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Recently, the electron mobility in wedge-shaped c-GaN nanowall networks has been estimated to cross the theoretical mobility limit for bulk GaN. Significant blue-shift of the bandgap has also been observed. Both the findings are explained in terms of two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) formed at the central vertical plane of the walls due to the polarization charges at the two inclined faces. Carrier concentration and mobility have earlier been determined from thermoelectric power and conductivity measurements with the help of a statistical model. Due to the network nature of the system, direct measurements of these quantities from Hall experiments are not possible. Search for a better way to estimate mobility in this system thus becomes important. Since, strain can also lead to the blue-shift of the bandgap, it is also imperative to evaluate carefully the role of strain. Here, using Raman spectroscopy, we have estimated carrier concentration and mobility in these nanowall networks with varied average tip-widths. Depth distribution of strain and luminescence characteristics are also studied. The study reveals that strain has no role in the bandgap enhancement. Moreover, the electron mobility, which is determined from the lineshape analysis of the A1(LO)-plasmon coupled mode in Raman spectra, has been found to be significantly higher than the theoretical limit of mobility for bulk GaN for the same electron concentration. These results thus corroborate the picture of polarization induced vertical 2DEG formation in these walls as predicted theoretically.

Point defects create exotic properties in materials such as defect-induced luminescence in wide-bandgap semiconductors, magnetism in nonmagnetic materials, single-photon emission from semiconductors, etc. In this article, oxygen defect formation in metallic TiN and semiconducting rock salt-(Al,Sc)N is investigated with a combination of first-principles density functional theory, synchrotron-based x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) analysis, and scanning transmission electron microscopy–energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy mapping. Modeling results show that oxygen in TiN and rock salt-(Al,Sc)N prefers to be in the defect complex of substitutional and interstitial oxygen (nON + Oi) types. While in TiN, the preferential interstitial sites of oxygen in ON + Oi are at the tetrahedral site, in rock salt-(Al,Sc)N, a split interstitial site along the [111] direction was found to be energetically preferable. Simulations performed as a function of the oxygen partial pressure show that under experimental growth conditions, four oxygen atoms at the substitutional sites of nitrogen (4ON), along with four Ti atoms, decorate around an interstitial oxygen atom at the tetrahedral site (Oi) in the energetically favored configuration. However, in rock salt-(Al,Sc)N, n in nON + Oi was found to vary from two to four depending on the oxygen partial pressure. Theoretical predictions agree well with the experimentally obtained XAS results. These results are not only important for a fundamental understanding of oxygen impurity defect behavior in rock salt nitride materials but will also help in the development of epitaxial metal/semiconductor superlattices with efficient thermionic properties.

Small changes in electrical conductance of quasi-2 dimensional samples often need to be measured at low temperatures, T ∼ 1 K and lower. Care needs to be taken to minimize self-heating due to the excitation current itself and the possibility of any unexpected source of variation of the electrochemical potential around the contacts need to be understood. It is not only the low resistance of the ohmic contacts but also their “noninvasive” character that must be ensured. While the importance of the “noninvasiveness” of the voltage probes is well appreciated for mesoscopic devices—it turns out that these considerations continue to remain important even in macroscopic samples that are a few millimeters in size. We have done low temperature measurements on different types of gallium nitride samples with contacts made of pure indium (popularly called indium dots), which have a superconducting transition and contacts made of Ti/Au, which remain nonsuperconducting. We show that there are qualitative differences in the measured four-terminal resistance in the two cases. Obviously, correct conclusions about phase relaxation times, localization lengths, etc., will require ensuring that there are no effects arising from the “invasiveness” of the probes.

