No Arabic abstract
The temperature dependent resistance $R$($T$) of polycrystalline ferromagnetic CoFeB thin films of varying thickness are analyzed considering various electrical scattering processes. We observe a resistance minimum in $R$($T$) curves below $simeq$ 29 K, which can be explained as an effect of intergranular Coulomb interaction in a granular system. The structural and Coulomb interaction related scattering processes contribute more as the film thickness decreases implying the role of disorder and granularity. Although the magnetic contribution to the resistance is the weakest compared to these two, it is the only thickness independent process. On the contrary, the negative coefficient of resistance can be explained by electron interaction effect in disordered amorphous films.
We examine magnetic relaxation in polycrystalline Fe films with strong and weak crystallographic texture. Out-of-plane ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) measurements reveal Gilbert damping parameters of $approx$ 0.0024 for Fe films with thicknesses of 4-25 nm, regardless of their microstructural properties. The remarkable invariance with film microstructure strongly suggests that intrinsic Gilbert damping in polycrystalline Fe is a local property of nanoscale crystal grains, with limited impact from grain boundaries and film roughness. By contrast, the in-plane FMR linewidths of the Fe films exhibit distinct nonlinear frequency dependences, indicating the presence of strong extrinsic damping. To fit our experimental data, we have used a grain-to-grain two-magnon scattering model with two types of correlation functions aimed at describing the spatial distribution of inhomogeneities in the film. However, neither of the two correlation functions is able to reproduce the experimental data quantitatively with physically reasonable parameters. Our finding points to the need to further examine the fundamental impact of film microstructure on extrinsic damping.
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.
Studies of magnetization dynamics have incessantly facilitated the discovery of fundamentally novel physical phenomena, making steady headway in the development of magnetic and spintronics devices. The dynamics can be induced and detected electrically, offering new functionalities in advanced electronics at the nanoscale. However, its scattering mechanism is still disputed. Understanding the mechanism in thin films is especially important, because most spintronics devices are made from stacks of multilayers with nanometer thickness. The stacks are known to possess interfacial magnetic anisotropy, a central property for applications, whose influence on the dynamics remains unknown. Here, we investigate the impact of interfacial anisotropy by adopting CoFeB/MgO as a model system. Through systematic and complementary measurements of ferromagnetic resonance (FMR), on a series of thin films, we identify narrower FMR linewidths at higher temperatures. We explicitly rule out the temperature dependence of intrinsic damping as a possible cause, and it is also not expected from existing extrinsic scattering mechanisms for ferromagnets. We ascribe this observation to motional narrowing, an old concept so far neglected in the analyses of FMR spectra. The effect is confirmed to originate from interfacial anisotropy, impacting the practical technology of spin-based nanodevices up to room temperature.
In the hydrodynamic regime, phonons drift with a nonzero collective velocity under a temperature gradient, reminiscent of viscous gas and fluid flow. The study of hydrodynamic phonon transport has spanned over half a century but has been mostly limited to cryogenic temperatures (~1 K) and more recently to low-dimensional materials. Here, we identify graphite as a three-dimensional material that supports phonon hydrodynamics at significantly higher temperatures (~100 K) based on first-principles calculations. In particular, by solving the Boltzmann equation for phonon transport in graphite ribbons, we predict that phonon Poiseuille flow and Knudsen minimum can be experimentally observed above liquid nitrogen temperature. Further, we reveal the microscopic origin of these intriguing phenomena in terms of the dependence of the effective boundary scattering rate on momentum-conserving phonon-phonon scattering processes and the collective motion of phonons. The significant hydrodynamic nature of phonon transport in graphite is attributed to its strong intralayer sp2 hybrid bonding and weak van der Waals interlayer interactions. As a boundary-sensitive transport regime, phonon hydrodynamics opens up new possibilities for thermal management and energy conversion.
Dielectric response and conduction mechanism were investigated for a multiferroic BiFe$_{0.95}$Mn$_{0.05}$O$_3$ epitaxial thin film. A contribution from a thermally activated interface (0.37 eV) and the bulk of the film on the dielectric response were observed through the comparison between experimental results and equivalent circuit model. The low frequency interface relaxation signatures strongly suggest a Maxwell-Wagner space charge origin. The alternative current conductivity deduced from the model follows a power law frequency dependence suggesting a polaronic hopping mechanism while the low frequency limit is in perfect agreement with the direct current conduction mechanism. The current-voltage characteristics were indeed correlated with Schottky-Simmons interface limited transport with activation energy of 0.36 eV, close to the one extracted from the impedance analysis. Such analysis of the electrostatic landscape and dielectric behaviour may help to further understanding the anomalous photo-induced properties in the BiFeO$_3$ system.