Deposition, Characterization, and Modeling of Scandium-Doped Aluminum Nitride Thin Film for Piezoelectric Devices

In this work, we systematically studied the deposition, characterization, and crystal structure modeling of ScAlN thin film. Measurements of the piezoelectric device’s relevant material properties, such as crystal structure, crystallographic orientation, and piezoelectric response, were performed to characterize the Sc0.29Al0.71N thin film grown using pulsed DC magnetron sputtering. Crystal structure modeling of the ScAlN thin film is proposed and validated, and the structure–property relations are discussed. The investigation results indicated that the sputtered thin film using seed layer technique had a good crystalline quality and a clear grain boundary. In addition, the effective piezoelectric coefficient d33 was up to 12.6 pC/N, and there was no wurtzite-to-rocksalt phase transition under high pressure. These good features demonstrated that the sputtered ScAlN is promising for application in high-coupling piezoelectric devices with high-pressure stability.

Electronic and optical properties of AlN under pressure: DFT calculations

Structural, elastic, optical, and electronic properties of wurtzite (WZ), zinc-blende (ZB), and rocksalt (RS) structures of AlN are investigated using the first-principles method and within the framework of density functional theory (DFT). Lattice parameters, bulk modulus, shear modulus, Young’s modulus, and elastic constants are calculated at zero pressure and compared with other experimental and theoretical results. The wurtzite and zinc-blende structures have a transition to rocksalt phase at the pressures of 12.7 GPa and 14 GPa, respectively. The electronic properties are calculated using both GGA and EV-GGA approximations; the obtained results by EV-GGA approximation are in much better agreement with the available experimental data. The RS phase has the largest bandgap with an amount of 4.98 eV; by increasing pressure, this amount is also increased. The optical properties like dielectric function, energy loss function, refractive index, and extinction coefficient are calculated under pressure using GGA approximation. Inter-band transitions are investigated using the peaks of imaginary part of the dielectric function and these transitions mainly occur from N-2[Formula: see text] to Al-3[Formula: see text] levels. The results show that the RS structure has more different properties than the WZ and ZB structures.

Phase Transitions in Ge-Sb-Te Alloys Induced by Ion Irradiations

ABSTRACTThe variation of the electrical and optical properties under 150 keV Ar+ ion irradiation has been studied in Ge2Sb2Te5 polycrystalline films, either in the rocksalt or in the trigonal structure, by in situ reflectivity measurements and ex situ resistance measurements. As the irradiation dose increases, the disorder introduced in the crystalline films increases and the reflectivity decreases, down to a minimum value that corresponds to complete amorphization. Large differences are found by changing the irradiation temperature, for the two crystalline structures. Indeed, the measured amorphization threshold is the same for the two crystalline phases and equal to 1x1013 cm-2 under irradiation at 77K, whilst at room temperature the trigonal phase requires a dose almost double than the rocksalt phase to be amorphized. By structural analyses we found that, before amorphization, ion irradiation induces a transition from the trigonal to the rocksalt structure. The van der Waals gaps present in the trigonal phase might act as preferential sinks for the displaced and mobile atoms, thus promoting this transition. By further increasing the irradiation dose the formed disordered rocksalt phase converts into the amorphous phase. Ion irradiation also affects the electrical properties of the material: the disorder modifies the temperature dependence of resistance of the trigonal Ge2Sb2Te5 and induces a change of sign (from metallic to insulating behavior) at a dose of 2x1013 cm-2, well below the amorphization threshold.

Co effect on zinc blende–rocksalt phase transition in CdS nanocrystals

The Co dopant significantly promotes the zinc blende to rocksalt phase transition and increases the bulk modulus compared with CdS nanocrystals.