National Institute Of Materials Physics - Romania

Photoelectrical measurements have shown that the current flow through La2Hf2O7 and LaAlO3 high-k insulator layers deposited on silicon takes place via impurity channels. A space charge limited current is evidenced, for different insulator thicknesses and temperatures, by the square law dependence of current versus voltage. The analysis demonstrates that this space charge limited (SCL) current in thin insulator films can be explained only by the presence of impurity channels situated near the Fermi level of the injecting contact. Many other aspects related to the SCL current behavior were found. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.

sLaser ablation deposition has been used to synthesize nanoscale ferrite structures. Our investigations were performed on NiZn and Zn ferrite films deposited on silicon(100) substrates. Films produced by laser ablation at room temperature were annealed at 550 degrees C for 1 h. Other films were deposited directly at a 550 degrees C substrate temperature without subsequent annealing. Complementary x-ray diffraction and superconducting quantum interference device magnetometry measurements helped identify the optimum laser ablation deposition conditions for obtaining the desired nanoferrite structures. From the hysteresis loops at 300 and 10 K we. identified the paramagnetic or ferromagnetic behavior of the films. The zero field cooled-field cooled (ZFC-FC) magnetization, M(T), curves yielded the value of the blocking temperature in both NiZn and Zn ferrite systems. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.

Estimating the low densities of misfit dislocations in epitaxial layers in the early stages of relaxation is difficult, requiring a very sensitive method. The characteristic patterns of diffuse x-ray scattering are therefore utilized to quantify the linear density of misfit dislocations. This is demonstrated for ZnSe/GaAs(001) heterostructures with ZnSe layer thickness slightly above the critical thickness. The densities that resulted from calculated patterns of x-ray scattering perpendicular to the diffraction vector are found to be in good agreement with the results of cathodoluminescence and transmission electron microscopy. Moreover, the diffuse x-ray scattering is used to quantitatively study the thermally induced increase in the linear densities of misfit dislocations. Samples are annealed at various temperatures for increasing periods successively and are analyzed between the annealing steps by high-resolution x-ray diffraction. The density of dislocations is found to saturate for longer annealing periods. The saturation value and the rate of increase of the dislocation density depend both on the annealing temperature and on the crystallographic direction. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.

The rotational molecular dynamics of water confined to nanoporous molecular sieves of a regular hexagonal (SBA-15) and of a foamlike pore structure was studied by dielectric spectroscopy in the frequency range from 10(-2) to 10(9) Hz and in a broad temperature interval. Two relaxation processes were observed: the process at lower frequencies is related to water molecules forming a layer, which is strongly adsorbed at the pore surface, whereas the relaxation process at higher frequencies is assigned to fluctuations of water molecules situated close to the center of the pore. The relaxation times of the low-frequency process for both materials and of the high-frequency process for the SBA-15 material have an unusual saddlelike temperature dependence, reported here for the first time. To describe this temperature dependence, a model developed for water confined to nanoporous glasses by Ryabov et al. [J. Phys. Chem. B 2001, 105, 1845] was applied, which considers two competing effects. The characteristic features of these two competing processes were compared with those reported for other porous systems.

Capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements were performed on epitaxial layers of PbsZr(0.2)Ti(0.8)dO(3) (PZT) with top and bottom SrRuO3 (SRO) electrodes. It is shown that the sharp capacitance peak/discontinuity which is present in the C-V characteristics at different frequencies is directly associated with the polarization reversal. The ferroelectric film is assumed as a large band-gap semiconductor with Schottky contacts at the metal-ferroelectric interfaces. The capacitance discontinuity at the reversal scoercived voltage is associated with a discontinuity in the built-in potential at the PZT/ SRO interfaces. The C-V characteristics for voltage ranges outside the coercive values can be used to extract the free carrier concentrations as in the case of Schottky metal-semiconductor contacts. The carrier concentration was found to be (2-4) x 10(18) cm(-3), independent of measuring frequency and temperature up to 1 MHz and 170 degrees C, respectively, suggesting completely ionized shallow impurities. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.

