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Dopant segregation (DS) technique has been extensively employed to tune Schottky barrier heights (SBHs) of NiSi/Si diodes, either leading to reduced specific contact resistivity ( $\rho _{\text {c}}$ ) in source/drain (S/D) Ohmic contacts, or enhanced current drivability in Schottky barrier S/D MOSFET (SB-MOSFET) where metallic NiSi is employed as S/D. A capacitance–voltage ( ${C}$ – ${V}$ ) method is usually adopted to reliably extract the SBHs of NiSi/Si for investigating the effectiveness of such a DS technique. In order to avoid large reverse leakage current which rules out the possibility of SBHs extraction during ${C}$ – ${V}$ measurements, dopants with opposite polarity to that in epitaxial Si substrate segregate at the NiSi/Si interface, for instance, boron DS (B DS) for NiSi/n-Si and arsenic DS (As DS) for NiSi/p-Si. This, however, raises one critical question, i.e., NiSi/p+-Si (B DS)/n-Si and NiSi/n+-Si (As DS)/p-Si are p-n or Schottky junctions. In this work, a dedicated circuit is devised to distinguish the type of as-fabricated NiSi/Si diodes with DS based on different switching mechanisms between p-n and Schottky junctions.

Utilized Zn/Co-based metal-organic framework, we successfully fabricate 1D N-doped porous carbon nanofibers anchoring amorphous and graphite carbon-encapsulated CoS2 nanoparticles, using a facile electrospinning strategy combined with annealing treatment. Remarkably, the composite as superior anode for sodium ion battery is rationally designed, and also exhibit enhanced Na-storage performance. The composite shows a large specific capacity of 876 mAh g−1 at 100 mA g−1 in the initial cycles and an outstanding long-term performance (148 mAh g−1 at a current density of 3.2 A g−1 over 1000 cycles). The improved electrochemical performance is ascribed to the 1D porous carbon nanofibers structure and the amorphous and graphite carbon coating, which can relatively inhibit agglomeration of CoS2 nanoparticles, mitigate the volume of the material changes in the process of circulation and provide stabilized electrical conductivity. This research paves the way for extending the 1D metal sulfides and metal-organic framework composites toward potential applications.

Dopant-segregated source/drain contacts in a p-channel Schottky-barrier metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (SB-MOSFET) require further hole Schottky barrier height (SBH) regulation toward sub-0.1 eV levels to improve their competitiveness with conventional field-effect transistors. Because of the solubility limits of dopants in silicon, the requirements for effective hole SBH reduction with dopant segregation cannot be satisfied using mono-implantation. In this study, we demonstrate a potential solution for further SBH tuning by implementing the dual implantation of boron (B) and aluminum (Al) in combination with microwave annealing (MWA). By using such a method, not only has the lowest hole SBH ever with 0.07 eV in NiSi/n-Si contacts been realized, but also the annealing duration of MWA was sharply reduced to 60 s. Moreover, we investigated the SBH tuning mechanisms of the dual-implanted diodes with microwave annealing, including the dopant segregation, activation effect, and dual-barrier tuning effect of Al. With the selection of appropriate implantation conditions, the dual implantation of B and Al combined with the MWA technique shows promise for the fabrication of future p-channel SB-MOSFETs with a lower thermal budget.

In this work, Eu3+ doped Y2O3 hexagonal prisms were synthesized by a novel two-phase approach, which involves water at the bottom as aqueous phase and oleylamine in the above as oil phase. With this unique reaction system, precursors of hexagonal prisms Y4O(OH)9(NO3) were first obtained by simply varying the volume ratio of water to oleylamine. Time-dependent experiments were systematically performed to reveal the growth mechanism of the precursor. After subsequent heat treatment, these precursors transformed to Y2O3 hexagonal prisms with controlled diameters and aspect ratios varying from 4 to 19. Such a transformation is preceded via a topotactic process, as indicated by TG-DTA and mass spectra. Eventually, all Eu3+ doped Y2O3 hexagonal prisms were found to exhibit an intensive red emission at 611 nm, which corresponds to 5D0→7F2 transition of Eu3+. With varying the aspect ratio of hexagonal prisms and increasing Eu3+ concentration in Y2O3, an optimum external quantum efficiency was achieved.

