We have developed a unique method to produce smooth diamond films using a modified microwave plasma process system. This method consists of sequential in situ deposition and planarization in an electron cyclotron resonance plasma system. Diamond films were deposited to a thickness of 3.0 μm in this system at a pressure of 1.000 Torr from gas mixtures of methanol and hydrogen. Deposition was followed by planarization using a two-grid ion beam extraction process with a pure oxygen plasma at 10 mTorr. The average roughness of the diamond films so produced was as low as 30 nm, which was a factor of two lower than that of the as-deposited diamond films.

Epitaxial β–SiC film has been grown on a mirror-polished Si(111) substrate using bias-assisted hot filament chemical vapor deposition (BA-HFCVD) at a substrate temperature of 1000 °C. A graphite plate was used as the only carbon source, and hydrogen was the only feeding gas to the deposition system. Atomic hydrogen, produced by hot filaments, reacted with the graphite to form hydrocarbon radicals which further reacted with the silicon substrate and deposited as β–SiC. The effect of negatively biasing the substrate is the key factor for epitaxial growth. Under the same growth conditions without negative bias, polycrystalline β–SiC resulted.

The embedded atom method (EAM) was applied to calculate the energy on Mg doping in polycrystalline Ni3Al. The EAM predicted the energy of Mg in Al site in grain boundary is lower than that of Mg in Ni site and much lower than that of Mg in Al or Ni site in bulk and in free surface. It means that Mg would segregate to grain boundary rather than bulk and free surface and Mg will favor to be the substitute of Al rather than of Ni in grain boundary. These results were consistent with the experiments that Mg segregated to grain boundaries with Al depletion and Ni enrichment.

Ultrafine bismuth nanowire arrays were synthesized by injecting its liquid melt into nanochannels of a porous anodic alumina template. A large area (1 cm × 1.5 cm) of parallel wires with diameters as small as 13 nm, lengths of 30–50 μm, and packing density as high as 7.1 × 1010 cm−2 has been fabricated. X-ray diffraction patterns revealed these nanowires, embedded in the insulating matrix, to be essentially single crystalline and highly oriented. The optical absorption spectra of the nanowire arrays indicate that these bismuth nanowires undergo a semimetal-to-semiconductor transition due to two-dimensional quantum confinement effects.

The formation mechanism of aluminum borate in the combustion synthesis of Al2O3/B4C composite with Al, B2O3, and C as starting materials is proposed. Based on the formation mechanism, several approaches taken to eliminate them are discussed. The unconverted B2O3 is the major cause of the formation of 9Al2O3 · 2B2O3 when the reaction proceeds in the SHS mode. The amount of 9Al2O3 · 2B2O3 formed is very sensitive to the excess B2O3 to the stoichiometry 4Al + 2B2O3 + C and influenced by the size of B2O3 powder. The high dispersion of the reactants is helpful in prompting the thermite reaction to consume B2O3 and hence inhibiting the aluminum borate formation.

An amorphous carbon-boron nitride (C-BN) solid was prepared by ball milling the mixture of graphite and hexagonal BN powders for a period of 120 h. After annealing the amorphous C-BN solid for 1 h at atmosphere in the temperature range from 800 to 900 K and then quenching it to room temperature, a small amount of cubic C-BN solid solutions with diamond-like structure, which belong to a high energy phase and can only be synthesized previously under high pressure and temperature (30 GPa, 2000 K), were observed in the annealed amorphous C-BN solid. The lattice constant of the cubic C-BN solid solution was 0.3587 nm, and its grain size was in the range of 10 to 50 nm.

The experimental determination of x-ray elastic constants are performed by in situ measurements of the dependence of the strain state in selected crystallites for different applied external compressive stresses. The use of compressive applied stresses instead of tensile applied stresses is of interest for x-ray elastic constant determinations for materials which exhibit brittle crack-like behavior, which cannot be loaded to high tensile stresses in, for example, four-point bending devices. The x-ray elastic constants for {146} α–Al2O3 are determined with the pressing device and compared to calculated as well as experimentally determined values which were tested in tensile loading devices.

