Anode materials of nanostructured silicon have been prepared by physical vapor deposition and characterized using electrochemical methods. The electrodes were prepared in thin-film form as nanocrystalline particles ~12 nm mean diameter! and as continuous amorphous thin films ~100 nm thick!. The nanocrystalline silicon exhibited specific capacities of around 1100 mAh/g with a 50% capacity retent...

We present an electrochemical route to prepare nanocrystalline InSb thin films that can be transferred to an industrial scale. The morphology, composition, and crystallinity of the prepared uniform and compact thin films with a surface area of around 1 cm were investigated. The essential electrical characteristics such as conductivity, Seebeck coefficient, the type, concentration and mobility o...

By exploiting colloidal properties, such as transparency, rheology and versatile chemistry, we propose to synthesize new photonic nanomaterials based on colloidal solutions and thin films. This contribution highlights our efforts to elaborate and to characterize nanostructures based on the ZnO-TiO2 system. Using a recently developed sol-gel route to synthesize new Ti4+@ZnO organosols, we were a...

Carrier transport was investigated in two different types of ultra-thin silicon films, polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) films with large grains > 20 nm in size and hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) films with grains 4 nm – 8 nm in size. It was found that there were local non-uniformities in grain boundary potential barriers in both types of films. Single-electron charging effects ...

Nanocrystalline hafnium oxide (HfO2) thin films have been produced under variable reactive oxygen (O2) fractionation (Г) employing Hf metal for reactive sputter-deposition. The effect of Г on the HfO2 compound formation, structure, morphology and optical properties has been evaluated. Without oxygen, the films of hexagonal phase of Hf metal were grown. Films grown at different O2 pressure are n...

We have studied the electronic structure of nanocrystalline NiO thin films, grown by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering under different experimental conditions, using x-ray absorption spectroscopy. The O 1s and Ni 2p spectra showed distinct changes as a function of O2 content in the plasma, which were reproduced with cluster model calculations. These changes are attributed to the incrementing...

3D molecular dynamics simulations are performed to investigate the role of microstructural confinement on room temperature stress-driven grain boundary (GB) motion for a general population of GBs in nanocrystalline Al thin films. Detailed analysis and comparison with experimental results reveal how coupled GB migration and GB sliding are manifested in realistic nanoscale networks of GBs. The pr...

Nanocrystalline PbS thin films are deposited on glass and alumina substratesthrough the chemical bath deposition technique by creating similar conditions, in orderto investigate the effects of the substrate. The structural and optical properties of PbSfilms are investigated by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, and UV–Vis.The structural analyses of the films indicate that they are...

In this work we study the electronic surface passivation of crystalline silicon with intrinsic thin silicon films deposited by Catalytic CVD. The contactless method used to determine the effective surface recombination velocity was the Quasi-Steady-State Photoconductance technique. Hydrogenated amorphous and nanocrystalline silicon films were evaluated as passivating layers on nand p-type float...

Amorphous and nanocrystalline silicon films obtained by Hot-Wire Chemical Vapor deposition have been incorporated as active layers in n-type coplanar top gate thin film transistors deposited on glass substrates covered with SiO2. Amorphous silicon devices exhibited mobility values of 1.3 cmVs, which are very high taking into account the amorphous nature of the material. Nanocrystalline transist...