Hierarchically Structured Materials

Measurements of the circular polarization of Balmer-α radiation emitted by excited hydrogen atoms, following the transmission of (20-50)-keV protons through thin, tilted amorphous carbon foils, exhibit markedly unexpected behavior asa function of exposure of the foil to the proton beam. Specifically, the circular polarization changes from an initially well understood tilt-angle dependence to a behavior which, for low tilt angles, gives the opposite handedness of circular polarization from that predicted. In addition, the degree of alignment, indicated by the linear Stokes parameter M/I, is enhanced also as a function of dose. These changes in the tilt-angle dependence of the Stokes parameters have been systematically correlated with beam-induced graphitization of the foil, which is observed to occur from Raman measurements.

The cutting of cross‐linked glasses such as silica and Corning 7059 can be difficult. We conducted an experimental study to determine the feasibility of using a high‐speed waterjet to cut thin Corning 7059 glass. Cutting using either pure de‐ionized high pressure water at 380 MPa (55 000 psi) or de‐ionized water with entrained garnet abrasive was studied. The roughness of the cut surfaces was measured and compared. Photomicrographs were taken of glass examples cut at different traversing rates with pure water and with the abrasive entrained waterjet. Comparative studies of cutting with and without the entrained abrasive material showed that a cutting rate of 127 mm/min with abrasive could achieve a smoothness of about 9 μm rms. The abrasive waterjet can cut Corning 7059 glass into any desired shape. The process is safe, inexpensive, fast, and amenable to computer operation.

We have fabricated arrays of siliconfield emitters using semiconductorlithography techniques. The density of the tips was 105/cm2. The maximum current that can be extracted from each emitter is limited by resistive heating. We have investigated how the electron current emitted changes under constant applied voltage. We found that the current is very sensitive to the vacuum conditions. We attribute this to sputtering of the emitters due to ionized residual gas molecules. The poorer the vacuum, the higher the instability in the current. We studied this phenomenon at 10−6 and 10−8 Torr. The model of two concentric spherical shells is used to obtain the ion energy distribution. This is then used to calculate the rate of ion bombardment and the rate of atoms sputtered. A lifetime of the tip can be deduced from these calculations.  

We have used Raman spectroscopy, large‐ and small‐angle x‐ray diffraction spectroscopy of sputter‐deposited, vacuum‐annealed, soft x‐ray Mo/Si thin‐film multilayers to study the physics of silicide formation. Two sets of multilayer samples with d‐spacing 8.4 and 2.0 nm have been studied. Annealing at temperatures above 800 °C causes a gradual formation of amorphous MoSi2 interfaces between the Si and Mo layers. The transition from amorphous to crystalline MoSi2 is abrupt. The experimental results indicate that nucleation is the dominant process for the early stage and crystallization is the dominant process after nucleation is well advanced. In the thicker multilayer, a portion of the siliconcrystallizes during annealing and a strong Raman signal is observed. An advantage of Raman spectroscopy is that the Raman signal of the silicide is observed even before the presence of MoSi2 can be seen using x‐ray diffraction. This study indicates that Raman spectroscopy is an effective technique for characterizing the formation of crystalline silicides.

Scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy were used to characterize the microstructure of photoluminescent porous silicon (PS) layers formed by the anodic etching (HF:H2O:ethanol), at various current densities, of p‐type (100) silicon wafers possessing resistivity in the range 1–2 Ω cm. Existing models for the origin of luminescence in PS are not supported by our observations. Cross‐sectional as well as surface atomic force micrographs show the material to be clumpy rather than columnar; rodlike structures are not observed down to a scale of 40 nm. A three‐dimensional model of the mesostructure of porous silicon is discussed. Room‐temperature Raman scattering measurements show no evidence for a‐Si:H or polysilanes and the material reported here is composed of 10 nm roughly spherical Si nanocrytallites rather than 3 nm wires postulated in standard quantum confinement models.

Our group is studying the structure and interfaces of soft x-ray multilayers by various techniques including x-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. Raman spectroscopy is particularly useful since it is sensitive to the identity of individual bonds and thus can potentially characterize the abruptness of interfaces in multilayers. Blocking interfacial mixing is very important in achieving and maintaining high reflectivity. We report our studies of the as-deposited and postannealed structure of Mo/Si and W/C multilayers. A high normal- incidence, peak reflectance is mandatory for imaging applications that involve many reflections. The reported theoretical and achieved reflectances of the Mo/Si system are 80% and 65%, respectively. This loss of 15% can bring about a six-fold loss in system throughput in the eight-reflection system contemplated. The interfaces in the Mo/Si system are thought to play a significant role in the degrading reflectance so characterization techniques which have interfacial sensitivity are particularly important. The Mo/Si multilayer system is susceptible to Raman characterization since both the a-Si spacer layer and the MoSi2 compound which forms at the interface have Raman active modes. In this paper we report the first Raman studies, to the best of our knowledge, of the a-Si layers and their crystallization and the crystallization of the Mo/Si interface of the multilayer brought about by a one-hour 1000 degree(s)C anneal. These changes are apparent in the Raman spectra before they can be unambiguously detected by x-ray diffraction.