We discuss the microstructural origin of enhanced radial growth in magnesium (Mg) doped single crystalline wurtzite gallium nitride (w-GaN) nanorods (NRs) grown by MBE, using electron microscopy and first-principles Density Functional Theory calculations. Experimentally, we observe that Mg incorporation increases the surface coverage of the grown samples as a consequence of an increase in the radial growth rate of the NRs. We also observe that the coalescence of NRs becomes prominent and the height at which coalescence between proximal rods occurs decreases with increase in Mg concentration. From first-principles calculations, we find that the surface free energy of the Mg doped surface reduces with increasing Mg concentration in the samples. The calculations further suggest a reduction in the adsorption energy and the diffusion barrier of Ga adatoms along [ 11 2 ¯ 0 ] on the side wall surface of the NRs as the underlying mechanism for the observed enhancement in the radial growth rate of GaN NRs. The physics and chemistry behind reduction of the adsorption energy of Ga ad-atoms on the doped surface are explained in the light of electronic structure of the relevant surfaces.

We report the molecular beam epitaxy growth of device quality InN films on GaN epilayer and nano-wall network (NWN) templates deposited on c-sapphire by varying the film thickness up to 1 μm. The careful experiments are directed towards obtaining high mobility InN layers having a low band gap with improved crystal quality. The dislocation density is quantified by using high resolution X-ray diffraction rocking curve broadening values of symmetric and asymmetric reflections, respectively. We observe that the dislocation density of the InN films grown on GaN NWN is less than that of the films grown on the GaN epilayer. This is attributed to the nanoepitaxial lateral overlayer growth (ELOG) process, where the presence of voids at the interface of InN/GaN NWN prevents the propagation of dislocation lines into the InN epilayers, thereby causing less defects in the overgrown InN films. Thus, this new adaptation of the nano-ELOG growth process enables us to prepare InN layers with high electron mobility. The obt...

In the present study, x-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, spectroscopic ellipsometry, photoluminescence, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy techniques were used to study the effect of 120 MeV 107Ag9+ ion irradiation on nanocrystalline Cu2O thin films grown by the activated reactive evaporation technique. The influence of dense electronic excitations during ion irradiation on the structural and optical properties of the Cu2O thin films was studied. Experimental results demonstrate that the phase and the size of nanocrystallites in the Cu2O thin films as well as associated surface states can be tailored by controlling ion fluence. The Cu2O higher symmetry cubic phase is observed to be quite stable under a higher temperature and irradiation-induced thermal spikes, which accompanies ion irradiation.

A kinetically controlled two-step growth process for the formation of an array of dislocation free high mobility InN nanorods (NRs) on GaN nanowall network (NWN) by Molecular Beam Epitaxy is demonstrated here. The epitaxial GaN NWN is formed on c-sapphire under nitrogen rich conditions, and then changing the source from Ga to In at appropriate substrate temperature yields the nucleation of a self assembled spontaneous m-plane side faceted-InN NR. By HRTEM, the NRs are shown to be dislocation-free and have a low band gap value of 0.65 eV. Hall measurements are carried out on a single InN NR along with J-V measurements that yield mobility values as high as ≈4453 cm2/V s and the carrier concentration of ≈1.1 × 1017 cm−3, which are unprecedented in the literature for comparable InN NR diameters.

The desorption of fluorine from barium fluoride thin films deposited on silicon substrate has been observed due to the incidence of electron beam during Auger electron spectroscopic (AES) studies. Slow electron energy loss spectroscopy (SEELS) has been employed to observe changes in core levels and color center formation. The desorption cross section for fluorine and the critical electron beam dose necessary to initiate electron‐stimulated desorption have been estimated. The results are envisaged to provide information to investigators performing AES on such materials to choose parameters so as to eliminate or reduce beam damages. Since the desorption of fluorine results in metalliclike barium on the surface, it can also be a technique to deposit clean Ba layers on cathode materials to achieve work‐function reduction.

