A proof-of-concept metal–insulator–semiconductor (MIS) AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistor (HEMT) that uses a self-aligned 10 nm AlOx gate insulator and SiNx passivation in the device access regions was investigated. Self-alignment of the gate insulator to metal was achieved by utilizing a submicron tri-layer photoresist pattern to lift-off sequentially-deposited AlOx dielectric and Ni/...

Reducing absorber layer thickness below 500 nm in regular Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cells decreases cell efficiency considerably, as both short-circuit current and open-circuit voltage are reduced because of incomplete absorption and high Mo/CIGS rear interface recombination. In this work, an innovative rear cell design is developed to avoid both effects: a highly reflective rear surface passiv...

This work compares structural and optical properties of silicon nanocrystals prepared by two fundamentally different methods, namely, electrochemical etching of Si wafers and low-pressure plasma synthesis, completed with a mechano-photo-chemical treatment. This treatment leads to surface passivation of the nanoparticles by methyl groups. Plasma synthesis unlike electrochemical etching allows se...

The corrosion behaviour of three new non-toxic titanium alloys for use as biomaterials has been investigated. The corrosion current densities of these Ti alloys have low values, indicating a passive state that is stable with time. These values were calculated by using both direct and alternate current methods. The comparison with Ti–6Al–4V, widely used as biomaterial, shows slightly lower corro...

The dehydrogenation of intrinsic hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) at temperatures above approximately 300 °C degrades its ability to passivate silicon wafer surfaces. This limits the temperature of post-passivation processing steps during the fabrication of advanced silicon heterojunction or silicon-based tandem solar cells. We demonstrate that a hydrogen plasma can rehydrogenate intrins...

We report the electrical and optical properties of ZnO/ZnS core/shell nanowire (NW) devices. The spatial separation of charge carriers due to their type II band structure together with passivation effect on ZnO/ZnS core/shell NWs not only enhanced their charge carrier transport characteristics by confining the electrons and reducing surface states in the ZnO channel but also increased the photo...

Magnetic patterning, with designed spatial profile of the desired magnetic properties, has been a rising challenge for developing magnetic devices at nanoscale. Most existing methods rely on locally modifying magnetic anisotropy energy or saturation magnetization, and thus post stringent constraints on the adaptability in diverse applications. We propose an alternative route for magnetic patter...

This paper is dedicated to the lifetime prediction of Type I Fiber Bragg gratings (FBG) and to problems that happen when stabilization (also called passivation) conditions or the industrial conditioning procedure depart from ageing ones (e.g., presence of hydrogen during the passivation process). For the first time, a reliable procedure to certify the predicted lifetime based on a “restricted” ...

The influence of surface chemical treatments and of deposition of a SiO2 surface passivation layer on carrier distributions and mobility in AlxGa12xN/GaN heterostructure field-effect-transistor epitaxial layer structures is investigated. Surface chemical treatments are found to exert little influence on carrier distribution and mobility. Deposition of a SiO2 surface passivation layer is found t...

In this work, aluminum oxide films with excellent passivation effects were prepared on the rear-side surface of passivated emitter and rear cells (PERCs) using a self-developed spatial atomic layer deposition system. Various rear-side surface morphologies were obtained through different etching treatments. We compared the PERCs with standard etching treatment and further polishing processes on ...