Ion Implantation of ruthenium ions into a silicon substrate followed by a high temperature anneal (known as Ion Beam Synthesis) has been used for the first time to fabricate three wafers, under the following conditions. 1. 5.67 X 1016 Ru+ cm-2, beam heated 2. 4.25 X 1016 Ru+ cm-2, heated to ~ 600°C 3. 1.27 X 1017 Ru+ cm-2, heated to ~ 600°C All wafers contained precipitates of the orthorhombic semiconducting silicide of ruthenium, Ru2Si3. No other phase was identified. The samples exhibited a complicated microstructure, with 16 different orientation variants identified, and a high degree of disorder (~ +11% strain). The first optical measurements ever carried out on this material are reported here. Absorption measurements in transmittance yielded a direct band gap, in the region of ~ 0.9eV, 0.87eV, and 0.92eV for wafers 1, 2, and 3 respectively. No discernible variation of band gap magnitude with measurement temperature was found. Upon sequential annealing, the direct band gap magnitude remained constant up to ~ 650°C after which it shifted to above that of silicon, possibly due to a change in microstructural disorder as the precipitates increase in size. This observation was confirmed by several single step anneals at various temperatures above 650°C. No photoluminescence was observed in any of the samples.

Resumo: Filmes finos polimerizados a plasma apresentam várias aplicações nas indústrias óticas, elétrica, mecânica de alimentos, de biomateriais entre outras, devido suas interessantes propriedades químicas e físicas. No entanto, as aplicações para os filmes finos podem ser limitadas em função de algumas de suas características mecânicas e de superfície. Neste trabalho, filmes finos poliméricos foram depositados por radiofrequência a partir de plasmas de hexametildissilazano mantido a baixa pressão. Posteriormente, foram implantados íons de argônio, hélio e nitrogênio nestes filmes através da implantação iônica por imersão a plasma (IIIP). Após os tratamentos, os filmes finos provenientes da polimerização a plasma do hexametildissilazano apresentaram modificações em suas estruturas moleculares e composição química através das análises infravermelha e XPS. O XPS revelou um aumento nas concentrações de oxigênio e decréscimo de carbono e nitrogênio. Este fato indica aumento no nível e entrelaçamento, ramificação e reticulação das cadeias poliméricas para todos os íons implantados. Verificou-se também que a IIIP promoveu mudanças na molhabilidade com variações nos ângulos de contato de 100° para 10°; alterações nos índices de refração entre 1,65 a 2,10; modificações na dureza e módulo elástico de 0,8 a 3,3 GPa e 6,0 a 52,0 GPa respectivamente, assim como redução na taxa etching de 34,0 para 20,0 Å/min. / Abstract: Plasma polymerized thin films have many applications in optical, electrical, mechanical, food, biomaterial industries among others, due to their interesting chemical and physical properties. Polymer thin films applications, however, can be limited because of some mechanical and surface characteristics. In this work, thin polymer films were deposited from radiofrequency plasmas of hexamethyldisilazane at low pressure. Then, these films were implanted with argon, helium and nitrogen ion, by plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII). After the treatments, plasma polymerized hexamethyldisilazane thin films presented modifications in their molecular structure and chemical composition by infrared and XPS analysis. XPS revealed an increase in the oxygen, decrease in nitrogen and carbon concentrations. This fact indicates increased crosslinking of the polymeric chains of all implanted ions. It was also verified that a PIII caused modification in wettability, changing the contacts angles from 100° to 10°. Modifications were also observed in the refractive index from 1,65 to 2,10; in hardness and in the elastic modulus from 0,8 a 3,3 GPa and 6,0 to 52,0 GPa respectively. The study showed a decrease in etching rate from 34,0 to 20,0 Å/min. / Orientador: Rogério Pinto Mota / Coorientador: Deborah Cristina Ribeiro Santos / Banca: Roberto Yzumi Honda / Banca: Elson de Campos / Banca: Emerson Ferreira de Lucena / Banca: José Roberto Ribeiro Bortoletto / Doutor