An anomalous increase of current was found in Fe-doped titania ceramics subjected to a constant field of 105 V/m. It is suggested that the space charge rises from blockage of O2(g) → O2−(s) ion transfer at the cathode. This leads to an increase of n-conductivity in the cathodic region and p-conductivity in the anodic region according to the specific defect equilibrium. This viewpoint was reinforced by two newly observed phenomena: (i) the I-V plot shows a linear feature at the initial stage, but it gradually becomes a rectifying feature with time; and (ii) an edge-located electrode shows lower current density and faster current saturation compared with a normal electrode.

Silicon was pulse biased to −45 kV in a methane plasma generated by microwave excitation in the electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) mode. Hydrocarbon ions were accelerated in the electrical field and implanted into the silicon. Rutherford backscattering (RBS) measurements showed that it is possible to incorporate a concentration of up to 95 at.% C into the Si. Cross-section transmission microscopy (XTEM) showed that the resulting surface layer was amorphous. Annealing at 1250 °C resulted in the formation of 10 to 60 nm thick, crystalline SiC layers.

Optical transmittance of the nanocrystalline diamond films has been studied as a function of grain size of the diamond powder used for substrate pretreatment and the methane fraction in the source gas. It has been observed that for CH4 fractions below 13%, the films grown on substrates pretreated with finer diamond powder are more transparent, while this trend reverses for CH4 fractions above 13%. These variations in the transparency of the films correlate very well with their corresponding surface roughness. Nanocrystalline/amorphous diamond films with transmittance of greater than 80% beyond 700 nm and with average surface roughness as low as 61 Å have been obtained for CH4 fractions as high as 42% in the source gas. Interestingly, these films do not show an obvious presence of any graphitic carbon, and the structural ordering of the amorphous sp3-bonded phase also seems to be insensitive to the CH4 content of the source gas.

High angle boundaries in Ba1−xKxBiO3 are superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) Josephson tunnel junctions of a quality unequaled among the high temperature superconducting oxides. Electron microscopy of 24° [001] tilt boundaries reveals nominally symmetric and straight boundaries of aperiodic structure with reappearing structural units. Low {hk0} atomistic facets are predominant. A segregation layer of only 1 nm thick is identified straddling the boundary. This layer which forms naturally is insulating, pin-hole free, and surprisingly robust with a breakdown voltage which exceeds 1 × 106 V/cm, yet thin enough to allow quasiparticle tunneling, yielding reliable gap energies for theoretical comparison.

The present investigation deals with the electrical response of doped SnO2 to improve the selectivity for liquid petroleum gas (LPG) in the presence of CO and CH4, by utilizing noble metal sensitizers such as Pd, Pt, and Rh. SnO2 with the addition of Pd (1.5 wt. %) or Pt (1.5 wt. %) sintered at 800 °C which have shown high sensitivity toward LPG with no cross interference of CO and CH4 at an operating temperature of 350 °C. The results suggest the possibility of utilizing the sensor for the detection of this hydrocarbon gaseous mixture. X-ray diffraction studies have been carried out to evaluate the crystallite size as a function of sintering temperature; x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy studies have been carried out to define the possible chemical species involved in the gas-solid interaction and the sensitivity enhancing mechanism of the SnO2/Pd sensor element toward LPG.

The silicon-rich end of the Si-B phase diagram, defining the silicon boride(s) that coexist in equilibrium with boron-saturated silicon, is poorly known. Understanding this equilibrium has implications for the processing of p+ silicon wafers, whose boron concentrations are near the solubility limit. Additionally, silicon boride precipitates produced by boron-ion-implantation and annealing of crystalline silicon have recently been shown to be efficient internal getters of transition metal ions. The experiments described in this paper probe the stability of these silicon borides. A phase with a boron-carbide-like structure, SiB3, grows from boron-saturated silicon in both the solid and the liquid state. However, SiB3 is not found to be stable in either circumstance. Rather, SiB3 is a metastable phase whose formation is driven by the relative ease of its nucleation and growth. The silicon boride that exists in stable equilibrium with boron-saturated silicon is SiB6. A qualitative understanding of the metastability of SiB3 comes from recognizing the conflict between the bonding requirements of icosahedral borides such as SiB3 and the size mismatch between silicon and boron atoms.

