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We investigate the effect of room-temperature hydrogen-plasma treatment on the photoconductivity of SiGe nanoparticles sandwiched within SiO2 layers. An increase in photocurrent intensity of more than an order magnitude is observed after the hydrogen plasma treatment. The enhancement is attributed to neutralization of dangling bonds at the nanoparticles and to passivation of nonradiative defects in the oxide matrix and at SiGe/matrix interfaces. We find that increasing the partial pressure of hydrogen to pressures where H3+ and H2+ were the dominant ions results in increased photocurrent.

Photosensitive films based on finely dispersed semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) in dielectric films have great potential for sensor applications. Here we report on preparation and characterization ...

Trilayer memory capacitors with Ge nanocrystals (NCs) floating gate in HfO 2 were obtained by magnetron sputtering deposition on p-type Si substrate followed by rapid thermal annealing at relatively low temperature of 600 °C. The frequency dispersion of capacitance and resistance was measured in accumulation regime of Al/HfO 2 gate oxide/Ge NCs in HfO 2 floating gate/HfO 2 tunnel oxide/SiO x /p-Si/Al memory capacitors. For simulation of the frequency dispersion a complex circuit model was used considering an equivalent parallel RC circuit for each layer of the trilayer structure. A series resistance due to metallic contacts and Si substrate was necessary to be included in the model. A very good fit to the experimental data was obtained and the parameters of each layer in the memory capacitor, i.e. capacitances and resistances were determined and in turn the intrinsic material parameters, i.e. dielectric constants and resistivities of layers were evaluated. The results are very important for the study and optimization of the hysteresis behaviour of floating gate memories based on NCs embedded in oxide.

In this paper, we report studies on Al2O3/Ge/Al2O3 trilayer memory structures deposited by magnetron sputtering at room temperature on p-Si substrates coated with 3 nm SiO2. The changes of the structure, morphology and memory properties induced by rapid thermal annealing (RTA) in a broad temperature range 550–900 °C have been carefully investigated. High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) revealed the existence of distinct RTA effects for different temperature ranges, in correlation with memory properties measured on Al/Al2O3/Ge/Al2O3/SiO2/p-Si/Al devices. Thus, at temperatures smaller than 650 °C, Ge diffuses into adjacent Al2O3, the layers remaining amorphous. The memory window increases from as-deposited samples to those annealed at 600 °C reaching the maximum of 5.4 V. After RTA at 700 °C, Ge nanocrystals (NCs) in intermediate Ge layer and Ge-rich amorphous nanoparticles in Al2O3 tunnel oxide are formed. Increasing RTA temperature to 800 and 900 °C, Ge NCs are no longer formed due to Ge strong diffusion. Instead, Ge-rich mixed GeAl oxide NCs of unknown crystalline structure are evidenced by HRTEM. The memory window continuously decreases with annealing temperature in the range 650–900 °C. The ON (OFF) charge loss of only 11% (9.8%) was found by extrapolation to 10 years.

Formation of SiGe nanocrystals in an oxide matrix via deposition and subsequent annealing is a widely applied approach as it gives good control over optical properties by varying the Ge atomic fraction, the size, shape and crystallinity of the nanocrystals. A common drawback of annealing is a strain relaxation in the structure creating dislocations, point defects, dangling bonds, Ge clustering and altered interface morphology. All these phenomena are well-known to degrade the optoelectronic and electrical properties of the structure. As a proof of concept, in this study we have utilized a modern technique of high impulse power magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) to obtain a crystalline TiO2/SiGe/TiO2 structure without any pre-/post-annealing. It is furthermore demonstrated how a control of the nano-crystallite size is obtained by altering the HiPIMS discharge power alone. Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction analysis was carried out for the structural characterization, while photocurrent measurements were utilized to access the role of TiO2 structural morphology over interface integrity in determining spectral feature and sensitivity. An increase of 1 – 2 orders magnitude in spectral intensity was achieved for as-grown structures fabricated via HiPIMS in comparison to annealed structure, sputtered with conventional direct current magnetron sputtering.

Ge–SiO 2 films with high Ge/Si atomic ratio of about 1.86 were obtained by co-sputtering of Ge and SiO 2 targets and subsequently annealed at different temperatures between 600 and 1000 °C in a conventional furnace in order to show how the annealing process influences the film morphology concerning the Ge nanocrystal and/or amorphous nanoparticle formation and to study their electrical behaviour. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging, Raman spectroscopy and electrical conductance measurements were performed in order to find out the annealing effect on the film surface morphology, as well as the Ge nanoparticle formation in correlation with the hopping conductivity of the films. AFM images show that the films annealed at 600 and 700 °C present a granular surface with particle height of about 15 nm, while those annealed at higher temperatures have smoother surface. The Raman investigations evidence Ge nanocrystals (including small ones) coexisting with amorphous Ge in the films annealed at 600 °C and show that almost all Ge is crystallized in the films annealed at 700 °C. The annealing at 800 °C disadvantages the Ge nanocrystal formation due to the strong Ge diffusion. This transition in Ge nanocrystals formation process by annealing temperature increase from 700 to 800 °C revealed by AFM and Raman spectroscopy measurements corresponds to a change in the electrical transport mechanism. Thus, in the 700 °C annealed films, the current depends on temperature according to a T −1/2 law which is typical for a tunnelling mechanism between neighbour Ge nanocrystals. In the 800 °C annealed films, the current–temperature characteristic has a T −1/4 dependence showing a hopping mechanism within an electronic band of localized states related to diffused Ge in SiO 2 .