No description available.

No description available.

Crystalline films of vanadium dioxide were obtained through thermal annealing of amorphous vanadium dioxide thin films sputtered on silicon dioxide. An annealing process was found that yielded polycrystalline vanadium dioxide thin films, semi-continuous thin films, and films of isolated single-crystal particles. Orientation Imaging Microscopy (OIM) was used to characterize and study the phase and the orientation of the vanadium dioxide crystals obtained, as well as to diferentiate them from other vanadium oxide stoichiometries that may have formed during the annealing process. There was no evidence of any other vanadium oxides present in the prepared samples. Indexing of the crystals for the orientation study was performed with the Kikuchi patterns for the tetragonal phase of vanadium dioxide, since it was observed that the Kikuchi patterns for the monoclinic and tetragonal phases of vanadium dioxide are indistinguishable by OIM. It was found that a particle size of 100 nm was in the lower limit of particles that could be reliably characterized with this technique. It was also found that all VO2 crystals large enough to be indexed by OIM had a preferred orientation with the C axis of the tetragonal phase parallel to the plane of the specimen.

No description available.

Gold black porous coatings were thermally evaporated in the chamber backfilled with inert gas pressure and their optical properties were studied in near-far-IR wavelengths. The porosities of coatings were found to be extremely high around ~ 99%. Different approaches of effective medium theories such as Maxwell-Garnett, Bruggeman, Landau-Lifshitz-Looyenga and Bergman Formalism were utilized to calculate refractive index (n) and extinction coefficient (k). The aging induced changes on electrical and optical properties were studied in regular laboratory conditions using transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and fore-probe electrical measurements. A significant decrease in electrical resistance in as deposited coating was found to be consistent with changes in the granular structure with aging at room temperature. Electrical relaxation model was applied to calculate structural relaxation time in the coatings prepared with different porosities. Interestingly, with aging, absorptance of the coatings improved, which is explained using conductivity form of Bergman Formulism. Underlying aim of this work was to utilize gold blacks to improve sensitivity in un-cooled IR sensors consist of pixel arrays. To achieve this, fragile gold blacks were patterned on sub-mm length scale areas using both stenciling and conventional photolithography. Infrared spectral imaging with sub-micron spatial resolution revealed the spatial distribution of absorption across the gold black patterns produced with both the methods. Initial experiments on VOx-Au bolometers showed that, gold black improved the responsivity by 42%. This work successfully establishes promising role of gold black coatings in commercial un-cooled infrared detectors.

Heteroübergänge, die aus (in)organischen/(in)organischen Materialien bestehen, spielen eine entscheidende Rolle für die Leistung optoelektronischer Bauteile. Der Schwerpunkt dieser Arbeit liegt hauptsächlich auf der elektronischen Struktur dieser Heteroübergänge, insbesondere der Ausrichtung der Energieniveaus (ELA) an verschiedenen Heteroübergangsschnittstellen, die mit Photoelektronenspektroskopie gemessen wird. Zusätzlich wird die Geräteleistungen mit den PES-Ergebnissen verglichen, um weitere Verbesserung zu ermöglichen. MoOx/n-Si und PEDOT:PSS/n-Si Heteroverbindungen sind aktive Schichten von Solarzellen und mit PES kann direkt, die Groessen der Bandverbiegung auf der n-Si-Seite gemessen werden. Obwohl die Bandverbiegung für einen MoOx/n-Si-Heteroübergang (0,80 eV) größer ist als die von PEDOT:PSS/n-Si (0,71 eV), weisen die entsprechenden Solarzellen (MoOx/n-Si) aufgrund der mangelhaften Passivierung von n-Si und der geringeren Dünnschichtleitfähigkeit von MoOx einen schlechteren Wirkungsgrad (auf. Die Untersuchung der elektronischen Struktur Duenner Schichten aus Perowskit (CH3NH3PbI3) oder Vanadiumdioxid zeigt, dass die Austrittsarbeit durch die Oberflächenkomponenten dramatisch beeinflusst werden kann, wodurch die ELA mit dem prototypischen organischen Lochtransportmaterial N,N′-di(1-naphthyl)-N,N′-diphenylbenzidin (NPB) variiert wird. Bei den CH3NH3PbI3-Dünnschichten, die mit verschiedenen Methoden hergestellt werden, korreliert das Verhältnis der beiden Kohlenstoffarten auf der Oberfläche mit der Variation der Austrittsarbeit. Wie bei der VO2-Oberfläche kann die Austrittsarbeit durch Ändern des Verhältnisses von Sauerstoff und Vanadium auf der Oberfläche von 4,4 eV auf 6,7 eV abgestimmt werden. Belege für eine starke Ferminiveau-Pinning und die damit verbundene Energieniveaubiegung in NPB finden sich für stöchiometrisches VO2 (WF=6,7 eV), wodurch ein ohmscher Kontakt für Löcher entsteht, der als Lochinjektionskontakt in Bauteilen verwendet werden kann. / Heterojunctions, comprised by (in)organic/(in)organic materials, play a crucial role in determining the performance of optoelectronic devices. The focus of this work is mainly on the electronic structure of heterojunctions present in the optoelectronic devices, in particular the energy level alignment (ELA) at different heterojunction interfaces, by employing photoelectron spectroscopy (PES). Furthermore, interface energetics are correlated with the device performances in order to guide the future improvement. MoOx/n-Si and PEDOT:PSS/n-Si heterojunctions are active layers in solar cells and PES measurements give direct band bending magnitudes generated at the n-Si. Even though the band bending magnitude of the MoOx/n-Si heterojunction (0.80 eV) is larger than that of the PEDOT:PSS/n-Si (0.71 eV), the corresponding solar cells (MoOx/n-Si) show inferior power conversion efficiency (PCE), due to the deficient passivation of n-Si and lower thin film conductivity of MoOx. The investigations of electronic structure of perovskite (CH3NH3PbI3) and vanadium dioxide (VO2) thin films show that the work function can be dramatically affected by the surface components, which subsequently varies the ELA with the deposited prototypical organic hole transport material N,N′-di(1-naphthyl)-N,N′-diphenylbenzidine (NPB). As for the CH3NH3PbI3 thin films fabricated by different methods, the ratio of the two C 1s species (CH3NH3+ and CH3+) on the surface correlates with variation of the work function. As for the VO2 thin film, the work function can be tuned from 4.4 eV to 6.7 eV by changing the ratio of oxygen and vanadium on the surface. Evidence for strong Fermi-level pinning and the associated energy-level bending in NPB is found for the clean and stoichiometric VO2 (WF=6.7 eV), rendering an Ohmic contact for holes, which can be utilized as a hole injection contact into the devices.

