Surface roughening during plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition of hydrogenated amorphous silicon on crystal silicon substrates" Physical Review B. The morphology of a series of thin films of hydrogenated amorphous silicon ͑a-Si:H͒ grown by plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposition ͑PECVD͒ is studied using scanning tunneling microscopy. The substrates were atomically flat, oxide-free, single-cr...

We report the intrinsic and extrinsic electrical characteristics of advanced multilayer amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin-film transistor (TFT) with dual amorphous silicon nitride (a-SiNX:H) and a-Si:H layers. The thickness effect of the high electronic quality a-Si:H film on the transistor’s electrical property was investigated; with increasing film thickness, both field-effect mobility and subt...

In the present work, the stress evaluation of RF sputtered silicon dioxide films for MEMS applications has been reported. The films were deposited in argon atmosphere in the pressure range 5-20 mtorr at 300 W RF power using a 3 inch diameter silicon dioxide target. The stress measurements were carried out using wafer curvature technique. All the deposited films show compressive stress except th...

The influence of the interface morphologies on amorphous silicon thin-film solar cells prepared on randomly textured substrates was studied. A simple three-dimensional geometrical model was developed to describe the surface morphology of amorphous silicon films and thin-film solar cells. The simulated surface morphologies are confirmed by experimental measurements. A detailed understanding of t...

The structural evolution of low-molecular-weight poly(ethylene oxide)-block-polystyrene (PEO-b-PS) diblock copolymer thin film with various initial film thicknesses on silicon substrate under thermal annealing was investigated by atomic force microscopy, optical microscopy, and contact angle measurement. At film thickness below half of the interlamellar spacing of the diblock copolymer (6.2 nm)...

Small amplitude (50 μm) reciprocating wear of hydrogen-containing diamond-like carbon (DLC) films of different compositions has been examined against silicon nitride and polymethyl-methacrylate (PMMA) counter-surfaces, and compared with the performance of an uncoated steel substrate. Three films were studied: a DLC film of conventional composition, a fluorine-containing DLC film (F-DLC), and si...

Porous silicon obtained on n-type silicon by photoelectrochemical etching in HF, is formed of a macroporous silicon layer beneath a nanoporous silicon layer. Microstructural investigations and chemical analysis at the aiomic level of the nanoporous silicon film (obtained from a highly doped (Ill) oriented Si substrate) have been done by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) a...

The main impetus for our research is provided by the growing interest worldwide in ultra thin silicon dioxide on silicon based nano devices. The obvious need for better knowledge in the ultra thin gate silicon dioxides, is motivated both by interests in fundamental research and phenomenology as well as by interests in possible applications, which can be found with better fitting of experimental...

A monolithic photonic microcantilever device is presented comprising silicon light sources and detectors self-aligned to suspended silicon nitride waveguides all integrated into the same silicon chip. A silicon nitride waveguide optically links a silicon light emitting diode to a detector. Then, the optocoupler releases a localized formation of resist-silicon nitride cantilevers through e-beam ...

In our present work, five previously proposed sp(3) carbon crystals were suggested as silicon allotropes and their stabilities, electronic and optical properties were investigated using the first-principles method. We find that these allotropes with direct or quasi-direct band gaps in a range of 1.2-1.6 eV are very suitable for applications in thin-film solar cells. They display strong adsorpti...