Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1996. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-135). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1996. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-135). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 129-137). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, March, 2003. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 147-151)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Idaho, October 2006. / Major professor: Chien M. Wai. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online in PDF format.

This work uses a modification of the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique to study the effects of source gas flow geometry (and the corresponding parameters) on carbon nanotube growth. Our approach is to flow the carbon-containing source gas through a nozzle, projecting the gas stream onto targeted regions of the substrate. This technique not only allows the potential for localized nanotube growth, but also offers an interesting opportunity to provide an experimental test of theoretical nanotube growth models.

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a II-VI semiconductor material that offers tremendous potential as a light emitter in the blue-to-UV range. It has a wurtzite structure, and a direct band gap that can be tuned from 3.0 to 4.0 eV by alloying with Cd or Mg, respectively. In this work, ZnO thin films were grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on n-Si 2 ° off (100), amorphous glass, n-GaAs (100), and c-plane sapphire substrates. Diethyl zinc (DEZn) and tert-butanol (TBOH) were chosen as precursors. For the first time, Second Harmonic Generation Imaging was applied to the mapping of ZnO epilayers. The images obtained highlighted the polycrystalline character of the thin films, and provided insight as to the growth mode of ZnO on Si. The influence of substrate temperature on the structural properties of the epilayers was investigated by X-ray diffraction and optical microscopy. Grain sizes as high as 54 nm were measured. The optimum temperature range for this system proved to be 450 – 500 °C. The influence of the VI:II ratio during growth on the optical properties of the epilayers was studied by UV-vis-near IR spectroscopy. The lowest Urbach tail E0 parameter was measured for material grown at a VI:II ratio of 18:1. The films’ free electron concentration was shown to decrease by over two orders of magnitude, from 1019 to 1017 cm-3, as the VI:II ratio increased from 10 to 60:1. This decrease in carrier concentration with rising VI:II ratio was paralleled to the surge at 12 K of a photoluminescence (PL) emission band characteristic of p-type ZnO. The band gap energies extracted from room temperature transmission spectra ranged between 3.35 and 3.38 eV, in agreement with the value of 3.35 eV measured by room temperature PL. Moreover, variable temperature PL spectra were recorded between 12 and 298 K on ZnO grown on Si. The 12 K spectrum was dominated by a donor-bound exciton (D°X) at 3.36 eV, while the 298 K scan displayed strong free exciton emission (FX) at 3.29 eV. The width of the D°X band proved to be as narrow as 7 meV. The intensity ratio between the room temperature near-band edge emission and the defect-related green band was as high as 28:1, highlighting the optical quality of the layers deposited in this work. The electrical properties of the thin films were studied by Hall measurements (van der Pauw configuration), and a maximum room temperature mobility of 11 cm2/Vs was recorded. Furthermore, a palladium (Pd) Schottky barrier diode on ZnO was fabricated. The barrier height and ideality factor were calculated from current–voltage measurements to be 0.83 eV and 1.6, respectively. The capacitance–voltage curve of the diode yielded a carrier concentration in the depletion region of 8·1017 cm-3. This study has shown that the optical and electrical properties of ZnO depend strongly on the growth conditions employed. A suitable choice of growth parameters can yield high quality ZnO that may be used for various devices. Keywords: Hall, MOCVD, optical spectroscopy, photoluminescence, Schottky barrier diode, SH Imaging, X-ray diffraction, ZnO.

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / FeSi nanowires were synthesized via a chemical vapor deposition method. Anhydrous FeCl3 powder in this case served as the Fe source and was evaporated at a temperature of 1100oC to interact with silicon substrates which served as the silicon source. The nanowires followed the vapor solid (VS) growth mechanism, which does not require the use of a metal catalyst; the native silicon oxide layer on the silicon substrates played the role of the catalyst in the growth of these nanostructures. A second growth mechanism, involving the use of a metal catalyst to assist in the growth of the nanowires was attempted by depositing a thin film of gold on silicon substrates. The reaction yielded SiOx nanowires; these results are discussed in detail in Chapter 5. All the nanostructures were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Photoluminescence Spectroscopy (PL), Raman Spectroscopy and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR).