Gd-doped amorphous silicon films have been prepared by the electron beam evaporation technique, employing the experimental methods of dc conductivity temperature properties, ESR (electron spin resonance) spectra, and optical band gap Eopt measurements. We have investigated the optical and electrical properties of the films. The results show that at 290 K < T < 330 K, hopping conduction in Gd impurity states near Fermi level is predominant, and at 330 K < T < 500 K extended state conduction dominates due to electrons exited from the impurity states. At a Gd concentration of about 1.0 at.% spin density Ns, peak-peak width ΔBpp and line-shape factor l of ESR spectra change their dependence on Gd contents. The optical gap of the films narrows with increasing Gd contents in the films from 1.68 eV to 0.42 eV. The results were explained on the basis of the partial compensation of Gd atoms for dangling bonds .

Ion beam nitridation (IBN) of GaAs at room temperature was studied as a function of N2+ ion incident angle at ion energy of 10 keV. The ion beam bombardment surface area of GaAs was characterized in situ by both Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and small spot-size x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Thin GaN reaction layers are formed at all N2+ ion incident angles, whereas the formation of As–N bonds has not been found. However, the degree of nitridation of Ga decreases with increasing incident angle. The observed angular dependence of the N incorporation can be explained in terms of sputtering yield, indicating that the growth kinetics can be described as a dynamic process comprising the accumulation of N and sputter removal of the surface layer. N2+ ion bombardment causes the depletion of As from the surface region because of the preferential sputtering of As from GaAs. The preferential sputtering of As reduces with increasing N2+ ion incident angle. The angular dependent behavior of preferential sputtering of As by 10 keV N2+ ions can be attributed to the angular dependence of GaN surface layer formation.

Ultrafast changes in the crystal structure of GaAs induced by intense femtosecond laser pulses are detected and investigated. Atomic force microscopy and Raman microprobe analysis of the laser-treated area show centrosymmetric (disordered) features which are different from the original zinc-blend structure of the GaAs lattice. The frozen-in structure shows evidence for a special heat transfer from the laser-induced crater to the boundary, namely the heat has been transferred ballistically by a high-density electron-hole plasma.

6H and 4H polytype silicon carbide (SiC) layers have been grown on ground and under microgravity conditions by liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) from a solution of SiC in Si-Sc solvent at 1750 °C. The effects of gravity on the growth parameters and material characteristiques have been studied. The growth rate, Sc incorporation, and the structural defects are modified in reduced gravity conditions, while the polytype reproduction of the substrate is not affected. The results obtained are intriguing as to further experiments providing objects for carrier lifetime measurements.

Solid solutions of aluminum nitride (AlN) and silicon carbide (SiC) have been grown at 900–1300 °C on vicinal α (6H)-SiC(0001) substrates by plasma-assisted, gas-source molecular beam epitaxy. Under specific processing conditions, films of (AlN)x(SiC) 1−x with 0.2 ≤ x ≤ 0.8, as determined by Auger electron spectrometry (AES), were deposited. Reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) was used to determine the crystalline quality, surface character, and epilayer polytype. Analysis of the resulting surfaces was also performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) revealed that monocrystalline films with x ≥ 0.25 had the wurtzite (2H) crystal structure; however, films with x < 0.25 had the zincblende (3C) crystal structure.

The inner surface of a cylindrical titanium alloy target was successfully implanted with nitrogen ion using a new plasma source ion implantation method. By means of x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction, the reactive phases and their chemical state in the implanted layer were investigated. In order to characterize the modification effect and its uniformity, the retained dose and the microhardness at seven different positions along the axis on the inner surface of the cylindrical target were measured, respectively. The experimental results show that a TiN reactive phase was formed in the implanted layer, which contributed to the improvement of inner surface microhardness. The root-mean-square deviations of retained dose and microhardness measured along the axis of the target are less than 9% and 4%, respectively, which are well within an acceptable tolerance range for metallic applications of ion implantation.

The formation of η-phase by a peritectic reaction in the Cu–Sn metallic system has been cited in the literature while discussing the solidification of the high temperature superconductor Yba2Cu3O7 through the peritectic temperature, from Y2BaCuO5 and liquid phases. Similar schematic phase diagrams and driving forces have been invoked to discuss the reactions in both cases. In this paper, we have studied the microstructural evolution of the η-phase from є + liquid in the Cu–Sn system, by observing quenched microstructures at various stages of processing, when subjected to a thermal schedule similar to the one used for the melt-processing of YBa2Cu3O7. A comprehensive picture of the mechanism by which the η phase nucleates and grows has evolved.