The scope of this thesis is the study of the interplay between structure and magnetism in amorphous materials. The investigations focus on the growth of amorphous layers and the study of the influence of structural disorder and reduced physical extension on the magnetic properties of thin films and multilayers. The examined magnetic materials are FeZr alloys, as well as other amorphous transition metal alloys such as CoZr and FeCoZr. Thin films and multilayers of the studied materials were deposited using magnetron sputtering in ultra-high vacuum conditions. Their amorphous structure and layering quality was investigated using X-ray scattering techniques and in several cases with transmission electron microscopy. The chemical composition of the alloys was determined with Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry. The magnetic properties were investigated using the magneto-optic Kerr effect and SQUID magnetometry, as well as polarized neutron reflectometry and X-ray magnetic circular dicroism measurements. For FeZr alloys deposited as multilayers with Al2O3 as spacer layer, it was found that Fe-rich nanocrystallites, formed at the metal/oxide interfaces, exert large influence on the magnetic properties. The use of AlZr alloys as buffer layers promotes the growth of highly amorphous FeZr layers. FeZr/AlZr multilayers with good layering quality can also be obtained. The influence of the reduced layer thickness on the magnetic moment, Curie temperature and magnetic dimensionality of the magnetic layers is addressed for FeZr/AlZr multilayers. Thin FeZr layers in these structures are found to belong to the 2D XY dimensionality class. The change of the magnetic moment and Curie temperature with reduced FeZr layer thickness is quantified. In addition, the induced magnetic moment in the alloy element Zr was investigated in FeZr and CoZr alloy films. The possibility to imprint a preferred magnetization direction during thin film preparation was demonstrated for FeCoZr layers. Lastly, AlZr alloy films were studied with respect to their oxidation stability at room and elevated temperatures, aiming towards development of materials with passivating properties.

Properties of magnetic thin film devices cannot be understood without detailed knowledge of their structure. For this purpose, a variety of thin film and multilayer systems have been studied. Both reciprocal space (low energy electron diffraction, reflection high energy electron diffraction, X-ray diffraction and reflectometry) and direct space (transmission electron microscopy) as well as Rutherford backscattering spectrometry have been applied. To gain understanding of an oxidation procedure for the growth of magnetite layers, thermal stability of iron layers on molybdenum seed layers has been investigated. Following the mosaicity and the out-of-plane coherence length over different ratios between the constituting layers allowed a deeper understanding of the limits of metallic superlattices. This, together with an approach to use hydrogen in the process gas during magnetron sputter epitaxy, opens routes for the growth of metallic superlattices of superior quality. A non-isostructural multilayer/superlattice system, Fe/MgO, has been investigated. In turn, this gave more understanding how superlattice diffraction patterns are suppressed by strain fields. As an alternative route to single-crystalline superlattices, amorphous multilayers present interesting opportunities. In this context, crystallization effects of iron/zirconium layers on alumiunium oxide were studied. Understanding these effects enables significant improvement in the quality of amorphous multilayers, and allows avoiding these, growing truly amorphous layers. Both the substantial improvement in quality of metallic superlattices, approaching true single-crystallinity, as well as the improvements in the growth of amorphous multilayers give rise to opportunities in the field of magnetic coupling and superconducting spin valves.

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / The growth of the Internet has led to many interesting developments for both educational and commercial purposes. In this project an attempt was made to use the Internet for a research purpose to facilitate the determination of the thermal stability of diffusion barriers. Another purpose of this thesis is to investigate the teaching and training use of the Internet through the development of online interactive tools and activities as well as materials. The training aspects are mentioned as it is hoped that this thesis can serve as a form of documentation of the use of the Internet, while the central part was the determination of thermal stability of TiN, TaN and TiW diffusion barriers on Ag.

