The parameters influencing the band gap of tin sulphide thin nano-crystalline films have been investigated. Both grain size and lattice parameters are known to influence the band gap. The present study initially investigates each contribution individually. The experimentally determined dependency on lattice parameter is verified by theoretical calculations. We also suggest how to treat the variation of band gap as a two variable problem. The results allow us to show dependency of effective mass (reduced) on lattice unit volume.
Tin sulphide thin films of p-type conductivity were grown on glass substrates. The refractive index of the as grown films, calculated using both Transmission and ellipsometry data were found to follow the Sellmeier dispersion model. The improvement in the dispersion data obtained using ellipsometry was validated by Wemple-Dedomenico (WDD) single oscillator model fitting. The optical properties of the films were found to be closely related to the structural properties of the films. The band-gap, its spread and appearance of defect levels within the band-gap intimately controls the refractive index of the films.
This work reports on the synthesis of CrO2 thin films by atmospheric pressure CVD using chromium trioxide (CrO3) and oxygen. Highly oriented (100) CrO2 films containing highly oriented (0001) Cr2O3 were grown onto Al2O3(0001) substrates. Films display a sharp magnetic transition at 375 K and a saturation magnetization of 1.92 Bohr magnetons per f.u., close to the bulk value of 2 Bohr magnetons per f.u. for the CrO2. Keywords: Chromium dioxide (CrO2), Atmospheric pressure CVD, Spintronics.
Tin monosulfide (SnS) usually exhibits p-type conduction due to the low formation enthalpy of acceptor-type defects, and as a result n-type SnS thin films have never been obtained. This study realizes n-type conduction in SnS thin films for the first time by using RF-magnetron sputtering with Cl doping and sulfur plasma source during deposition. N-type SnS thin films are obtained at all the substrate temperatures employed in this study (221-341 C), exhibiting carrier concentrations and Hall mobilities of ~2 x 10 18 cm-3 and 0.1-1 cm V-1s-1, respectively. The films prepared without sulfur plasma source, on the other hand, exhibit p-type conduction despite containing a comparable amount of Cl donors. This is likely due to a significant amount of acceptor-type defects originating from sulfur deficiency in p-type films, which appears as a broad optical absorption within the band gap. The demonstration of n-type SnS thin films in this study is a breakthrough for the realization of SnS homojunction solar cells, which are expected to have a higher conversion efficiency than the conventional heterojunction SnS solar cells.
The Born effective charges of component atoms and phonon spectra of a tetrahedrally coordinated crystalline ice are calculated from the first principles method based on density functional theory within the generalized gradient approximation with the projected augmented wave method. Phonon dispersion relations in a 3x1x1 supercell were evaluated from Hellmann-Feynman forces with the direct method. This calculation is an additional work to the direct method in calculating the phonon spectra which does not take into account the polarization charges arising from dipole interaction of molecules of water in ice. The calculated Born effective polarization charges from linear response theory are supplied as the correction terms to the dynamical matrix in order to further investigate the LO-TO splitting of the polar modes of ice crystal at k=0 which has long been speculated for this system especially in the region between 28 and 37 meV both in the theoretical and experimental studies. Our results clearly show the evidence of splitting of longitudinal and transverse optic modes at the k=0-point in agreement with some experimental findings.
Specific heat of polycrystalline BaTiO3 thin films on the fused quartz substrate was measured by ac-hot probe method. Phase transition temperature, excess entropy and spontaneous polarization were determined as a function of film thickness and grain size. The variation of the latter was obtained in the limits 30 - 150 nm by changing of the temperature of the substrate during sputtering while thickness of films 20 - 1100 nm was controlled by the conditions of sputtering. It was found that the relation between the thickness and grain size is important for the size effects in polycrystalline films.