Method for the Detailed Characterization of Cosputtered Inorganic Luminescent Material Libraries

Understanding the behavior of combinatorially developed luminescent materials requires detailed characterization methods that have been lacking thus far. We developed a device for directly surveying the luminescent properties of thin-film libraries created through combinatorial gradient sputter deposition. Step-scan recorded excitation-,...

Non-conducting interfaces of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 produced in sputter deposition: The role of stoichiometry

We have investigated the properties of interfaces between LaAlO3 films grown on SrTiO3 substrates singly terminated by TiO2. We used RF sputtering in a high-pressure oxygen atmosphere. The films are smooth, with flat surfaces. Transmission electron microscopy shows sharp and continuous interfaces with some slight intermixing. The elemental ratio...

Titanium nitride: A new Ohmic contact material for n-type CdS

In devices based on CdS, indium is often used to make Ohmic contacts. Since indium is scarce and expensive, suitable replacement materials need to be found. In this work, we show that sputtered titanium nitride forms an Ohmic contact with n-type CdS. The CdS films, deposited with chemical bath deposition, have a hexagonal crystal structure and...

Origin of an enhanced colossal magnetoresistance effect in epitaxial Nd0.52Sr0.48MnO3 thin films

Nd0.52Sr0.48MnO3 films of various thicknesses have been prepared by dc magnetron sputtering on single crystal LaAlO3 (001) substrates. Reducing the film thickness leads to a significant suppression of ferromagnetic (FM) ordering and the Curie point falls below the antiferromagnetic (AFM) transition temperature. When this occurs, a huge rise of...

Evidence of non-Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya ferromagnetism in epitaxial BiFeO3 films

X-ray diffraction analysis and high-resolution electron microscopy of BiFeO3 films prepared by dc magnetron sputtering on single-crystal LaAlO3 (001) substrates reveal that the films have a highly c-oriented orthorhombic crystalline structure. The magnetic properties of the BiFeO3 films are typical of ensembles of interacting superparamagnetic...

Two-dimensional growth, anisotropic polaron transport, and magnetic phase segregation in epitaxial Nd0.52Sr0.48MnO3 films

Nd0.52Sr0.48MnO3 films have been fabricated by dc magnetron sputtering on single-crystal LaAlO3 (001) and SrTiO3 (011) substrates with additional annealing to relax the lattice strain. Although the Nd0.52Sr0.48MnO3 films were deposited simultaneously on different substrates at the same deposition rate, they differ in thickness by a factor of ? ....

Divacancies and the hydrogenation of Mg-Ti films with short range chemical order

We obtained evidence for the partial chemical segregation of as-deposited and hydrogenated Mg1?yTiy films (0 ? y ? 0.30) into nanoscale Ti and Mg domains using positron Doppler-broadening. We exclusively monitor the hydrogenation of Mg domains, owing to the large difference in positron affinity for Mg and Ti. The electron momentum distribution...

Roles of secondary electrons and sputtered atoms in ion-beam-induced deposition

The authors report the results of investigating two models for ion-beam-induced deposition (IBID). These models describe IBID in terms of the impact of secondary electrons and of sputtered atoms, respectively. The yields of deposition, sputtering, and secondary electron emission, as well as the energy spectra of the secondary electrons were...

Lightweight sodium alanate thin films grown by reactive sputtering

We report the preparation of sodium alanate, a promising hydrogen storage material, in a thin film form using cosputtering in a reactive atmosphere of atomic hydrogen. We study the phase formation and distribution, and the hydrogen desorption, with a combination of optical and infrared transmission spectroscopy. We show that the hydrogen...

Microstructures and the corresponding magnetic properties of half-doped Nd0.5Sr0.5MnO3 films

The microstructural and magnetic properties of amorphous, nanoclustered, and self-organized bilayer Nd0.5Sr0.5MnO3 films, prepared by rf magnetron sputtering, are investigated. The amorphous film was found to be a typical paramagnet with free motion of the individual Mn spins, and the magnetic properties are well described on the basis of the...

Monocrystalline NbN nanofilms on a 3C-SiC/Si substrate

The authors have realized NbN (100) nanofilms on a 3C-SiC (100)/Si(100) substrate by dc reactive magnetron sputtering at 800?°C. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) is used to characterize the films, showing a monocrystalline structure and confirming epitaxial growth on the 3C-SiC layer. A film ranging in thickness from 3.4...