A unique process of fabricating a strained layer GexSi1-x on insulator is demonstrated. Such strained heterostructures are useful in the fabrication of high-mobility transistors. This technique incorporates well-established silicon processing technology e.g., ion implantation and thermal oxidation. A dilute GeSi layer is initially formed by implanting Ge+ into a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate. Thermal oxidation segregates the Ge at the growing oxide interface to form a distinct GexSi1-x thin-film with a composition that can be tailored by controlling the oxidation parameters (e.g. temperature and oxidation ambient). In addition, the film thickness can be controlled by implantation fluence, which is important since the film forms pseudomorphically below 2×1016 Ge/cm2. Continued oxidation consumes the underlying Si leaving the strained GeSi film encapsulated by the two oxide layers, i.e. the top thermal oxide and the buried oxide. Removal of the thermal oxide by a dilute HF etch completes the process. Strain relaxation can be achieved by either of two methods. One involves vacancy injection by ion implantation to introduce sufficient open-volume within the film to compensate for the compressive strain. The other depends upon the formation of GeO2. If Ge is oxidized in the absence of Si, it evaporates as GeO(g) resulting in spontaneous relaxation within the strained film. Conditions under which this occurs have been discussed along with elaborated results of oxidation kinetics of Ge-ion implanted silicon. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS), ion channeling, Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used as the characterization techniques.

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / When the spacecrafts orbit in space, it is subjected to significant thermal cycling variation. Thermal regulation of the spacecraft temperature is required to ensure a good operation of the small crafts such as CubeSats and the on-board equipment while minimizing the weight. Three methods employed for the Smart Radiator Devices (SRD) are (i) mechanical louvers, (ii) electrochromic coatings and (iii) thermochromic coatings (which is of interest in this study). Based on the characteristics of the thermochromic coatings, the passive smart radiator device is by far the most efficient option since there are no mechanical moving components and also no electric energy needed for the craft to operate.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science / The role of intersite electron correlation effects and the possible occurrence of the metal-insulator transition in carbon-ion implanted type IIa diamond samples have been studied at very low temperatures, using four- and two-point probe contact electrical conductivity measuring techniques. The measurements were extended to ruthenium oxide thin films in the presence and absence of a constant magnetic field of B = 4.0 T down to 100 mK, using a 3He-4He dilution refrigerator. The effect of the Coulomb gap in the variable range hopping regime has been well studied by other workers. The results tend to follow the Efros-Shklovskii behaviour with a trend towards the Mott T- 114 law for diamond samples far removed from the metal insulator transition, on the insulating side at low temperatures. / Andrew Chakane 2019

Ion implantation and the subsequent redistribution of manganese atoms in Czochralski Silicon (Cz-Si) and Floating Zone Silicon (Fz-Si) due to thermal annealing between 300 C and 1000 C is studied using Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy. The samples ion implanted at 340 C showed multiple peak formation above 900 C. This was not observed for the samples ion implanted at room temperature. Cz-Si and Fz-Si showed similar redistribution profiles.

