National Institute Of Materials Physics - Romania

Silicon hydrogenation is nowadays studied with the aim of developing and improving a technological method known as 'smart cut' used in the fabrication of 'silicon-on-insulator' devices. The goal of our study is to characterize the defects induced in silicon wafers after exposure to hydrogen RF plasma. Si < 001 > wafers have been treated at 250 degrees C under hydrogen RF plasma at 110 MHz, for various durations. The main features observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) are surface roughening and the presence of three kinds of defects: {111} planar defects, {100} planar defects and H bubbles. In this work a study using conventional TEM and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) techniques is presented on H bubbles and {100} planar defects induced in Si wafers by H-plasma treatment. The strain field around the defects is qualitatively characterized by diffraction contrast analysis and quantitatively by the geometrical phase method, by processing the HRTEM images.

The microscopic damage produced in diodes made of n-type Magnetic Czochralski (MCz) silicon by 24 GeV and 26 MeV protons, up to the fluence of 1.3 x 10(15) cm(-2) 1 MeV equivalent neutrons, has been investigated and results are compared to the damage produced in devices made of standard Floating Zone (STFZ) silicon. It is found by means of Thermally Stimulated Currents (TSC) that the production of a radiation induced charged defect is enhanced in MCz, and might be in part responsible for the differences observed in the two materials at room temperature. The influence of defects on the sign of the space charge density has been studied by current transients at constant temperature i(T, t) and by Transient Current Technique (TCT). Type inversion is not revealed up to the highest investigated fluence. Full depletion voltage V-dep measurements versus fluence exhibits a minimum close to 2 x 10(14) cm(-2) 1 MeV equivalent neutrons; at the same fluence, V-dep measured as a function of annealing time changes its initial slope from positive to negative. It is shown by numerical simulations that these features can be accounted by the formation of a double junction, even in absence of type inversion. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Various samples of ferrofluids consisting of colloidal suspensions of surfacted cobalt ferrite or magnetite nanoparticles in water were studied by x-ray diffraction and temperature dependent Mossbauer spectroscopy. Information about the particle mean size, the size dispersion and the effective magnetic anisotropy energy was obtained for each sample. The results are consistent with the formation of a magnetic dead layer at the particle surface, whose thickness depends on the surfactant - ferrite combination. The magnetic relaxation processes are faster in the colloidal suspensions of magnetite particles as compared with the suspensions of cobalt ferrite particles. The type of the surfactant also influences the magnetic relaxation behaviour, and hence the macroscopic properties of the ferrofluid at ambient temperature.

An AC magnetic field can rotate a vortex-inolecule composed of two fractional vortices in a multiband type of multicomponent superconductor, where two components couple with each other through the intercomponent Josephson interaction. It may directly relate to an abnormal AC loss peak, which we have found recently in the multilayer cuprate supercondutor CuxBa2Ca2Cu3Oy (Cu-1223).

We study the Fano effect and the visibility of the Aharonov-Bohm oscillations for a mesoscopic interferometer with an embedded quantum dot in the presence of a nearby second dot. When the electron-electron interaction between the two dots is considered the nearby dot acts as a charge detector. We compute the currents through the interferometer and detector within the Keldysh formalism and the self-energy of the nonequilibrium Green's functions is found up to the second order in the interaction strength. The current formula contains a correction to the Landauer-Buttiker formula. Its contribution to transport and dephasing is discussed. As the bias applied on the detector is increased, the amplitude of both the Fano resonance and Aharonov-Bohm oscillations are considerably reduced due to controlled dephasing. This result is explained by analyzing the behavior of the imaginary part of the interaction self-energy as a function of energy and bias. We emphasize as well the role of the ring-dot coupling. Our theoretical results are consistent with the experimental observation of Buks [Nature 391, 871 (1998)].

We consider the superfluid-insulator transition for cold bosons under an effective magnetic field. We investigate how the applied magnetic field affects the Mott transition within mean-field theory and find that the critical hopping strength (t/U)(c) increases with the applied field. The increase in the critical hopping follows the bandwidth of the Hofstadter butterfly at the given value of the magnetic field. We also calculate the magnetization and superfluid density within mean-field theory.

By electrochemical deposition in a single nanopore membrane we fabricate Cu/Co layered single nanowires, that exhibit up to 10% magnetoresistance at room temperature. Single nanopore membranes are prepared by irradiating polycarbonate membranes with exactly one swift heavy ion, and by subsequent chemical etching of the single ion track. Both dc and pulsed electrodeposition of single wires consisting of Cu-Co alloy and Cu/Co multilayers respectively, are performed from a bath containing the two metal ions. By sputtering a gold electrode on the upper membrane surface, the single nanowire embedded in the flexible polymer foil is reliably contacted. While alloy wires exhibit anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR), multilayer wires display current-perpendicular-to-plane giant magnetoresistance (CPP-GMR) behavior. This demonstrates that both the fabrication and contacting methods are very suitable for the investigation of transport properties, without the necessity of lithographic processes and without manipulation of the nanowires. In addition, the method opens up many new possibilities for single nanowire-based sensors.

The Sr2FeMo1-xMxO6 perovskites with M = W or Ta and x <= 0.3 were studied by x-ray and electron microscopy. The magnetic and magnetoresistive properties were correlated with their microstructures. The effect of sintering time on their physical properties was analysed.

Polystyrene-CrO2 composite films with extrinsic tunneling magnetoresistance have been obtained. The electric conduction is 2D Mott variable range hopping in the temperature range 77-300 K. The magnetoresistance is negative when the field is aligned parallel to the current (in-plane geometry) and is due to the spin dependent intergrain tunneling of the charge carriers. It reaches a value MR = -10.6 % at room temperature and a magnetic field of 1T. When the field is applied in-plane but perpendicular to the current the magnetoresistivity is positive and has the average value MR = 3.56 %.

The xZnO-(1-x)alpha-Fe2O3 nanoparticles system has been obtained by mechanochemical activation for x=0.1. 0.3 and 0.5 and for ball milling times ranging from 2 to 24 hours. Structural and morphological characteristics of the zinc-doped hematite system were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Mossbauer spectroscopy. As ZnO is not soluble in hematite in the bulk form, the present study clearly demonstrates that the solubility limits of an immiscible system can be extended beyond the limits in the solid state by mechanochemical activation. Moreover, this synthesis route allowed us to reach nanometric particle dimensions, which would make the materials very important for gas sensing applications.