scholarly journals Electron glass signatures up to room temperature in disordered insulators

Author(s):  
Julien Delahaye ◽  
Thierry Grenet

Abstract This paper describes the observation of non-equilibrium field effects at room temperature in four disordered insulating systems: granular Al, discontinuous Au, amorphous NbSi and amorphous InOx thin films. The use of wide enough gate voltage ranges and a cautious analysis of the data allow us to uncover memory dips, the advocated hallmark of the electron glass, in the four systems. These memory dips are found to relax slowly over days of measurements under gate voltage changes, reflecting the impossibility for the systems to reach an equilibrium state within experimentally accessible times. Our findings demonstrate that these electrical glassy effects, so far essentially reported at cryogenic temperatures, actually extend up to room temperature.

2015 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 365-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Granata ◽  
L. Balzarini ◽  
J. Degallaix ◽  
V. Dolique ◽  
R. Flaminio ◽  
...  

Abstract In order to study the internal friction of thin films a nodal suspension system called GeNS (Gentle Nodal Suspension) has been developed. The key features of this system are: i) the possibility to use substrates easily available like silicon wafers; ii) extremely low excess losses coming from the suspension system which allows to measure Q factors in excess of 2×108 on 3” diameter wafers; iii) reproducibility of measurements within few percent on mechanical losses and 0.01% on resonant frequencies; iv) absence of clamping; v) the capability to operate at cryogenic temperatures. Measurements at cryogenic temperatures on SiO2 and at room temperature only on Ta2O5 films deposited on silicon are presented.


1994 ◽  
Vol 358 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.O. Dabbousi ◽  
O. Onitsuka ◽  
M.F. Rubner ◽  
M.G. Bawendi

ABSTRACTWe obtain spectrally narrow (FWHM < 40 nm) electroluminescence from nearly monodisperse CdSe nanocrystallites (quantum dots) incorporated into thin films of polyvinyl carbazole (PVK) and an oxadiazole derivative (PBD) sandwiched between aluminum and ITO electrodes. The electroluminescence and photoluminescence spectra are nearly identical at room temperature and are tunable from ∼530 nm to ∼650 nm by varying the size of the dots. Voltage studies at 77K indicate that while only the dots electroluminesce at the lower voltages, both the dots and the PVK matrix electroluminesce at higher applied voltages. Variable temperature studies indicate that the electroluminescence efficiency increases substantially as the films are cooled down to cryogenic temperatures.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julien Delahaye ◽  
Thierry Grenet ◽  
Claire A. Marrache-Kikuchi ◽  
Vincent Humbert ◽  
Laurent Bergé ◽  
...  

We report on non equilibrium field effect in insulating amorphous NbSi thin films having different Nb contents and thicknesses. The hallmark of an electron glass, namely the logarithmic growth of a memory dip in conductance versus gate voltage curves, is observed in all the films after a cooling from room temperature to 4.2~K. A very rich phenomenology is demonstrated. While the memory dip width is found to strongly vary with the film parameters, as was also observed in amorphous indium oxide films, screening lengths and temperature dependence of the dynamics are closer to what is observed in granular Al films. Our results demonstrate that the differentiation between continuous and discontinuous systems is not relevant to understand the discrepancies reported between various systems in the electron glass features. We suggest instead that they are not of fundamental nature and stem from differences in the protocols used and in the electrical inhomogeneity length scales within each material.


2004 ◽  
Vol 829 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minoru Mitsui ◽  
Keisuke Arimoto ◽  
Junji Yamanaka ◽  
Kiyokazu Nakagawa ◽  
Kentarou Sawano ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTTransport properties of polycrystalline Si1−xGex (x = 0, 30, 50 and 70) thin films on SiO2 were studied by Hall measurements and transport properties of the TFTs fabricated on the films were characterized. Si1−xGex films were p-type in spite of non-doping. Room temperature hole densities of Si1−xGex films increased from 5 × 1013 to 5 × 1016 cm−3 as Ge concentration increased from 30 % to 70 %. The acceptor levels in Si1−xGex were located at 0.43, 0.40 and 0.34 eV for x=0.3, 0.5 and 0.7 from valence band, respectively. The high leakage current of SiGe-TFTs was observed and drain current could not be turned off even when the high gate voltage was applied. The acceptor density increased with increasing annealing temperature from 700 °C to 800 °C. The leakage currents were independent of the annealing temperature and is thought to originate from Ge-related defects in grain boundaries.


Author(s):  
K. A. Fisher ◽  
M. G. L. Gustafsson ◽  
M. B. Shattuck ◽  
J. Clarke

The atomic force microscope (AFM) is capable of imaging electrically conductive and non-conductive surfaces at atomic resolution. When used to image biological samples, however, lateral resolution is often limited to nanometer levels, due primarily to AFM tip/sample interactions. Several approaches to immobilize and stabilize soft or flexible molecules for AFM have been examined, notably, tethering coating, and freezing. Although each approach has its advantages and disadvantages, rapid freezing techniques have the special advantage of avoiding chemical perturbation, and minimizing physical disruption of the sample. Scanning with an AFM at cryogenic temperatures has the potential to image frozen biomolecules at high resolution. We have constructed a force microscope capable of operating immersed in liquid n-pentane and have tested its performance at room temperature with carbon and metal-coated samples, and at 143° K with uncoated ferritin and purple membrane (PM).


