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Terahertz (THz) absorption spectra of the two crystalline forms of 5,5-diethylbarbituric acid (barbital) were measured with THz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS). The spectra exhibited the dissimilarity between the two forms. Identification of the polymorphs and quantitative analysis of the two forms are possible by THz-TDS. Further, we performed ab-initio calculations of the vibrational modes considering the crystal structures of the two forms, and the results were in good agreement with the experimental data. We discuss the difference between the THz absorption spectra of the two forms.

Stresses induced in the silicon carbide (SiC) epitaxial layer near the interface between thermal silicon oxide and 4H-SiC epitaxial substrate were measured using a near-field optical Raman microscope equipped with a hollow pyramid probe (aperture size: approximately 250 nm). The E 2 phonon was observed to undergo a 0.17 cm -1 redshift owing to reduction in oxide-layer thickness from 300 nm to 0 nm; this result was compared against that obtained using a standard Raman microprobe sans the pyramidal probe. The result indicates that the epitaxial layer near the SiO 2 -4H-SiC interface was maintained under a constant tensile stress of the order of 50 MPa. This agrees well with the result obtained using the finite element method (FEM). Based on results obtained using the said Raman microprobe and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) measurements, use of an inhomogeneity formation model at the SiO 2 -4H-SiC interface has been proposed in this study.

Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra were measured for thermal oxides with different electrical properties grown on 4H-SiC substrates. The peak frequency of the transverse optical (TO) phonon mode was blue-shifted by 5 cm -1 as the oxide-layer thickness decreased to 3 nm. The blue shift of the TO mode indicates interfacial compressive stress in the oxide. Comparison of data for the oxide on a SiC substrate with that for similar oxides on a Si substrate implies that the peak shift of the TO mode at the SiO 2 /SiC interface is larger than that of SiO 2 /Si, which suggests that the interfacial stress for the oxide on the SiC substrate is larger than that on the Si substrate. For the SiO 2 /SiC interfacial region (<3 nm oxide thickness), despite the fact that the blue shift of the TO modes becomes larger while approaching the oxide/SiC interface, the peak frequency of the TO modes red-shifts at the oxide/SiC interface. The peak-frequency shift of the TO mode for the sample without post-oxidation annealing was larger than that for the samples post-annealed in a nitric oxide atmosphere. The channel mobilities are correlated with the degree of shift of the TO mode when the oxide thickness is <3 nm. It appears that the compressive stress at the SiO 2 /SiC interface generates silicon suboxide components and weakens the Si-O bonds. As the result, the TO mode was red-shifted and the oxygen deficiency increased to relax the compressive stress in the oxide with <3 nm thickness. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy measurements provide unique and useful information about stress and inhomogeneity at the oxide/SiC interface.

We measured the depolarized and polarized Raman spectra of a 4H-SiC metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) and found that compressive stress of approximately 20 MPa occurs under the source and gate electrodes and tensile stress of approximately 10 MPa occurs between the source and gate electrodes. The experimental result was in close agreement with the result obtained by calculation using the finite element method (FEM). A combination of Raman spectroscopy and FEM provides much data on the stresses in 4H-SiC MOSFET., (© The Author(s) 2016.)

We measured the Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra of thermal oxides with various thicknesses, grown thermally on 4H silicon carbide (4H-SiC) substrates. For the thin (8 nm thick) thermal oxide, the transverse optical (TO) phonon peak frequency in the thermal oxide on the 4H-SiC substrate was observed at ~1080 cm -1 and was higher than that recorded in thermal oxides on a Si substrate (1074 cm -1 ). This shows that the thin thermal oxide was under compressive stress, calculated to be approximately 0.4 GPa, at the interface between the thermal oxide and 4H-SiC substrate. The shift of the TO phonon for s-polarized light was found to be larger than that for p-polarized light. In contrast, for the thick (85 and 130 nm thick) thermal oxides, the TO phonon peak frequency tended to shift toward lower frequencies with increasing oxide-layer thickness. By comparing the FT-IR and cathodoluminescence (CL) measurements, we conclude that the TO phonon redshift with increasing oxide-layer thickness can mainly be attributed to a corresponding increase in inhomogeneity in the thick thermal oxides.

