Development of Composite Scintillators Based on the LuAG: Pr Single Crystalline Films and LuAG:Sc Single Crystals

The scintillation properties of novel type of composite scintillator based on Lu3Al5O12:Pr (LuAG:Pr) single crystalline film (SCF) and LuAG:Sc substrate grown by the liquid-phase epitaxy method are considered in this work. The registration of α-particles and γ-quanta in such types of composites occurs by means of separation of the scintillation decay kinetics of SCF and crystal parts, respectively. Namely, under excitation by α-particles of 241Am (5.5 MeV) source and γ-quanta of 137Cs (662 keV) source, the large differences in the respective scintillation decay kinetics and decay time values tα and tγ are observed for the LuAG:Pr SCF/LuAG:Sc SC composite scintillator with various film thicknesses. Furthermore, the best tγ/tα ratio above 4.5 is achieved for such types of epitaxial structure with SCF and substrate thicknesses of 17 μm and about 0.5 mm, respectively. The development types of composite scintillators can be successfully applied for simultaneous registration of α-particles and γ-quanta in the mixed radiation fluxes.

Seeded 2D epitaxy of large-area single-crystal films of the van der Waals semiconductor 2H MoTe2

The integration of two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals semiconductors into silicon electronics technology will require the production of large-scale, uniform, and highly crystalline films. We report a route for synthesizing wafer-scale single-crystalline 2H molybdenum ditelluride (MoTe2) semiconductors on an amorphous insulating substrate. In-plane 2D-epitaxy growth by tellurizing was triggered from a deliberately implanted single seed crystal. The resulting single-crystalline film completely covered a 2.5-centimeter wafer with excellent uniformity. The 2H MoTe2 2D single-crystalline film can use itself as a template for further rapid epitaxy in a vertical manner. Transistor arrays fabricated with the as-prepared 2H MoTe2 single crystals exhibited high electrical performance, with excellent uniformity and 100% device yield.

LPE growth of Tb3Al5O12:Ce single crystalline film converters for WLED application

The possibility of development of an efficient phosphor converters (PC) for white LED (WLED) based on single crystalline films (SCF) of Ce3+ doped Tb3Al5O12 garnet (TbAG:Ce), grown using liquid-phase epitaxy...

Making Metallic Thin Films Atomically Flat

Can we control the flatness of the surface of a thin film down to the level of individual atoms? Can we further make such an ultraflat surface on a wafer scale? For such purposes, the current deposition methods, including molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), atomic layer deposition (ALD) and conventional sputtering methods, are still not adequate. In this article, we introduce a novel thin film deposition technique developed by modifying a simple sputtering method to make atomically flat metallic surfaces and a new way to investigate the structural details of thin films grown at the atomic level. For thin film, heteroepitaxial growth of a crystalline film on a different crystalline substrate is usual, and the lattice mismatch between the crystalline film and the substrate occurring in heteroepitaxy produces many misfits at the interface, which create various defects, including dislocations and grain boundaries that eventually lead to a rough surface and the deterioration of the overall quality of the crystal. The metamorphic growth method utilizing the extended atomic distance mismatch (EADM) helps to achieve successful growth of thin films in spite of a large lattice mismatch by calculating the match for a relatively long period in advance. Having an ultraflat surface for thin films made of metals such as copper has many advantages. Several advantages and possible applications of metal thin films with ultraflat surfaces are introduced.