A statistical method to optimize the chemical etching process of zinc oxide thin films

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is an attractive material for microscale and nanoscale devices. Its desirable semiconductor, piezoelectric and optical properties make it useful in applications ranging from microphones to missile warning systems to biometric sensors. This work introduces a demonstration of blending statistics and chemical etching of thin films to identify the dominant factors and interaction between factors, and develop statistically enhanced models on etch rate and selectivity of c-axis-oriented nanocrystalline ZnO thin films. Over other mineral acids, ammonium chloride (NH₄Cl) solutions have commonly been used to wet etch microscale ZnO devices because of their controllable etch rate and near-linear behaviour. Etchant concentration and temperature were found to have a significant effect on etch rate. Moreover, this is the first demonstration that has identified multi-factor interactions between temperature and concentration, and between temperature and agitation. A linear model was developed relating etch rate and its variance against these significant factors and multi-factor interactions. An average selectivity of 73 : 1 was measured with none of the experimental factors having a significant effect on the selectivity. This statistical study captures the significant variance observed by other researchers. Furthermore, it enables statistically enhanced microfabrication processes for other materials.

Two-dimensional BN buffer for plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition of Al2O3 gate dielectrics on graphene field effect transistors

Here, we investigate the use of few-layer metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) grown BN as a two-dimensional buffer layer for plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PE-ALD) of Al₂O₃ on graphene for top gated field effect transistors (FETs). The reactive nature of PE-ALD enables deposition of thin (2 nm) dielectrics directly on graphene and other two-dimensional materials without the need for a seed or functionalization layer; however, this also leads to significant oxidation of the graphene layer as observed by Raman. In FETs, we find this oxidation destroys conductivity in the graphene channel. By transferring thin (1.6 nm) MOCVD BN layers on top of graphene channels prior to PE-ALD, the graphene is protected from oxidation enabling BN/Al₂O₃ layers as thin as 4 nm. Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy on BN films show no significant oxidation caused by PE-ALD of Al₂O₃. Inserting the BN layer creates an atomically abrupt interface significantly reducing interface charges between the graphene and Al₂O₃ as compared to use of a 2 nm Al buffer layer. This results in a much smaller Dirac voltage (− 1 V) and hysteresis (0.9 V) when compared to FETs with the Al layer (V_Dirac = − 6.1 V and hysteresis = 2.9 V).

Efficient broadband energy detection from the visible to near-infrared using a plasmon FET

Plasmon based field effect transistors (FETs) can be used to convert energy induced by incident optical radiation to electrical energy. Plasmonic FETs can efficiently detect incident light and amplify it by coupling to resonant plasmonic modes thus improving selectivity and signal to noise ratio. The spectral responses can be tailored both through optimization of nanostructure geometry as well as constitutive materials. In this paper, we studied various plasmonic nanostructures using gold for a wideband spectral response from visible to near-infrared. We show, using empirical data and simulation results, that detection loss exponentially increases as the volume of metal nanostructure increases and also a limited spectral response is possible using gold nanostructures in a plasmon to electric conversion device. Finally, we demonstrate a plasmon FET that offers a broadband spectral response from visible to telecommunication wavelengths.

Flyweight, Superelastic, Electrically Conductive, and Flame-Retardant 3D Multi-Nanolayer Graphene/Ceramic Metamaterial

A ceramic/graphene metamaterial (GCM) with microstructure-derived superelasticity and structural robustness is achieved by designing hierarchical honeycomb microstructures, which are composited with two brittle constituents (graphene and ceramic) assembled in multi-nanolayer cellular walls. Attributed to the designed microstructure, well-interconnected scaffolds, chemically bonded interface, and coupled strengthening effect between the graphene framework and the nanolayers of the Al₂ O₃ ceramic (NAC), the GCM demonstrates a sequence of multifunctional properties simultaneously that have not been reported for ceramics and ceramics-matrix-composite structures, such as flyweight density, 80% reversible compressibility, high fatigue resistance, high electrical conductivity, and excellent thermal-insulation/flame-retardant performance simultaneously. The 3D well-ordered graphene aerogel templates are strongly coupled with the NAC by the chemically bonded interface, exhibiting mutual strengthening, compatible deformability, and a linearly dependent relationship between the density and Young's modulus. Considerable size effects of the ceramic nanolayers on the mechanical properties are revealed in these ceramic-based metamaterials. The designed hierarchical honeycomb graphene with a fourth dimensional control of the ceramic nanolayers on new ways to scalable fabrication of advanced multifunctional ceramic composites with controllable design suggest a great potential in applications of flexible conductors, shock/vibration absorbers, thermal shock barriers, thermal insulation/flame-retardant skins, and porous microwave-absorbing coatings.

Defect segregation and optical emission in ZnO nano- and microwires

The spatial distribution of defect related deep band emission has been studied in zinc oxide (ZnO) nano- and microwires using depth resolved cathodoluminescence spectroscopy (DRCLS) in a hyperspectral imaging (HSI) mode within a UHV scanning electron microscope (SEM). Three sets of wires were examined that had been grown by pulsed laser deposition or vapor transport methods and ranged in diameter from 200 nm-2.7 μm. This data was analyzed by developing a 3D DRCLS simulation and using it to estimate the segregation depth and decay profile of the near surface defects. We observed different dominant defects from each growth process as well as diameter-dependent defect segregation behavior.

Improved photoluminescence of vertically aligned ZnO nanorods grown on BaSrTiO3 by pulsed laser deposition

ZnO nanorods were grown on a variety of substrates such as Si, SiO(2)/Si and sapphire in a large-area pulsed laser deposition chamber designed for sensor device fabrication. Processing conditions were optimized to grow ZnO nanorods with or without seed layers. Au, Cr and BaSrTiO(3) (BST) seed layers were investigated to compare their effects on the diameter and orientation of ZnO nanorods. ZnO nanorods were observed to align better when grown on sapphire, Cr or BST seed layers as compared to Au or Si layers. The highest quality nanorods were those grown on BST seed layers, as shown by 4 K photoluminescence donor-bound-exciton linewidths of only 0.5 meV.