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Silicon photonics offers great benefits in terms of cost, performance and power consumption. This is increasingly important as the demand for internet bandwidth continues to grow. Optical detection in silicon photonics is performed via the integration of germanium, one of the more challenging integration steps during fabrication. This thesis describes research into a novel technique to grow silicon-germanium on silicon and its application in waveguide detectors and research performed into the application of germanium at extended wavelengths of light. Chapter 1 provides a brief introduction to silicon photonics and chapter 2 covers background material on p-n and p-i-n detectors as well as germanium growth on silicon and it’s applications in silicon photonics. Chapter 3 presents work done on a germanium condensation technique using high fluence ion implantation, suitable for straightforward silicon-germanium fabrication. Using this technique a crystalline layer of silicon-germanium with a high concentration of 92% germanium was demonstrated. In addition a semi-empirical model was developed using a segregation coefficient, an enhanced linear oxidation rate and transient enhanced diffusion. This technique was then used to fabricate a photodetector for operation at a wavelength of 1310 nm. While the responsivity of the detector of 0.01 A/W was modest, this work presents the first demonstration of a detector fabricated in this way, and as such provides a foundation for future improved devices. Chapter 4 presents work done on p-i-n germanium detectors to increase their detection limit in the thulium doped fibre amplifier band. This work originally focused on using mid-bandgap lattice defects introduce via ion implantation to improve the detection limit. However, during this experimental work it was determined that the unimplanted samples had a responsivity of 0.07 A/W at 1850 nm and 0.02 A/W at 2000 nm which was higher than that of the defect implanted samples and so the unimplanted samples were investigated further. From this work it was found that the absorption of the germanium detectors was 0.003 μm-1 at 1900 nm, which is approximately a factor of 10 greater than that of bulk germanium. The increased responsivity and absorption coefficient were attributed to tensile strain in the germanium. In Chapter 5 Raman spectroscopy was employed in order to investigate the detectors described in chapter 4 and confirm the presence of tensile strain. When compared with Raman spectra from a bulk germanium sample it was found that the detectors were experiencing 0.27 to 0.48 % tensile strain, consistent with the enhanced absorption at extended wavelengths. Nanowire bridges were then fabricated in germanium and silicon-germanium and characterized using Raman spectroscopy. Germanium was found to have enhanced strain in the nanowire with an enhancement of up to 13.5 demonstrated, whereas for the silicon-germanium samples the structures were shown to reduce the compressive strain in the samples. It is concluded that strain engineering is a very promising route for the development of extended wavelength detectors integrated with silicon photonic systems. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Various processes that participate in ion beam surface modification are studied using phenomenological, analytical and first principle models. The processes that are modelled phenomenologically include preferential sputtering, radiation-damage induced migration and second phase precipitation. The models are based on numerical solutions of the transport equation and include the processes of ion collection, sputtering, lattice dilation or accommodation and diffusion as well. The model for preferential sputtering takes into account the depletion of the preferentially sputtered element at the surface and the atomic transport process that results from the concentration gradients caused by the depletion. Results are presented for the case of Ta implantation into Fe. ln the radiation-damage induced migration the flux of the solute atoms is coupled to the concentration gradient of the continuously introduced defects. Examples of implantation of Sn into Fe and N into Fe are modeled to demonstrate the influence of radiation-damage induced migration. The precipitation of second phases during irradiation is modelled using thermodynamic considerations but with solubility values under irradiation obtained from experiment. In the model the solute atoms in excess of the solubility limit are assumed to precipitate out. Calculations are presented for the case of N implantation into Nb. Using first principle calculation for binary collisions in solids a computer simulation code was developed to study the collisional mixing occurring during high fluence ion implantation. It is based on the Monte Carlo code TRIM, and is capable of updating the target composition as the implantation process proceeds to high fluences. The physical basis for the dynamic simulation as well as a detailed analysis on the statistics required for obtaining the profiles with a given accuracy are presented. Vectorized results in a high computational efficiency. The predicted collisional broadening of the implantation profiles is presented for Ar bombardment into a Sn-Fe target as well as Ti implantation into C-Fe. The results are compared to those of the diffusion approximation. A semi-empiricaI model based on an analytical evaluation of ion mixing at low temperatures was developed taking into account collisional mixing and thermal spike effects, as well as the thermal spike shape. The ion beam mixing parameter for the thermal spike is derived as being proportional to different powers of the damage parameter, i.e. the damage energy scaled by the cohesive energy of the matrix, dependent on the thermal spike shape and point defect density in the thermal spike regions. Three different regions of ion beam induced mixing were recognized according to different density levels of the damage parameter. An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of chemical or thermodynamic factors in the migration of C in the presence of Fe and Ti atoms. A marker layer of C in a Fe-Ti matrix was ion beam mixed using Ar. The large mixing effect is tentatively attributed to a favorable heat of mixing values. / Ph. D.