Developing energy storage equipments that can work at very high charge–discharge rate is crucial, but highly challenging for more efficient use of energy. From the perspective of chemistry, high-rate property of Li-ion batteries can only be achieved by significantly improving the kinetics of lithium ions and electrons in electrode. Here, we for the first time report on a simple method to resolve kinetics problems of ultrafast charging–discharging Li-ion batteries by fabrication of layered LiMO2 (M = Mn, Co, Ni) hexagonal sheet exposing with facets {101}. The synthetic procedure of hexagonal sheets is proceeded via a simple PVP-assisted co-precipitation, which is followed by a heat treatment. All hexagonal sheets LiMnxCoyNizO2 were demonstrated to deliver a superior excellent rate capability and outstanding cycle stability at high current density of 3000 mA g−1 and under a high cutoff voltage of 4.4 V. The discharge capacity for the composition LiMn0.075Co0.775Ni0.15O2 at an ultrahigh charge–discharge rate of 10,000 mA g−1 is almost as large as that for LiMn2O4 and commercial LiFePO4 at low rate of 1C. The methodology reported here to resolve the kinetic problems of lithium ions and electrons in electrodes may have many implications that would help scientists to find more high-rate lithium-ion batteries for powering electric vehicles and other applications.

Though microwave annealing appears to be very appealing due to its unique features, lacking an in-depth understanding and accurate model hinder its application in semiconductor processing. In this paper, the physics-based model and accurate calculation for the microwave annealing of silicon are presented. Both thermal effects, including ohmic conduction loss and dielectric polarization loss, and non-thermal effects are thoroughly analyzed. We designed unique experiments to verify the mechanism and extract relevant parameters. We also explicitly illustrate the dynamic interaction processes of the microwave annealing of silicon. This work provides an in-depth understanding that can expedite the application of microwave annealing in semiconductor processing and open the door to implementing microwave annealing for future research and applications.

A well-designed material comprising Co3O4 nanoparticles embedded in one-dimensional porous nitrogen-doped carbon nanofibers (Co3O4@NCNFs) is prepared through electrospinning, immersion in a cobalt-containing zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIF-67/ZIF-8) and follows by calcination and oxidation. The resultant sample displays a high discharge capacity of 332 mAh g−1 after 200 cycles at a current density of 100 mA g−1 and an outstanding long-term performance (181 mAh g−1 at 1 A g−1 over 1000 cycles), which is better than the reported high current density for Co3O4-based materials. The excellent electrochemical performance is attributed to the nanostructure comprising Co3O4 nanoparticles homogeneously embedded in nitrogen-doped carbon nanofibers, which can effectively inhibit the aggregation of Co3O4 nanoparticles, accommodate the volume change during charge and discharge processes and provide high electrical conductivity of the electrode. This work provides a facile method to obtain one-dimensional oxide composites with high electrochemical performance using a new metal-organic framework as the sacrificial template.

The Schottky junction source/drain structure has great potential to replace the traditional p/n junction source/drain structure of the future ultra-scaled metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs), as it can form ultimately shallow junctions. However, the effective Schottky barrier height (SBH) of the Schottky junction needs to be tuned to be lower than 100 meV in order to obtain a high driving current. In this paper, microwave annealing is employed to modify the effective SBH of NiSi on Si via boron or arsenic dopant segregation. The barrier height decreased from 0.4–0.7 eV to 0.2–0.1 eV for both conduction polarities by annealing below 400 °C. Compared with the required temperature in traditional rapid thermal annealing, the temperature demanded in microwave annealing is ~60 °C lower, and the mechanisms of this observation are briefly discussed. Microwave annealing is hence of high interest to future semiconductor processing owing to its unique capability of forming the metal/semiconductor contact at a remarkably lower temperature.