Monolayer islands of pentacene deposited on silicon substrates with thermally grown oxides were studied by electric force microscopy (EFM) and scanning Kelvin probe microscopy (SKPM) in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) after prior 10 min exposure to atmospheric ambient. On 25-nm-thick oxides, the pentacene islands are 0.5 V higher in electrostatic potential than the silicon dioxide background because of ...

The optical linear and nonlinear properties of ~ 340-nm thick Si membranes were investigated. The investigation included both experiments in which the reflection and transmission from the membranes were measured, and finite differences time domain simulations. The linear optical transmission of the Si membranes can be controlled by changing the thickness of a thermally grown oxide on the membra...

Using silicon MOSFETs with thin (5 nm) thermally grown SiO2 gate dielectrics, we characterize the density of electrically active traps at low temperature after 16 keV phosphorus ion implantation through the oxide. We find that, after rapid thermal annealing at 1000 ◦C for 5 s, each implanted P ion contributes an additional 0.08 ± 0.03 electrically active traps, whilst no increase in the number ...

Nanorod-like TiO2 (nc-TiO2) and MoO3 (nc-MoO3) films were thermally grown from Tiand Mo-metallic wafers. Nanohybrid films of N,N’-diphenyl-N,N’-bis(1-naphthyl)(1,1’-biphenyl)-4,4’diamine (NPB)/TiO2 and NPB/MoO3 used as anode/hole transport layer (HTL) heterojunctions in blue organic light emission diodes (OLEDs) were prepared by coating NPB onto the nc-TiO2 and nc-MoO3 and TiO2. Characterizatio...

Ostwald ripening is a well-known physicochemical phenomenon in which smaller particles, characterized by high surface energy, dissolve and feed the bigger ones that are thermodynamically more stable. The effect commonly observed solid liquid solutions, as well systems consisting of supported metal clusters or droplets. Here, evidence provided for occurrence an oxide-on-metal system which, this ...

Tantalum oxides (Ta2O5) are characterized by attractive physical and chemical properties, such as high dielectric constants anti-reflection behaviour. In principle, their electronic properties can be accurately investigated from first-principles simulations. However, the existence of several stable polymorphs these represents a major difficulty to calculate disentangle respective spectral featu...

The mechanisms that govern the formation of a thermally grown alumina on Al-containing super-alloys has been the subject of much recent speculation, because of the key influence of this oxide on the durability of thermal barrier systems for gas turbines. Among the important issues to be resolved are the location of the new oxide growth (interface, surface or internal grain boundary), the strain...

We have investigated SiC/oxide interface structures by the use of spectroscopic ellipsometry. The depth profile of the optical constants of thermally grown oxide layers on SiC was obtained by observing the slope-shaped oxide layers, and the results suggest the existence of the interface layers, around 1 nm in thickness, having high refractive index than those of both SiC and SiO2. The wavelengt...

Minerals stabilize organic carbon (OC) in sediments, thereby directly affecting global climate at multiple scales, but how they do it is far from understood. Here we show that manganese oxide (Mn oxide) in a water treatment works filter bed traps dissolved OC as coatings build up in layers around clean sand grains at 3%w/wC. Using spectroscopic and thermogravimetric methods, we identify two mai...