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Transparent conducting oxides are electrically conductive materials with high optical transmittance in the visible region of the spectrum and are useful in a wide range of applications. In this study, the optical spectra of a set of single-phase transparent conducting oxides TiO2, ZnO, and SnO2 grown by pulse laser deposition are measured by vacuum ultraviolet spectroscopic ellipsometry and the optical bandgaps are determined to be 3.30 ± 0.05 eV, 3.13 ± 0.05 eV, and 3.95 ± 0.05 eV, respectively. Differences between these values and previous measurements are discussed. SnO2 and ZnO optical responses at the bandgap reveal that they are a direct bandgap, while TiO2 appears to show an indirect type. For the interfacial electronic characteristics, the internal photoemission measurement shows that the electronic barriers of these naturally n-type-doped metal oxides adjacent to an Al2O3 layer originate from the Fermi level in their conduction bands. The band offset determination shows that the barrier heights are similar and have a small internal field dependence. The work functions are then estimated from the measured barrier heights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A route is presented for activation of hydrogen-terminated Si(100) prior to atomic layer deposition. It is based on our discovery from in situ infrared spectroscopy that organometallic precursors can effectively initiate oxide growth. Narrow nuclear resonance profiling and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry show that surface functionalization by pre-exposure to 10[sup;8] Langmuir trimethylaluminum at 300 ?C leads to enhanced nucleation and to nearly linear growth kinetics of the high-permittivity gate dielectrics aluminum oxide and hafnium oxide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]