The effects of ion implantation damage to photonic crystal optomechanical resonators in silicon

Optomechanical resonators were fabricated on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate that had been implanted with phosphorus donors. The resonators’ mechanical and optical properties were then measured (at 6 kelvin and room temperature) before and after the substrate was annealed. All measured resonators survived the annealing and their mechanical linewidths decreased while their optical and mechanical frequencies increased. This is consistent with crystal lattice damage from the ion implantation causing the optical and mechanical properties to degrade and then subsequently being repaired by the annealing. We explain these effects qualitatively with changes in the silicon crystal lattice structure. We also report on some unexplained features in the pre-anneal samples. In addition, we report partial fabrication of optomechanical resonators with neon ion milling.

Monomode Optical Waveguide Achieved by Lattice Damage in Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia Crystal Induced from Energetic Oxygen Irradiation

With valuable physicochemical properties, yttria-stabilized zirconia crystal has promising advantages in optical applications. In this paper, the waveguide effect is observed in yttria-stabilized zirconia crystal irradiated by energetic oxygen ions. The waveguide properties and the field intensity are analyzed using prism and end-face coupling method arrangements, and the results show that monomode is found in the near-surface region and the light beam can be well confined in the waveguide structure, which shows refractive index distribution of the barrier-wall and enhanced-well type. The lattice damage induced by irradiation is investigated by the Rutherford backscattering/channeling experiment and high-resolution X-ray diffraction techniques. The simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental data.

A kinesin-1 variant reveals motor-induced microtubule damage in cells

Kinesins drive the transport of cellular cargoes as they walk along microtubule tracks, however, recent work has suggested that the physical act of kinesins walking along microtubules can stress the microtubule lattice. Here, we describe a kinesin-1 KIF5C mutant with an increased ability to generate defects in the microtubule lattice as compared to the wild-type motor. Expression of the mutant motor in cultured cells resulted in microtubule breakage and fragmentation, suggesting that kinesin-1 variants with increased damage activity would have been selected against during evolution. The increased ability to damage microtubules is not due to the altered motility properties of the mutant motor as expression of the kinesin-3 motor KIF1A, which has similar single-motor motility properties, also caused increased microtubule pausing, bending, and buckling but not breakage. In cells, motor-induced microtubule breakage could not be prevented by increased α-tubulin K40 acetylation, a post-translational modification known to increase microtubule flexibility. In vitro, lattice damage induced by wild-type KIF5C was repaired by soluble tubulin and resulted in increased rescues and microtubule growth whereas lattice damage induced by the KIF5C mutant resulted in larger repair sites that made the microtubule vulnerable to breakage and fragmentation when under mechanical stress. These results demonstrate that kinesin-1 motility causes defects in and damage to the microtubule lattice in cells. While cells have the capacity to repair lattice damage, conditions that exceed this capacity result in microtubule breakage and fragmentation and may contribute to human disease.

Mid-Infrared ZnS Ridge Waveguide Fabricated by Femtosecond Laser Ablation Combined With Ion Irradiation

We have experimentally studied the fabrication of ridge waveguides in zinc sulfide (ZnS) crystal by femtosecond laser ablation combined with Kr8+ ion irradiation. At the wavelength of 4 μm, the waveguide at TE mode shows better guiding properties than TM mode. The transmission performance of the waveguide is improved by using thermal annealing technology to reduce the color centers and point defects in the waveguide. The waveguide propagation loss at TE mode at 4 μm wavelength is reduced to as low as 0.6 dB/cm after annealing. Raman spectroscopy shows that Kr8+ ion irradiation does not cause large lattice damage to ZnS crystal.

4H-SiC MOSFET Source and Body Laser Annealing Process

This work describes the development of a new post-implant crystal recovery technique in 4H-SiC using XeCl (l=308 nm) multiple laser pulses in the ns regime. Characterization was carried out through micro-Raman spectroscopy, Photoluminescence (PL), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and outcomes were than compared with 1h thermally annealed at 1650-1770-1750 °C P implanted samples (source implant) and P and Al implanted samples for 30 minutes at 1650 °C (source and body implants). Experimental results demonstrate that laser annealing enables crystal recovery in the energy density range between 0.50 and 0.60 J/cm2. Unlike the results obtained with thermal annealing where stress up to 172 Mpa and high carbon vacancies (Vc) concentration is recorded, laser annealing provides almost stress free samples and much less defective crystal avoiding intra-bandgap carrier recombination. Implant was almost preserved except for step-bouncing and surface oxidation phenomena leading to surface roughening. However, the results of this work gives way to laser annealing process practicability for lattice damage recovery and dopant activation.