The most widely used transparent conducting thin films, Indium-Tin-Oxide (ITO), will surly encounter difficulties for Indium is naturally limited and its price rising fast very year. Searching for Indium free transparent conducting oxides (TCO) becomes one of the important issues in this field. Among of which, ZnO:Al (AZO) is the most import candidate and is used, now, in photovoltaic industry. In the future, flexible substrates are necessary, therefore, to preventing degrading of TCO crystal by repeatedly bending, TCO should be produced in amorphous or nano-crystal types. By properly doping of Ti in ZnO lattice, a certain form of amorphous-nanocrystal mixture films can be obtained at room temperature. Unfortunately, amorphous or nano-crystal with poor crystal structure suppress the electric conduction. Growth films at few hundred degrees may enhance the crystallization, however, the flexible substrate, such as PET, can only sustained temperature lower than 150oC. In this project, an UV assisted film growth technique is used to study the effect of the UV assistant growth on films properties. The aim of this study is wish to grow films with better crystallization at lower growth temperature. Physical properties of films are investigated by the transmittance spectroscopy (N&K analyzer), X-ray dffractometer (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). It is found that the optical band gap increases and shows an obvious blue shifting due to the short range order in the present films. All films exhibits high level of transparency in the visible range. The grazing angle incident X-ray diffraction (GID XRD) indicates that high ratio of amorphous phase for films grown at high working gas pressure and low RF power. For certain growth conditions, pure amorphous films can be obtained. Oppositely, films grown at low working gas pressure and high RF power manifest crystal growth along all directions resulting shifting and broadening in XRD peaks. Higher the Ti doping levels higher the amorphous ratio. By gown films at higher temperatures, (002) peak dominates the GID XRD measurements. It is found that the 266nm UV assisted growth enhances crystallization and roughness of films at relatively low temperature, lower than the highest sustainable temperature of PET.

The resistance random access memory (RRAM) is one of the most popular of the next generation memories with the high operating speed, reliability and the smallest miniature size. RRAM has metal-insulator-metal structure that can greatly reduce the difficulty of entry, but the biggest problem is how to choose the insulator. We selected silicon-based materials to match the intergrated circuits manufacturing process. In this work, sputtering titanium doping in the silicon oxide thin film has a stable characteristic of resistance switching. By material analyzing, we found that supercritical carbon dioxide fluid (SCCO2) treatment can passivate the silicon oxide defect and the self-reduction of titanium oxide, but it also brought OH group into our thin film. So we observed the interface type characteristic of resistance switching. Using constant voltage sampling experiment extract the reaction rate constant (k) and the active energy, prove that the reaction is caused by OH injection. Double-layer structure with titanium-doped and carbon-doped silicon oxide RRAM promote lower operating current by hopping conduction, which is caused by graphite oxide doping. The Space-Charge Limited Current mechanism for high limited current is proven by COMSOL electric field simulation.