We measured the Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and cathodoluminescence (CL) spectra of silicon dioxide (SiO2) films grown on 4H-silicon carbide (4H-SiC) substrates and confirmed that the phonon observed at around 1150-1250 cm(-1) originates from the upper branch of the surface phonon polaritons (SPPs) in the SiO2 films and that its frequency is sensitive to the oxide thickness. The relative intensity of the upper branch of SPPs normalized by that of the transverse optical phonon (TO) tended to increase with decreasing channel mobility (CM). A comparison of the FT-IR and CL measurements shows that the relative intensity is correlated with an inhomogeneity in the SiO2-SiC interface and the CM of SiC devices. A combination of FT-IR spectroscopy and CL spectroscopy provides us with a large amount of data on the inhomogeneity, defect, and oxide thickness of SiO2 films on 4H-SiC substrates.

We report the abnormal behavior of longitudinal optical (LO) phonon in a silicon dioxide (SiO2) film on a 4H-SiC bulk epitaxial substrate using an attenuated total reflection (ATR) technique. The peak frequency of the LO phonon in the ATR spectrum was observed at around 1165 cm(-1) and red-shifted by approximately 92 cm(-1) relative to that at the grazing incidence (40°), whereas the peak frequency of the transverse optical (TO) phonon in the ATR spectrum agreed well with that at the grazing incidence. Furthermore, the peak frequency of the TO phonon hardly depends on change in the incident angle and thickness, suggesting that the microstructure of the sample is homogeneous within a thickness of 100 nm. On the other hand, we found that the microstructure of the sample was inhomogeneous within a thickness less than 5 nm. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy provides us with a large amount of data on microstructures in the SiO2 films on a 4H-SiC substrate.

We used Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy to characterize silicon dioxide (SiO(2)) films on a 4H-SiC(0001) Si face. We found that the peak frequency of the transverse optical (TO) phonon in SiO(2) films grown on a 4H-SiC substrate agrees well with that in SiO(2) films grown on a Si substrate, whereas the peak frequency of the longitudinal optical (LO) phonon in SiO(2) films on a 4H-SiC substrate is red-shifted by approximately 50 cm(-1) relative to that in SiO(2) films on a Si substrate. We concluded that this red-shift of the LO phonon is mainly caused by a change in inhomogeneity due to a decrease in density in the SiO(2) films. Furthermore, cathodoluminescence (CL) spectroscopy results indicated that the channel mobility of the SiC metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) decreases roughly in proportion to the increase in the intensity of the CL peak at 460 and 490 nm, which is attributed to the increase in the number of oxygen vacancy centers (OVCs). FT-IR and CL spectroscopies provide us with a large amount of data on OVCs in the SiO(2) films on a 4H-SiC substrate.

We have developed a tapping-mode scanning near-field optical Raman microscope (SNORM) with a caved and pyramidical probe, using resonant Raman scattering, and have measured the stress distribution of Si. The peak frequency shifts to a lower frequency by 0-0.5 cm(-1) in the area covered by silicon dioxide, whereas it shifts to a higher frequency by 0-0.3 cm(-1) in the area uncovered by silicon dioxide, showing that the areas covered and uncovered by silicon dioxide are under tensile and compressive stresses, respectively. It has been found that compressive stresses of about 0.69 GPa/cm2 are concentrated on the corner of the area uncovered by silicon dioxide. The comparison of stress distributions measured with and without the cantilever shows that the SNORM we developed has a spatial resolution of at least less than 250 nm.

Thermal residual stresses developed at the time of semiconductor molding may cause serious problems both in their structural and functional performance; therefore, residual stress assessment in microelectronic devices is a mandatory evaluation step. Fluorescence piezo-spectroscopy was applied to evaluate residual stresses with a microscopic resolution inside a semiconductor encapsulant. In order to obtain reliable stress information, a low fraction of alumina powder, as a fluorescent sensor, was embedded into the silica/epoxy molding compound. Residual stress was transferred from the molding compound to the alumina phase and could be monitored by recording the shift of the sharp and intense fluorescence spectrum of Cr3+ in alumina. Two-dimensional residual-stress maps, recorded near the edge of the silicon chip, revealed a strong stress concentration in the molding compound. Experimental results were compared with calculations obtained by the linear finite element method. Such a comparison showed that the experimental stress values were systematically larger than the corresponding calculated values due to local delamination at the chip edge.