Author(s):  
R. C. Moretz ◽  
G. G. Hausner ◽  
D. F. Parsons

Use of the electron microscope to examine wet objects is possible due to the small mass thickness of the equilibrium pressure of water vapor at room temperature. Previous attempts to examine hydrated biological objects and water itself used a chamber consisting of two small apertures sealed by two thin films. Extensive work in our laboratory showed that such films have an 80% failure rate when wet. Using the principle of differential pumping of the microscope column, we can use open apertures in place of thin film windows.Fig. 1 shows the modified Siemens la specimen chamber with the connections to the water supply and the auxiliary pumping station. A mechanical pump is connected to the vapor supply via a 100μ aperture to maintain steady-state conditions.


Author(s):  
R. M. Anderson ◽  
T. M. Reith ◽  
M. J. Sullivan ◽  
E. K. Brandis

Thin films of aluminum or aluminum-silicon can be used in conjunction with thin films of chromium in integrated electronic circuits. For some applications, these films exhibit undesirable reactions; in particular, intermetallic formation below 500 C must be inhibited or prevented. The Al films, being the principal current carriers in interconnective metal applications, are usually much thicker than the Cr; so one might expect Al-rich intermetallics to form when the processing temperature goes out of control. Unfortunately, the JCPDS and the literature do not contain enough data on the Al-rich phases CrAl7 and Cr2Al11, and the determination of these data was a secondary aim of this work.To define a matrix of Cr-Al diffusion couples, Cr-Al films were deposited with two sets of variables: Al or Al-Si, and broken vacuum or single pumpdown. All films were deposited on 2-1/4-inch thermally oxidized Si substrates. A 500-Å layer of Cr was deposited at 120 Å/min on substrates at room temperature, in a vacuum system that had been pumped to 2 x 10-6 Torr. Then, with or without vacuum break, a 1000-Å layer of Al or Al-Si was deposited at 35 Å/s, with the substrates still at room temperature.


Author(s):  
S.K. Streiffer ◽  
C.B. Eom ◽  
J.C. Bravman ◽  
T.H. Geballet

The study of very thin (<15 nm) YBa2Cu3O7−δ (YBCO) films is necessary both for investigating the nucleation and growth of films of this material and for achieving a better understanding of multilayer structures incorporating such thin YBCO regions. We have used transmission electron microscopy to examine ultra-thin films grown on MgO substrates by single-target, off-axis magnetron sputtering; details of the deposition process have been reported elsewhere. Briefly, polished MgO substrates were attached to a block placed at 90° to the sputtering target and heated to 650 °C. The sputtering was performed in 10 mtorr oxygen and 40 mtorr argon with an rf power of 125 watts. After deposition, the chamber was vented to 500 torr oxygen and allowed to cool to room temperature. Because of YBCO’s susceptibility to environmental degradation and oxygen loss, the technique of Xi, et al. was followed and a protective overlayer of amorphous YBCO was deposited on the just-grown films.


Author(s):  
Pamela F. Lloyd ◽  
Scott D. Walck

Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) is a novel technique for the deposition of tribological thin films. MoS2 is the archetypical solid lubricant material for aerospace applications. It provides a low coefficient of friction from cryogenic temperatures to about 350°C and can be used in ultra high vacuum environments. The TEM is ideally suited for studying the microstructural and tribo-chemical changes that occur during wear. The normal cross sectional TEM sample preparation method does not work well because the material’s lubricity causes the sandwich to separate. Walck et al. deposited MoS2 through a mesh mask which gave suitable results for as-deposited films, but the discontinuous nature of the film is unsuitable for wear-testing. To investigate wear-tested, room temperature (RT) PLD MoS2 films, the sample preparation technique of Heuer and Howitt was adapted.Two 300 run thick films were deposited on single crystal NaCl substrates. One was wear-tested on a ball-on-disk tribometer using a 30 gm load at 150 rpm for one minute, and subsequently coated with a heavy layer of evaporated gold.


Author(s):  
J. L. Batstone ◽  
D.A. Smith

Recrystallization of amorphous NiSi2 involves nucleation and growth processes which can be studied dynamically in the electron microscope. Previous studies have shown thatCoSi2 recrystallises by nucleating spherical caps which then grow with a constant radial velocity. Coalescence results in the formation of hyperbolic grain boundaries. Nucleation of the isostructural NiSi2 results in small, approximately round grains with very rough amorphous/crystal interfaces. In this paper we show that the morphology of the rccrystallizcd film is dramatically affected by variations in the stoichiometry of the amorphous film.Thin films of NiSi2 were prepared by c-bcam deposition of Ni and Si onto Si3N4, windows supported by Si substrates at room temperature. The base pressure prior to deposition was 6 × 107 torr. In order to investigate the effect of stoichiomctry on the recrystallization process, the Ni/Si ratio was varied in the range NiSi1.8-2.4. The composition of the amorphous films was determined by Rutherford Backscattering.


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