This study focuses on the growth and characterization of epitaxial InAs and InAs1-xSbx. Layers are grown on InAs, GaAs and GaSb substrates by metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy, using trimethylindium, trimethylantimony and arsine as precursors. The growth parameters (V/III ratio, Sb vapour phase compositions) are varied in the temperature range from 500 ºC to 700 ºC, in order to study the influence of these parameters on the structural, optical and electrical properties of the materials. The layers were assessed by X-ray diffraction, electron and optical microscopy, photoluminescence and Hall measurements. Furthermore, the influence of hydrogenation and annealing on the electrical and optical properties of GaSb was investigated. It is shown that the growth temperature and the V/III ratio play a vital role in the resulting surface morphology of homoepitaxial and heteroepitaxial InAs layers. Growth at low temperatures is found to promote three-dimensional growth in both cases, with improvements in the surface morphologies observed for higher growth temperatures. All the investigated epilayers are n-type. It is shown that the electrical properties of heteroepitaxial InAs epilayers are complicated by a competition between bulk conduction and conduction due to a surface accumulation and an interface layer. The low temperature photoluminescence spectra of homoepitaxial InAs are dominated by two transitions. These are identified as band-to-band/excitonic and donor-acceptor recombination. The incorporation efficiency of antimony (Sb) into InAs1-xSbx is dependent on the growth temperature and the V/III ratio. Under the growth conditions used in this study, the incorporation efficiency of Sb is controlled by the thermal stability of the two constituent binaries (i.e. InAs and InSb). Changes in the low temperature photoluminescence spectra are detected with increasing x. From temperature and laser power dependent measurements, the highest energy line is attributed to band-to-band/excitonic recombination, while the peak appearing approximately 15 meV below this line is assigned to donor-acceptor recombination. The origin of an additional “moving” peak observed for higher Sb mole fraction x is tentatively attributed to quasi-donor-acceptor-recombination, arising from increased impurity/defect concentrations and a higher compensation ratio in the material. However, the unusual behaviour of this peak may also be ascribed to the presence of some degree of ordering in InAsSb. The exposure of a semiconductor to a hydrogen plasma usually leads to the passivation of shallow and deep centres, thereby removing their electrical and optical activity. In this study, the passivation and thermal stability of the native acceptor in p-type GaSb is also investigated. It is shown that this acceptor can be passivated, where after improvements in the electrical and optical properties of GaSb are observed. Upon annealing the passivated samples above 300 °C, the acceptor is reactivated.

Metal sulfide thin films are important class of materials which have applications in photovoltaics, microelectronics and displays. Chemical vapour deposition (CVD) is well known method for the deposition of high quality thin films. Very few classes of single source precursors (eg: dithiocarbamates, xanthates) were successful for the deposition of good quality metal sulfide films by MOCVD. This limited choice was due to the difficulties of finding precursors with suitable physico-chemical properties. Hence, it is important to develop precursors with suitable volatility, solubility and being able to deposit films with little or no contamination. This work describes the synthesis of a series of metal (Fe, Co, Ni, Zn, Cd) complexes of thio- and dithio-biuret ligands, their structural and spectroscopic characterization and thermal decomposition. The complexes were used as single source precursors for the deposition of iron, cobalt, nickel, zinc, cadmium and zinc cadmium sulfide thin films by AACVD. The effect of alkyl groups, coordinating atoms, deposition temperatures on phases and morphology of the films were studied. The deposited films were characterised by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The complex [Fe(SON(CNiPr2)2)3] gave hexagonal troilite FeS films with small amount of tetragonal pyrrhotites Fe1-xS at 300 °C, whereas only troilite FeS was deposited at 350, 400 or 450 °C. Complexes [Fe2(µ-OMe)2 (SON(CNEt2)2)2] and [Fe(SON(CNEt2)2)3] deposited a mixture of hexagonal troilite FeS and cubic pyrite FeS2 films at all temperatures. [Fe(SON(CNMe2)2)3] deposited very thin films of FeS at all temperatures as troilite. Complexes [Co(N(SCNMe2)2)3] and [Co(N(SCNEt2)2)3] deposited hexagonal Co1-xS films at all temperatures of 350-500 °C, whereas [Co(SON(CNiPr2)2)2] gave mixture of cubic and hexagonal Co4S3 films at 280-400 °C. Thiobiuret complex [Ni(SON(CNMe2)2)2] gave orthorhombic Ni7S6. Complexes [Ni(SON(CNMe2CNEt2))2] and [Ni(SON(CNEt2)2)2] gave mixtures of hexagonal Ni17S18 and orthorhombic Ni7S6. In contrast, [Ni(SON(CNiPr2)2)2] gave orthorhombic Ni9S8. Dithiobiuret complexes [Ni(N(SCNMe2SCNEt2))2] and [Ni(N(SCNEt2)2)2] gave hexagonal NiS1.03 at 360 and 400 °C, orthorhombic Ni7S6 phase at 440 and 480 °C. The zinc complexes [Zn(N(SCNMe2)2)2] and [Zn(SON(CNiPr2)2)2] deposited cubic ZnS at 300 and 350 °C, whereas at 400 and 450 °C hexagonal ZnS were apparent [Zn(N(SCNEt2)2)2] gave hexagonal ZnS films at all deposition temperatures. Cadmium complexes [Cd(N(SCNMe2)2)2], [Cd(N(SCNEt2)2)2] and [Cd(SON(CNiPr2)2)2] gave hexagonal CdS films at all deposition temperatures.