We address the issue of obtaining high quality green emitting InGaN nanorods without any phase separation. Role of pre-nitridation of the Si(111) substrate and growth, temperature on the morphology, structural and optical properties of InxGa1−xN films grown by plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy, has been studied. The nitrogen rich growth environment and surface nitridation results in the formation of vertically well-aligned single crystalline nanorods that are coalesced and isolated at 400 °C and 500 °C, respectively. In incorporation is also seen to be enhanced to ≈28% at 400 °C to yield a stable green emission, while the nanorods grown at 500 °C show blue band-edge emission. The orientation, phase separations, and optical properties characterized by Reflection High Energy Electron Diffraction, Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy, high resolution x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and photoluminescence are corroborated to understand the underlying mechanism. The study optimi...

We study the surface charge accumulation on InN thin films that strongly effects mobility of charge carriers. The films are formed by MBE in the temperature range (400–470 °C) yielding films with different morphology, crystallinity, and optical properties. The band-gap values determined by optical absorption and PL studies are found to depend on the Hall carrier concentration as per the Moss-Burstein relation. The magnitude of the near surface band bending is measured on InN thin films by knowing the surface and bulk Fermi level position with respect to the valence band maximum using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and optical absorption measurements, respectively. The studies show that the surface charge occurs due to the In adlayer on the film causing band-bending is up to 1 eV for low band gap single crystalline films and nearly a flat band for the highly degenerate polycrystalline films. The absence of the band bending is seen to occur when the bulk carrier concentration related to the crystalline quality of the InN films, tends to equate with the surface charge density.

The issue of ambiguous values of the band gap (0.6 to 2 eV) of InN thin film in literature has been addressed by a careful experiment. We have grown wurtzite InN films by PA-MBE simultaneously on differently modified c-plane sapphire substrates and characterized by complementary structural and chemical probes. Our studies discount Mie resonances caused by metallic In segregation at grain boundaries as the reason for low band gap values (≈ 0.6 eV) and also the formation of Indium oxides and oxynitrides as the cause for high band gap value (≈ 2.0 eV). It is observed that polycrystallinity arising from azimuthal miss-orientation of c-oriented wurtzite InN crystals increases the carrier concentration and the band gap values. We have reviewed the band gap, carrier concentration, and effective mass of InN in literature and our own measurements, which show that the Moss-Burstein relation with a non-parabolic conduction band accounts for the observed variation of band gap with carrier concentration.

We address the carrier concentration, strain, and bandgap issue of InN films grown on c-sapphire at different N-flux by molecular beam epitaxy using x-ray diffraction and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. We demonstrate that the strain in InN films arises due to point defects like nitrogen interstitials and nitrogen antisites. We report minimal biaxial strain due to relaxed growth morphology and a minimal hydrostatic strain arising due to interstitial nitrogen atoms being partially compensated by nitrogen antisites. We find that the variation in absorption edge can be attributed to defect induced carrier concentration and that nitrogen interstitials and nitrogen antisites act as donors that yield the respective absorption edge and Moss-Burstein shift. Our studies are a step towards the ability to form low carrier concentration strain-relaxed films and to determine the intrinsic band gap value for this technologically important material.

The issue of variable bandgap values for InN films grown on c-sapphire has been addressed in this work. α-InN films have been deposited in nitrogen rich condition at different substrate temperatures on bare Al2O3 (0001) by plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PA-MBE). The results of several complementary characterization techniques show that single crystalline wurtzite InN is formed, but their orientation depends on the substrate temperature. The bandgap measured on these samples (1.78 eV) is explained by Moss-Burstein shift on these degenerately n-doped samples. Our results discount effects of crystal orientation, presence of oxygen at grain boundaries and In/N stoichiometry as factors that influence the measured band-gap values.

An analysis is given of the electronic structure of Pd nanoparticles synthesized by inert gas evaporation technique. A study of the effect of size on various core and valence electrons in Pd nanoparticles reveals a varied dependence of binding energy of electrons in different electronic levels. The shift in the Pd x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy 4d valence band centroid is more than the core level shift. The results of the present study provide a direct evidence of interplay of quantum confinement (a size effect) and coordination reduction (a surface effect).