The inhibiting effect of N-ciclohexil-benzothiazole-sulphenamida (NCBSA) on the corrosion of carbon-steel in diluted ammonia solution at room temperature has been studied by Mossbauer spectroscopy, electrochemical measurements, weight loss and surface microscopic analysis. A decrease in the corrosion spot concentration with the increase of the NCBSA concentration indicates a good adsorbability of NCBSA on the metal surface. Mossbauer spectrometry shows the formation of a layer at the surface of the corroded sample, which is interpreted in terms of the formation of complexes between NCBSA and the metal cations present in the carbon-steel structure. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

(Zr-0.8, Sn-0.2)TiO4 ternary compounds (ZST) have been prepared by conventional solid-state reaction from raw materials. The effects of such sintering parameters as sintering temperature, sintering time, and NiO addition on structural and dielectric properties were investigated. The material exhibits a dielectric constant epsilon(r), similar to 36.0 and high values of the product Qf of the intrinsic quality factor Q and the frequency f from 32,170 to 50,000 at microwave frequencies. The dielectric loss tan delta values of ZST ceramics are decreased by low-level doping of NiO, while the temperature coefficient of the resonance frequency tau(f) takes values in the range -2 to +4ppm/degrees C. Investigations on whispering gallery modes revealed low dielectric loss in millimetre-wave domain. An intrinsic quality factor of 480 was measured at 115.6GHz. Dielectric resonators and substrates of ZST material were manufactured. The dielectric properties make the ZST material very attractive to microwave and millimeter-wave applications, such as dielectric resonators, filters, planar antennas, hybrid microwave integrated circuits, etc. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

There is an increasing demand of high permittivity ferroelectric materials in microwave devices. Particularly, the Ba1-xSrxTiO3 system (BST), presents a major interest for electrically controlled devices, such as tunable filters, steerable antennas, phase shifters, varactors, etc. [F. De Flaviis, N.G. Alexopoulos, O.M. Stafsudd, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., MTT-45 (6) (1997) 963-969]. Solid solutions with X=25, 50, 75, 90% were prepared by standard ceramic technology (solid state reaction) and sintered at 1230 and 1260 degrees C. The temperature dependence of permittivity and of losses at low frequency (1 kHz) has shown interesting results [A. loachim, M.I. Toacsen, M.G. Banciu, L. Nedelcu, D. Ghetu, H.V. Alexandru, C. Berbecaru, G. Stoica, Proceedings on the XVII International Conference on Electromagnetic Fields and Materials, Warszawa, May 2004, pp. 78-82]. The unit cell volume depends linearly on the Sr content ohm (angstrom(3)) = 61.1 + 3.6X (estimated from Ref. [D. Roy, S. D. Krupandihi, Appl. Phys. Lett. 62 (1993) 1056-1058]). The measured densities of our samples p (g/cm(3)); approximate to 5.50 - 1.00X, represent about 92% of the X-ray estimated density p (g/cm(3)) approximate to 5.99 - 0.99X. Microwave measurements around 1 GHz show substantial decrease of the permittivity from about 1600 to 200 and also of the losses from 0.8% to less than 0.15% with the Sr concentration increase, X = 50-90%. It is concluded that sintering temperature has to be increased for samples of high Sr concentration. Moreover, the addition of MgO and MnO2, 1 wt.% each, improve sintering conditions and decreases the microwave losses. Experimental data show an approximate linear decrease of the Curie point, versus X strontium concentration, according to the formula: T-C (degrees C) approximate to 120-360X. Room temperature permittivity and dielectric loss have been measured in microwaves range using the Hakki-Coleman method. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.

Pure and L- or D-alanime doped triglycine sulphate crystals (TGS) where grown in paraelectric phase around 52 degrees C. Doped crystals show lower and reproducible permittivities (crossing down the Curie point) and much lower losses versus pure crystals. Higher figures of merit have to be expected for highly doped crystals, suitable for IR detection. A remarkable difference of the experimental curves was noticed in the temperature dependence of the pyroelectric coefficients (p = dP(S)/dT) for L- and D-alanine doped samples. This fact suggests a non-equivalent L/D-alanine dopant substitution of the glycine group GI in the host lattice. Spontaneous polarization was calculated by integration of pyroelectric current data, and separately from the hysteresis loops recorded on a large temperature range, using Sawyer-Tower (phase compensated) circuit. Polarization values estimated from the two method compare reasonable well, except the temperature range in the proximity of the Curie point. lnternal bias field of similar to 1 kV/cm, induced by L-alanine dopant, stabilizes the polarization components P+ and P- opposite directions, with a peculiar dependence on the ac electric field. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.