Jing Xiao Gu

In is paper, the transient behavior of silane molecules in the initial plasma ignition stage on the properties of microcrystalline silicon films is studied using tailored initial SiH4 density method, and the results are analyzed by Raman spectroscopy and spectroscopic ellipsometry. Compared with standard plasma ignition conditions, tailored initial SiH4 density conditions result higher crystallinity in the interface between substrate

All as-deposited AZO films by direct current magnetron reactive sputtering (DC-MS) exhibit ZnO characteristic (002) and (103) diffraction peaks. Especially, AZO films prepared at 200° C show a strongest (002) c-axis preferential orientation due to the minimum stress along the (002) orientation. The results show that larger stress easily induces a rougher surface. The film real and imaginary parts of dielectric constants show a sharp changes near the optical absorption edge due to the interband direct transition. The film blue and red shifts of the optical absorption edge can be explained in terms of the change of free-electron concentration in as-deposited AZO films.

The structural un-uniformity of muc-Si:H films prepared using a very high frequency plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition method has been investigated by Raman spectroscopy, spectroscopic ellipsometer and atomic force microscopy. It was found that the formation of amorphous incubation layer was caused by the back diffusion of SiH4 and the amorphous induction of glass surface during the initial ignition process, and growth of the incubation layer can be suppressed and uniform muc-Si:H phase is generated by the application of delayed initial SiH4 density and silane profiling methods.

Microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) thin films with and without boron doping are deposited using the radio-frequency plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition method. The surface roughness evolutions of the silicon thin films are investigated using ex situ spectroscopic ellipsometry and an atomic force microscope. It is shown that the growth exponent β and the roughness exponent α are about 0.369 and 0.95 for the undoped thin film, respectively. Whereas, for the boron-doped μc-Si:H thin film, β increases to 0.534 and α decreases to 0.46 due to the shadowing effect.

Macroscopic quantum tunneling (MQT) has been demonstrated recently in a Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ surface intrinsic Josephson junction (SIJJ) with its critical current density Jc below 100 A cm-2 and its size below 1 µm. In this work, we present a study of the switching current distributions of SIJJs fabricated on the same crystal, with Jc>500 A cm-2 and size of 0.8 and 1.6 µm. MQT is clearly observed, and the crossover from MQT to thermal activation (TA) is seen. Our analysis shows that the data agree well with the theoretical predictions of MQT and TA for different-sized SIJJs when parameters that roughly scale with the SIJJ size are used. In the crossover regime, the data are found to be better fitted by considering quantum corrections to TA. We discuss the realistic design of phase- and flux-type qubits using the experimentally attainable SIJJ parameters, which shows that the SIJJs, with their controllable Jc and size (or junction capacitance), are feasible for qubit applications in the future.