New apparatus and a new process for the sputter deposition of modified barium titanate thin-films were developed. Films were deposited at temperatures up to 900 °C from a Ba₀.96Ca0.04Ti0.82Zr0.18O₃ (BCZTO) target directly onto Si, Ni and Pt surfaces and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Film texture and cryst...

The integration of gas sensing elements into hand-held electronics will provide individuals the ability to detect harmful chemicals and pollutants in the environment in real time. Metal oxide gas sensors rely on changes in their electrical conductance due to the interaction of the oxide with a surrounding gas at an elevated temperature. The intrinsic stress in the metal oxide films during the l...

Ionized physical vapor deposition (IPVD) is a new method for depositing metal into high-aspect-ratio features used as interconnects in microelectronic fabrication. It is similar to sputtering except that a portion of the metal flux to the substrate is ionized. We show how a high ionized-metal-flux fraction (IMFF) at the deposition location improves the bottom coverage of deposited metal films. ...

Cr/Sc multilayer mirrors, synthesized by ion-assisted magnetron sputter deposition, are proved to have a high near-normal reflectivity of R = 14.5% at a grazing angle of 87.5 degrees measured at the wavelength lambda = 3.11 nm, which is an improvement of more than 31% compared with previously published results. Elastic recoil detection analyses show that the mirrors contained as much as 15 at. ...

This project is a fundamental study into the development of low-cost, thin film solar cells. It explores the fabrication of semiconductor nanocomposites for photovoltaics using nanostructured inorganic materials and atomic layer deposition (ALD). In thin film technologies, there exists a common problem with conversion efficiency due to poor materials quality: the photogenerated electrons and ho...

Given the recent increase in demand for gallium nitride (GaN) different markets like optoelectronics and power devices, request epitaxially grown GaN will further increase. To meet this high demand, higher throughput more economical manufacturing technologies must be advanced. In work, thin films are deposited by reactive sputter deposition from a liquid target at substrate temperature of 900 °...