Il y a un énorme intérêt dans la construction de lasers à l'état solide capables d'atteindre les niveaux de petawatt (PW) et au-delà. Afin d'atteindre ce niveau de puissance, des amplificateurs Ti: Al2O3 d'un diamètre maximum de 20 cm ou plus sont nécessaires et il est donc nécessaire de développer des boules de cristaux Ti:Al2O3 de grand diamètre. Le procédé de croissance de Kyropoulos a été identifié par la société RSA le Rubis SA comme la technique la plus productive car elle permet de croître des cristaux massifs sous un faible gradient de température et donc de bonne qualité.La croissance de cristaux pesant environ 30 kg s'accompagne de complications qui affectent gravement la morphologie cristalline et donc sa qualité cristalline. Pour étudier les problèmes de morphologie, une étude détaillée de l'effet des paramètres de croissance a été réalisée en analysant le processus des cristaux cultivés dans l'installation industrielle. Les facteurs pour les problèmes critiques d'une formation de plaque plate et les zones refondues dans le cristal ont été identifiés et un ensemble idéal de paramètre pour le taux de tirage et le taux de croissance de masse a été proposé. Ceux-ci ont conduit à des améliorations marquées dans le volume productif du cristal et ont permis la croissance de cristaux avec des morphologies prévisibles.Pour aller plus loin, un système de croissance cristalline totalement autonome a été envisagé qui permettrait à l'opérateur de surveiller en temps réel la forme du cristal et de contrôler ses paramètres de croissance radiale. Ceci est basé sur la mesure in situ simultanée du poids cristallin et du niveau de liquide restant. Une étude mathématique est présentée pour expliquer la relation entre toutes les forces de pesage agissant sur le cristal en croissance et pour étudier la faisabilité de ce système de contrôle. On montre qu'il pourrait être utile pour la régulation du diamètre pendant la croissance de Kyropoulos.Les cristaux ont été caractérisés et contrôlés pour détecter les défauts qui affecteraient leurs propriétés optiques. Un tel défaut était la présence d'une bande translucide dans le cristal autrement transparent, appelé "défaut laiteux". La qualité cristalline en termes de densité de dislocation due à la déformation induite a été analysée en utilisant des techniques de diffraction des rayons X, ainsi que des caractérisations optiques et des analyses chimiques. Aidé du transfert de chaleur et des simulations numériques thermomécaniques du système de croissance, une explication de l'origine de ce défaut en termes de contrainte thermique agissant et de dynamique de croissance cristalline associée est proposée.Le dopage du titane dans le cristal de saphir est nécessaire pour l'application Laser, mais il y a ségrégation du dopant au cours de la croissance, ce qui conduit à une distribution inhomogène des cristaux développés, comme le montre la caractérisation optique de la distribution du titane dans ses états Ti3 + et Ti4 + . Des idées pour améliorer l'homogénéité des échantillons laser sont proposées. / There is a huge interest in construction of solid state lasers capable of reaching petawatt (PW) levels and beyond. In order to achieve this level of power, Ti:Al2O3 amplifiers up to 20 cm in diameter or larger are required and hence there is the need for the growth of large diameter Ti:Al2O3 crystal boules. The Kyropoulos growth process has been identified by the company RSA le Rubis SA as the most productive technique because it allows growing massive crystals under a low temperature gradient and hence of good quality.Growing crystals weighing about 30 kg comes with its share of complications which gravely affect the crystal morphology and hence its crystalline quality. To address the issues of morphology, a detailed study of the growth parameters effect was carried out by analysing the process of crystals grown in the industrial setup. The factors for the critical issues of a flat plate formation and re-melted zones in the crystal were identified and an ideal set of parameter for the pulling rate and mass growth rate was proposed. These led to marked improvements in the productive volume of the crystal and enabled growth of crystals with predictable morphologies.To take a step further, a completely autonomous crystal growth system was envisioned which would allow the operator live monitoring of the crystal shape and give control over its radial growth parameters. This is based on the simultaneous in situ measurement of crystal weight and remaining liquid level. A mathematical study is presented to explain the relationship between all the weighing forces acting on the growing crystal and to study the feasibility of this control system. It is shown that it could be useful for the diameter regulation during the Kyropoulos growth.Crystals were characterised and checked for defects which would affect its optical properties. One such defect was the presence of a translucent band in the otherwise transparent crystal, called “milky defect”. The crystalline quality in terms of dislocation density due to induced strain was analysed using X-ray diffraction techniques, along with optical characterisation and chemical analyses. Aided with heat transfer and thermo-mechanical numerical simulations of the growth system, an explanation for the origin of this defect in terms of acting thermal stress and associated crystal growth dynamics is proposed.Titanium doping in the sapphire crystal is needed for the Laser application, but there is segregation of the dopant during growth and this leads to an inhomogeneous distribution in the grown crystals, as shown by optical characterisation of the distribution of titanium in its Ti3+ and Ti4+ states. Ideas in order to improve the laser samples homogeneity are proposed.