Study of DC Magnetron Sputtered Nb Films

As Nb films are widely used as superconducting electrodes of Josephson junctions, it is important to investigate the properties of Nb films in order to fabricate high-quality Josephson junctions. In this work, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of the relationships among the properties of DC magnetron sputtered Nb films with a constant power fabricated at the National Institute of Metrology (China). The film properties, including superconductivity, stress, lattice constant, and surface roughness, were investigated. It was found that in the case of constant power and Ar pressure, the stress and other parameters of the Nb films can maintain a relatively stable state during the continuous consumption of the target material.

Formation of Nanoscale Structures on the Ge(111) Surface Under Mechanical Loading

Surface layers of Ge(111) under external mechanical loading have been investigated by EELS on plasmons and RHEED techniques. The positions of plasmon peaks and the diffraction patters were found to be strongly influenced by the external stress. Lattice dilatation in the layers 1 and 10 nm thick was estimated from the energy shifts of plasmon peaks under the applied load. It has been concluded that under high stress values of the order of 1 GPa the surface layers of Ge(111) undergo a transformation from the single-crystal to nanocrystallin state.

Material Properties of Coherent Tin Films

In this paper, material properties of low pressure, metallic mode Coherent TiN and poison mode Coherent TiN have been examined. The material properties include resistivity, crystal orientation, stress, lattice spacing, density, texture, atomic composition, bonding, roughness, hydrogen content, and grain size. Various analytical tools have been used to analyze the TiN films.