Die vorliegende Habilitationsschrift bespricht aktuelle Ergebnisse zur Struktur und Reaktivität von Übergangsmetalloxidoberflächen. Es werden eingangs Grundlagen zur Berechnung von Eigenschaften von Oberflächen mittels Dichtefunktionaltheorie vorgestellt. Des Weiteren werden anhand von drei untersuchten Oxiden, nämlich dem Vanadium(III)-oxid, dem Cer(IV)-oxid, und dem Eisen(II,III)-oxid, der aktuelle Forschungsstand im Hinblick auf Oberflächenstruktur und Reaktivität von Phasengrenzen, wie z.B. der Phasengrenze zwischen Vanadium(V)-oxid und Cer(IV)-oxid und der Phasengrenze zwischen Wasser und Eisen(II,III)-oxid dargelegt. / The present habilitation thesis discusses results on structure and reactivity of transition metal oxide surfaces obtained using state-of-the-art density functional theory methods. First, fundamental issues of density functional theory are presented. Furthermore, the current state in research with respect to surface structure on one hand and reactivities of interfaces between different oxides like vanadium(III) and cerium(IV) oxide or water and iron(II,III) oxide on the other hand are developed.

The first-principles density functional theory (DFT) was implemented to investigate the structural, electronic and magnetic properties of vanadium (V) substituted and chalcogen (Se) vacancies in tungsten diselenide (WSe 2 ) monolayer, novel two dimensional (2D) monolayer (ML) structures in binary compounds ZnX (X= As, Sb, and Bi), and novel 2D electrides on transition metal-rich mono-oxide or chalcogenides, based on Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) exchange functional employed in Vienna Ab-Initio Simulation Packages (VASP). The inherent defect in 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) contains unavoidable substitutional defects and a certain amount of chalcogen vacancies. This type of defect affects the electronic and magnetic properties of 2D-TMDCs. To account for this fact, we demonstrated using DFT that the V-doped WSe 2 monolayer exhibits long-range ferromagnetic order. Further, the chalcogenide (Se) vacancies clustered around V-atom enhance the ferromagnetic properties of the system consistent with experimental findings. This dissertation explores the important role of Se-vacancies in the magnetic properties of the V-doped WSe 2 monolayer and proposes a method to enhance the magnetic properties of such 2D non-magnetic van der Waal (vdW) materials. In the second study, we have attempted theoretically to engineer the monolayer structure in II-V binary compounds ZnX with orthorhombic symmetry. We proved the dynamical stability of the bulk and ML structures manifested by the absence of imaginary frequencies in phonon dispersion curves. Our calculations on the density of states (DOS), and band structures using GGA indicate the increasing value of bandgap as well as the transition from indirect to direct bandgap while going from bulk to monolayer structure of ZnX. Our theoretical calculations will represent an archetype of novel 2D semiconductors on ZnX. Next, we have tailored using DFT, the structural and electronic properties of the 2D electrides that belong to transition metal-rich mono-oxide and chalcogenides with hexagonal (Hf 2 X; X = O, S, Se, Te), and orthorhombic (Ti2S and Zr2S) symmetry thereby introducing novel electrides to the electride family. The Bader charge analysis, electron localization function (ELF), projected DOS, and the calculated value of low work functions provides sufficient theoretical shreds of evidence to prove these materials as electrides.

No description available.

No description available.