Compressive Strain In Films Research Articles

Effect of strain relaxation and the Burstein–Moss energy shift on the optical properties of InN films grown in the self-seeded catalytic process

For the first time, high optical quality InN films were grown on sapphire substrate using atmospheric chemical vapour deposition technique in the temperature range of 560-650 oC. Self-catalytic approach was adopted to overcome the nucleation barrier for depositing InN films. In this process, seeding of the nucleation sites and subsequent growth was performed in the presence of reactive NH3. We investigated the simultaneous effect of strain and Burstein-Moss (BM) energy shift on optical properties of InN films using Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy. Existence of compressive strain in all films is revealed by Raman spectroscopic analysis and is found to relax with increasing growth temperature. The asymmetric broadening of the A1(LO) phonon mode is observed with the onset of plasmon-phonon interaction for films grown at 620 oC. Large blue shift of the band gap of InN (1.2 eV) is observed as a collective result of compressive strain in films as well as BM shift. Carrier density is calculated using the BM shift in the photoluminescence spectra. Finally, blue shift in band edge emission is observed further because of the presence of compressive strain in the films along with the BM effect.

Growth characteristics of sputter-deposited thin films

Thin films of the heavy-fermion superconductor were deposited on various substrate materials in various orientations by means of a quasi-multilayer sputter process. Strongly (0001)-textured growth of the hexagonal compound was found for a uranium content in the range of 23% to 28% on sapphire and with perfect in-plane order on the latter substrate material. Atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy revealed a Vollmer - Weber-like growth mode resulting in the development of large compressive strain in films on . As a result the electronic transport properties - in particular the temperature dependence of the resistivity - were strongly renormalized. Strong deviations from the typical heavy-fermion characteristics known from bulk samples were found in films on with residual resistance ratios up to 930 and a significantly reduced superconducting transition temperature of 130 mK.