scholarly journals Controlled Lattice Thermal Conductivity of Transparent Conductive Oxide Thin Film via Localized Vibration of Doping Atoms

Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2363
Author(s):  
Young Joong Choi ◽  
Ho Yun Lee ◽  
Seohan Kim ◽  
Pung Keun Song

Amorphization using impurity doping is a promising approach to improve the thermoelectric properties of tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) thin films. However, an abnormal phenomenon has been observed where an excessive concentration of doped atoms increases the lattice thermal conductivity (κl). To elucidate this paradox, we propose two hypotheses: (1) metal hydroxide formation due to the low bond enthalpy energy of O and metal atoms and (2) localized vibration due to excessive impurity doping. To verify these hypotheses, we doped ZnO and CeO2, which have low and high bond enthalpies with oxygen, respectively, into the ITO thin film. Regardless of the bond enthalpy energy, the κl values of the two thin films increased due to excessive doping. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was conducted to determine the metal hydroxide formation. There was no significant difference in wave absorbance originating from the OH stretching vibration. Therefore, the increase in κl due to the excessive doping was due to the formation of localized regions in the thin film. These results could be valuable for various applications using other transparent conductive oxides and guide the control of the properties of thin films.

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Al-Sarraj ◽  
Khaled M. Saoud ◽  
Abdelaziz Elmel ◽  
Said Mansour ◽  
Yousef Haik

Abstract In this paper, we report oxidation time effect on highly porous silver oxide nanowires thin films fabricated using ultrasonic spray pyrolysis and oxygen plasma etching method. The NW’s morphological, electrical, and optical properties were investigated under different plasma etching periods and the number of deposition cycles. The increase of plasma etching and oxidation time increases the surface roughness of the Ag NWs until it fused to form a porous thin film of silver oxide. AgNWs based thin films were characterized using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, and UV–Vis spectroscopy techniques. The obtained results indicate the formation of mixed mesoporous Ag2O and AgO NW thin films. The Ag2O phase of silver oxide appears after 300 s of oxidation under the same conditions, while the optical transparency of the thin film decreases as plasma etching time increases. The sheet resistance of the final film is influenced by the oxidation time and the plasma application periodicity. Graphic abstract


2006 ◽  
Vol 326-328 ◽  
pp. 689-692
Author(s):  
Seung Jae Moon

The thermal conductivity of amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin films is determined by using the non-intrusive, in-situ optical transmission measurement. The thermal conductivity of a-Si is a key parameter in understanding the mechanism of the recrystallization of polysilicon (p-Si) during the laser annealing process to fabricate the thin film transistors with uniform characteristics which are used as switches in the active matrix liquid crystal displays. Since it is well known that the physical properties are dependent on the process parameters of the thin film deposition process, the thermal conductivity should be measured. The temperature dependence of the film complex refractive index is determined by spectroscopic ellipsometry. A nanosecond KrF excimer laser at the wavelength of 248 nm is used to raise the temperature of the thin films without melting of the thin film. In-situ transmission signal is obtained during the heating process. The acquired transmission signal is fitted with predictions obtained by coupling conductive heat transfer with multi-layer thin film optics in the optical transmission measurement.


2012 ◽  
Vol 1404 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.A. Maznev

ABSTRACTThe onset of size effects in phonon-mediated thermal transport along a thin film at temperatures comparable or greater than the Debye temperature is analyzed theoretically. Assuming a quadratic frequency dependence of phonon relaxation rates in the low-frequency limit, a simple closed-form formula for the reduction of the in-plane thermal conductivity of thin films is derived. The effect scales as the square root of the film thickness, which leads to the prediction of measurable size-effects even at “macroscopic” distances ~100 μm. However, this prediction needs to be corrected to account for the deviation from the ω−2 dependence of phonon lifetimes at sub-THz frequencies due to the transition from Landau-Rumer to Akhiezer mechanism of phonon dissipation.


Author(s):  
Pornvitoo Rittinon ◽  
Ken Suzuki ◽  
Hideo Miura

Copper thin films are indispensable for the interconnections in the advanced electronic products, such as TSV (Trough Silicon Via), fine bumps, and thin-film interconnections in various devices and interposers. However, it has been reported that both electrical and mechanical properties of the films vary drastically comparing with those of conventional bulk copper. The main reason for the variation can be attributed to the fluctuation of the crystallinity of grain boundaries in the films. Porous or sparse grain boundaries show very high resistivity and brittle fracture characteristic in the films. Thus, the thermal conductivity of the electroplated copper thin films should be varied drastically depending on their micro texture based on the Wiedemann-Franz’s law. Since the copper interconnections are used not only for the electrical conduction but also for the thermal conduction, it is very important to quantitatively evaluate the crystallinity of the polycrystalline thin-film materials and clarify the relationship between the crystallinity and thermal properties of the films. The crystallinity of the interconnections were quantitatively evaluated using an electron back-scatter diffraction method. It was found that the porous grain boundaries which contain a significant amount of vacancies increase the local electrical resistance in the interconnections, and thus, cause the local high Joule heating. Such porous grain boundaries can be eliminated by control the crystallinity of the seed layer material on which the electroplated copper thin film is electroplated.


2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (20) ◽  
pp. 2741-2749 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. ZHOU ◽  
L. LI ◽  
L. Y. RONG ◽  
B. X. ZHAO ◽  
Y. M. CHEN ◽  
...  

High transparency and conductivity of transparent conducting oxide thin film are very important for improving the efficiency of solar cells. ZnO thin film is a better candidate for transparent conductive layer of solar cell. N-type ZnO thin films were prepared by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering on glass substrates. ZnO thin films underwent annealing treatment after deposition. The influence of the sputtering power on the surface morphology, the electrical and optical properties were studied by AFM, XRD, UV2450 and HMS-3000. The experimental results indicate that the crystal quality of ZnO thin film is improved and all films show higher c-axis orientation with increasing sputtering power from 50 to 125 W. The average transparency of ZnO thin films is higher than 90% in the range of 400–900 nm between the sputtering power of 50–100 W. After the rapid thermal annealing at 550°C for 300 s under N2 ambient, the minimum resistivity reach to 10-2Ω⋅ cm .


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Longfei Song ◽  
Tony Schenk ◽  
Emmanuel Defay ◽  
Sebastjan Glinsek

Highly conductive (conductivity 620 S cm−1) and transparent ITO thin films are achieved at low temperature (350 °C) through effective combustion solution processing via multistep coating. The properties show potential for next generation flexible and transparent electronics.


Author(s):  
Zhengxing Huang ◽  
Zhenan Tang ◽  
Suyuan Bai ◽  
Jun Yu

For crystal materials, thermal conductivity (TC) is proportional to T3 at low temperatures and to T−1 at high temperatures. TCs of most amorphous materials decrease with the decreasing temperatures. If a material is thin film, boundary will influence the TC and then influence the temperature dependence. In this paper, we calculate the TC of crystal and amorphous SiO2 thin films, which is a commonly used material in micro devices and Integrated Circuits, by NEMD simulations. The calculation temperatures are from 100K to 700K and the thicknesses are from 2nm to 8nm. TCs of crystal thin films reach their peak values at different temperatures for different thicknesses. The smaller thickness the larger peak values obtained. But for amorphous thin films, the results show that the temperature dependence of thin films is the same as bulk materials and not relative to their thicknesses. The obtained temperature dependence of the thin films is consistent with some previous measurements and the theory predictions.


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