density of twin lamellae in epitaxial layers as dependent on the miscut-angle. The model yields a diffusion coefficient for Ga adatoms of D = 7 × 10−9 cm2 s−1 at a growth temperature of 850 °C, two orders of magnitude lower than the values published for GaAs.
- ItemPhenomenology of iron-assisted ion beam pattern formation on Si(001)(Bristol : IOP, 2011) MacKo, S.; Frost, F.; Engler, M.; Hirsch, D.; Höche, T.; Grenzer, J.; Michely, T.Pattern formation on Si(001) through 2 keV Kr+ ion beam erosion of Si(001) at an incident angle of # = 30° and in the presence of sputter codeposition or co-evaporation of Fe is investigated by using in situ scanning tunneling microscopy, ex situ atomic force microscopy and electron microscopy. The phenomenology of pattern formation is presented, and experiments are conducted to rule out or determine the processes of relevance in ion beam pattern formation on Si(001) with impurities. Special attention is given to the determination of morphological phase boundaries and their origin. Height fluctuations, local flux variations, induced chemical inhomogeneities, silicide formation and ensuing composition-dependent sputtering are found to be of relevance for pattern formation.
- ItemNanoscale mechanical surface properties of single crystalline martensitic Ni-Mn-Ga ferromagnetic shape memory alloys(Bristol : IOP, 2012) Jakob, A.M.; Müller, M.; Rauschenbach, B.; Mayr, S.G.Located beyond the resolution limit of nanoindentation, contact resonance atomic force microscopy (CR-AFM) is employed for nano-mechanical surface characterization of single crystalline 14M modulated martensitic Ni-Mn-Ga (NMG) thin films grown by magnetron sputter deposition on (001) MgO substrates. Comparing experimental indentation moduli-obtained with CR-AFM-with theoretical predictions based on density functional theory (DFT) indicates the central role of pseudo plasticity and inter-martensitic phase transitions. Spatially highly resolved mechanical imaging enables the visualization of twin boundaries and allows for the assessment of their impact on mechanical behavior at the nanoscale. The CR-AFM technique is also briefly reviewed. Its advantages and drawbacks are carefully addressed.
- ItemTowards deterministically controlled InGaAs/GaAs lateral quantum dot molecules(College Park, MD : Institute of Physics Publishing, 2008) Wang, L.; Rastelli, A.; Kiravittaya, S.; Atkinson, P.; Ding, F.; Bof Bufon, C.C.; Hermannstädter, C.; Witzany, M.; Beirne, G.J.; Michler, P.; Schmidt, O.G.We report on the fabrication, detailed characterization and modeling of lateral InGaAs quantum dot molecules (QDMs) embedded in a GaAs matrix and we discuss strategies to fully control their spatial configuration and electronic properties. The three-dimensional morphology of encapsulated QDMs was revealed by selective wet chemical etching of the GaAs top capping layer and subsequent imaging by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The AFM investigation showed that different overgrowth procedures have a profound consequence on the QDM height and shape. QDMs partially capped and annealed in situ for micro- photoluminescence spectroscopy consist of shallow but well-defined quantum dots (QDs) in contrast to misleading results usually provided by surface morphology measurements when they are buried by a thin GaAs layer. This uncapping approach is crucial for determining the QDM structural parameters, which are required for modeling the system. A single-band effective-mass approximation is employed to calculate the confined electron and heavy-hole energy levels, taking the geometry and structural information extracted from the uncapping experiments as inputs. The calculated transition energy of the single QDM shows good agreement with the experimentally observed values. By decreasing the edge-to-edge distance between the two QDs within a QDM, a splitting of the electron (hole) wavefunction into symmetric and antisymmetric states is observed, indicating the presence of lateral coupling. Site control of such lateral QDMs obtained by growth on a pre-patterned substrate, combined with a technology to fabricate gate structures at well-defined positions with respect to the QDMs, could lead to deterministically controlled devices based on QDMs. © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.
- ItemIron-assisted ion beam patterning of Si(001) in the crystalline regime(Bristol : IOP, 2012) Macko, S.; Grenzer, J.; Frost, F.; Engler, M.; Hirsch, D.; Fritzsche, M.; Mücklich, A.; Michely, T.We present ion beam erosion experiments on Si(001) with simultaneous sputter co-deposition of steel at 660 K. At this temperature, the sample remains within the crystalline regime during ion exposure and pattern formation takes place by phase separation of Si and iron-silicide. After an ion fluence of F ≈ 5.9×10 21 ions m -2, investigations by atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy identify sponge, segmented wall and pillar patterns with high aspect ratios and heights of up to 200 nm. Grazing incidence x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy reveal the structures to be composed of polycrystalline iron-silicide. The observed pattern formation is compared to that in the range of 140-440K under otherwise identical conditions, where a thin amorphous layer forms due to ion bombardment.
- ItemNanostructures on fused silica surfaces produced by ion beam sputtering with Al co-deposition(Heidelberg [u.a.] : Springer, 2017) Liu, Ying; Hirsch, Dietmar; Fechner, Renate; Hong, Yilin; Fu, Shaojun; Frost, Frank; Rauschenbach, BerndThe ion beam sputtering (IBS) of smooth mono-elemental Si with impurity co-deposition is extended to a pre-rippled binary compound surface of fused silica (SiO2). The dependence of the rms roughness and the deposited amount of Al on the distance from the Al source under Ar+ IBS with Al co-deposition was investigated on smooth SiO2, pre-rippled SiO2, and smooth Si surfaces, using atomic force microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Although the amounts of Al deposited on these three surfaces all decreased with increasing distance from the Al target, the morphology and rms roughness of the smooth Si surface did not demonstrate a strong distance dependence. In contrast to smooth Si, the rms roughness of both the smooth and pre-rippled SiO2 surfaces exhibited a similar distance evolution trend of increasing, decreasing, and final stabilization at the distance where the results were similar to those obtained without Al co-deposition. However, the pre-rippled SiO2 surfaces showed a stronger modulation of rms roughness than the smooth surfaces. At the incidence angles of 60° and 70°, dot-decorated ripples and roof-tiles were formed on the smooth SiO2 surfaces, respectively, whereas nanostructures of closely aligned grains and blazed facets were generated on the pre-rippled SiO2, respectively. The combination of impurity co-deposition with pre-rippled surfaces was found to facilitate the formation of novel types of nanostructures and morphological growth. The initial ripples act as a template to guide the preferential deposition of Al on the tops of the ripples or the ripple sides facing the Al wedge, but not in the valleys between the ripples, leading to 2D grains and quasi-blazed grating, which offer significant promise in optical applications. The rms roughness enhancement is attributed not to AlSi, but to AlOxFy compounds originating mainly from the Al source.