The heterojunction between amorphous silicon (sub)oxides (a-SiOx:H, 0<x<2) and crystalline silicon (c-Si) is investigated. We combine chemical vapor deposition with in-system photoelectron spectroscopy in order to determine the valence band offset ∆EV and the interface defect density, being technologically important junction parameters. ∆EV increases from ≈ 0.3 eV for the a-Si:H/c-Si interface ...

The catalysis science of mixed metal oxides (supported metal oxides, molecular sieves and bulk mixed metal oxides) has undergone dramatic paradigm changes over the past 25 years as new characterization techniques became available (X-ray absorption spectroscopy (EXAFS/XANES/soft XANES), Raman, solid-state NMR, HR-TEM, UV–vis DRS and LEISS) to catalysis researchers. The major advantages offered b...

Mixed metal oxides in the nanoscale are of great interest for many aspects of energy related research topics as water splitting, fuel cells and battery technology. The development of scalable, cost-efficient and robust synthetic routes toward well-defined solid state structures is a major objective in this field. While monometallic oxides have been studied in much detail, reliable synthetic rec...

One of the major challenges of successfully integrating radio frequency integrated circuits (RFIC) on silicon (Si) continues to be the poor performance of inductors. The low resistivity Si substrate is a cost-effective solution, however it is a major source of energy loss and limits the quality factor (Q) of inductors at high frequency. Conventional oxides introduce considerable stress due to t...

Integrating epitaxial and ferromagnetic Europium Oxide (EuO) directly on silicon is a perfect route to enrich silicon nanotechnology with spin filter functionality. To date, the inherent chemical reactivity between EuO and Si has prevented a heteroepitaxial integration without significant contaminations of the interface with Eu silicides and Si oxides. We present a solution to this long-standin...

Results are presented from the photoluminescence properties of C-doped Si-rich thin film oxides implanted with Er, as investigated for various postdeposition implantation and subsequent annealing and passivation conditions. In particular, it was found that the near-infrared Er luminescence intensity can be increased by up to a factor of $4 after a postdeposition anneal at temperatures of 300–11...

In the Ultra-steel project at the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), which run from 1996 to 2005, high-Si-Al-content ultrafine-grained (UFG) weathering steel was developed by grain refinement and weathering guidance. It was found that this steel has excellent strength, toughness and corrosion resistance. Samples were prepared by multi pass warm rolling at temperatures between 773 ...

Transition metal oxides (TMOs) have recently attracted interest as an alternative to boron/phosphorous doped layers in crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells. In this work, the interface between n-type c-Si (n-Si) and three thermally evaporated TMOs (MoO3, WO3 and V2O5) was investigated by transmission electron microscopy and secondary ion-mass/x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. For the ...