The effects of microstructure, Nb content and secondary Ruddlesden–Popper phase on thermoelectric properties in perovskite CaMn1−xNbxO3 (x = 0–0.10) thin films

Reduction of thermal conductivity of sputtered CaMn_1−xNb_xO₃ thin films by secondary Ruddlesden–Popper phase and grain size optimization.

Ti n+1C n MXenes with fully saturated and thermally stable Cl terminations

MXenes are a rapidly growing family of 2D materials that exhibit a highly versatile structure and composition, allowing for significant tuning of the materials properties. These properties are, however, ultimately limited by the surface terminations, which are typically a mixture of species, including F and O that are inherent to the MXene processing. Other and robust terminations are lacking. Here, we apply high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), corresponding image simulations and first-principles calculations to investigate the surface terminations on MXenes synthesized from MAX phases through Lewis acidic melts. The results show that atomic Cl terminates the synthesized MXenes, with mere residual presence of other termination species. Furthermore, in situ STEM-electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) heating experiments show that the Cl terminations are stable up to 750 °C. Thus, we present an attractive new termination that widely expands the MXenes' functionalization space and enables new applications.

Self-structuring in Zr1-xAlxN films as a function of composition and growth temperature

Nanostructure formation via surface-diffusion-mediated segregation of ZrN and AlN in Zr_1−xAl_xN films during high mobility growth conditions is investigated for 0 ≤ × ≤ 1. The large immiscibility combined with interfacial surface and strain energy balance resulted in a hard nanolabyrinthine lamellar structure with well-defined (semi) coherent c-ZrN and w-AlN domains of sub-nm to ~4 nm in 0.2 ≤ × ≤ 0.4 films, as controlled by atom mobility. For high AlN contents (x > 0.49) Al-rich ZrN domains attain wurtzite structure within fine equiaxed nanocomposite wurtzite lattice. Slow diffusion in wurtzite films points towards crystal structure dependent driving force for decomposition. The findings of unlikelihood of iso-structural decomposition in c-Zr_1−xAl_xN, and stability of w-Zr_1−xAl_xN (in large × films) is complemented with first principles calculations.

Core-shell formation in self-induced InAlN nanorods

We have examined the early stages of self-induced InAlN core-shell nanorod (NR) formation processes on amorphous carbon substrates in plan-view geometry by means of transmission electron microscopy methods. The results show that the grown structure phase separates during the initial moments of deposition into a majority of Al-rich InAlN and a minority of In-enriched InAlN islands. The islands possess polygonal shapes and are mainly oriented along a crystallographic c-axis. The growth proceeds with densification and coalescence of the In-enriched islands, resulting in a base for the In-enriched NR cores with shape transformation to hexagonal. The Al-rich shell formation around such early cores is observed at this stage. The matured core-shell structure grows axially and radially, eventually reaching a steady growth state which is dominated by the axial NR growth. We discuss the NR formation mechanism by considering the adatom surface kinetics, island surface energy, phase separation of InAlN alloys, and incoming flux directions during dual magnetron sputter epitaxy.

Direct observation of spinodal decomposition phenomena in InAlN alloys during in-situ STEM heating

The spinodal decomposition and thermal stability of thin In_0.72Al_0.28N layers and In_0.72Al_0.28N/AlN superlattices with AlN(0001) templates on Al₂O₃(0001) substrates was investigated by in-situ heating up to 900 °C. The thermally activated structural and chemical evolution was investigated in both plan-view and cross-sectional geometries by scanning transmission electron microscopy in combination with valence electron energy loss spectroscopy. The plan-view observations demonstrate evidence for spinodal decomposition of metastable In_0.72Al_0.28N after heating at 600 °C for 1 h. During heating compositional modulations in the range of 2–3 nm-size domains are formed, which coarsen with applied thermal budgets. Cross-sectional observations reveal that spinodal decomposition begin at interfaces and column boundaries, indicating that the spinodal decomposition has a surface-directed component.

Strongly polarized quantum-dot-like light emitters embedded in GaAs/GaNAs core/shell nanowires

Recent developments in fabrication techniques and extensive investigations of the physical properties of III-V semiconductor nanowires (NWs), such as GaAs NWs, have demonstrated their potential for a multitude of advanced electronic and photonics applications. Alloying of GaAs with nitrogen can further enhance the performance and extend the device functionality via intentional defects and heterostructure engineering in GaNAs and GaAs/GaNAs coaxial NWs. In this work, it is shown that incorporation of nitrogen in GaAs NWs leads to formation of three-dimensional confining potentials caused by short-range fluctuations in the nitrogen composition, which are superimposed on long-range alloy disorder. The resulting localized states exhibit a quantum-dot like electronic structure, forming optically active states in the GaNAs shell. By directly correlating the structural and optical properties of individual NWs, it is also shown that formation of the localized states is efficient in pure zinc-blende wires and is further facilitated by structural polymorphism. The light emission from these localized states is found to be spectrally narrow (∼50-130 μeV) and is highly polarized (up to 100%) with the preferable polarization direction orthogonal to the NW axis, suggesting a preferential orientation of the localization potential. These properties of self-assembled nano-emitters embedded in the GaNAs-based nanowire structures may be attractive for potential optoelectronic applications.

Excitons and biexcitons in InGaN quantum dot like localization centers

Indium segregation in a narrow InGaN single quantum well creates quantum dot (QD) like exciton localization centers. Cross-section transmission electron microscopy reveals varying shapes and lateral sizes in the range ∼1-5 nm of the QD-like features, while scanning near field optical microscopy demonstrates a highly inhomogeneous spatial distribution of optically active individual localization centers. Microphotoluminescence spectroscopy confirms the spectrally inhomogeneous distribution of localization centers, in which the exciton and the biexciton related emissions from single centers of varying geometry could be identified by means of excitation power dependencies. Interestingly, the biexciton binding energy (E(b)xx) was found to vary from center to center, between 3 to -22 meV, in correlation with the exciton emission energy. Negative binding energies are only justified by a three-dimensional quantum confinement, which confirms QD-like properties of the localization centers. The observed energy correlation is proposed to be understood as variations of the lateral extension of the confinement potential, which would yield smaller values of E(b)xx for reduced lateral extension and higher exciton emission energy. The proposed relation between lateral extension and E(b)xx is further supported by the exciton and the biexciton recombination lifetimes of a single QD, which suggest a lateral extension of merely ∼3 nm for a QD with strongly negative E(b)xx = -15.5 meV.

InGaN quantum dot formation mechanism on hexagonal GaN/InGaN/GaN pyramids

Growing InGaN quantum dots (QDs) at the apex of hexagonal GaN pyramids is an elegant approach to achieve a deterministic positioning of QDs. Despite similar synthesis procedures by metal organic chemical vapor deposition, the optical properties of the QDs reported in the literature vary drastically. The QDs tend to exhibit either narrow or broad emission lines in the micro-photoluminescence spectra. By coupled microstructural and optical investigations, the QDs giving rise to narrow emission lines were concluded to nucleate in association with a (0001) facet at the apex of the GaN pyramid.