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / Hydrogen has high energy density and it is regarded as the future energy carrier. Hydrogen can be stored as a gas in high-pressure cylinders, as a liquid in cryogenic tanks and as a solid in metal hydrides. The storage of hydrogen in gas and liquid form has many limitations. Light metal hydrides show high energy density and are a promising and more practical mode of hydrogen storage. In particular, titanium and its alloys are promising metal hydrides for hydrogen storage due to their high affinity to hydrogen. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of thermal annealing on hydrogen storage capacity of Ti-Pd multilayer systems. Ti-Pd multilayer films were prepared on CP-Ti (commercial pure Ti) and Ti6Al4V substrates using an electron beam evaporator equipped with a thickness monitor. The sequential deposition of layers Pd(50nm)/Ti(25nm)/Pd(50nm) was done at a constant deposition rate of 0.6 Å/s. The first batch of samples were thermally annealed at 550 °C in vacuum for two hours, the second batch of samples were annealed at 550 oC under H2(15%)/Ar(85%) gas mixture for two hours and the third series of samples was annealed under pure H2 gas at 550 oC for one hour. SEM showed relatively homogeneous and smooth topography of surfaces in as-deposited samples, while a rough textured surface was observed in both samples annealed under vacuum and under H2/Ar gas mixture. The samples annealed under pure H2 gas did not show any sign of crystallites grow but instead a relatively smooth surface with sign of etching. XRD revealed structural transformation as evidenced by the presence of PdTi2 phase in samples annealed under vacuum; in samples annealed under the gas mixture Pd2Ti was noted in addition to TiH2 and TiO2. While the TiH2 phase is an indication of hydrogen absorption, the TiPd2 phase suggests intermixing of the deposited layers and the presence of TiO2 is evidence of oxidation. The samples annealed under pure H2 gas showed only TiH2 with no trace of structural transformation. RBS confirmed the intermixing of layers in the samples annealed under vacuum and H2(15%)/Ar(85%) gas mixture, while samples annealed under pure H2 gas did not show any intermixing of layers. ERDA revealed an average H content of ~ 3.5 at.% in CP-Ti and ~6.2 at.% in Ti6Al4V for samples annealed under H2(15%)/Ar(85%) gas mixture. We recorded an hydrogen content of ~19.5 at.% in CP-Ti annealed under pure H2 while ~25.5 at.% was found in Ti6Al4V annealed under the same conditions. When the thickness of the Pd catalyst layers was increased to 100 nm (i.e. Pd (100 nm)/Ti (25 nm)/Pd (100 nm)), only ~ 12.5 at.% and 11.2 at. % hydrogen content was recorded in samples prepared on CP-Ti and Ti6Al4V alloy respectively, both annealed under pure hydrogen for one hour as above.

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / The growth of the Internet has led to many interesting developments for both educational and commercial purposes. In this project an attempt was made to use the Internet for a research purpose to facilitate the determination of the thermal stability of diffusion barriers. Another purpose of this thesis is to investigate the teaching and training use of the Internet through the development of online interactive tools and activities as well as materials. The training aspects are mentioned as it is hoped that this thesis can serve as a form of documentation of the use of the Internet, while the central part was the determination of thermal stability of TiN, TaN and TiW diffusion barriers on Ag. The fact that most advanced instruments are computer driven or can be interfaced with a computer was exploited to set up a virtual laboratory facility through which sophisticated and scarce instrumentation can be remotely accessed. The major piece of equipment that forms part of the laboratory is a four-point probe furnace at Arizona State University, Tempe, USA. The Internet made it possible to use the facility to perform an online experiment to determine the effectiveness of different diffusion barriers for silver metallisation. This was accomplished by measuring the resistance of the different samples remotely over the Internet through the control of the four-point probe furnace at Arizona State University. Four types of analysis were used to determine the thermal stability of the diffusion barriers, namely the Scanning Electron Microscopy, Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry, X-Ray Diffraction and resistivity measurements. Similar facilities exist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, USA, where a range of different electron microscopes can be accessed remotely via the Internet. The measurements of the diffusion barriers form the main part of this work. However, the other aspects required for the use of the Internet in such a system, such as the development of a website to receive and upload scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images, the development of the virtual scanning electron microscope and the learning of the Virtual Reality Markup Language are also included.

Dans le but d’observer l’influence du nombre de plans atomiques sur les propriétés op- tiques de couches ultra-minces de pérovskite d’halogénure de plomb méthylammonium, des échantillons ont été fabriqués suivant trois méthodes de synthèse, une par synthèse liquide en deux étapes et deux par évaporation. La qualité des échantillons synthétisés selon la méthode liquide a été vérifiée par des mesures de spectroscopie rayon X à angle rasant. Nous avons observé que les temps de trempage utilisés n’étaient pas assez longs afin de convertir tout le PbI 2 . Aucun autre échantillon n’a cependant été synthétisé selon cette mé- thode puisque leur épaisseur était trop grande pour ce qui était recherché. Les échantillons synthétisés par évaporation ont été vérifiés par rétrodiffusion Rutherford. Afin de vérifier les propriétés optiques de ces échantillons, des mesures de photoluminescence ont été ef- fectuées. Aucune émission pouvant être attribuée aux pérovskites n’a été trouvée. Suivant l’hypothèse que cela était dû à la dégradation des couches par l’humidité, des mesures de RBS utilisant la résonance de l’oxygène ont été effectuées afin de voir s’il y avait une aug- mentation dans la quantité d’oxygène comparativement à un substrat de silicium vierge. Nous avons trouvé (11±2)×10 15 atomes/cm 2 d’oxygène dans le substrat vierge par rapport à (7±2)×10 15 atomes/cm 2 d’oxygène pour l’échantillon. Il y a donc 36% moins d’oxygène dans l’échantillon, alors que la quantité de silicium dans le pic d’oxyde était similaire dans les deux mesures, suggérant la même épaisseur d’oxyde initiale. Il semble donc qu’une des étapes de synthèse enlève de l’oxygène et qu’il y a globalement une diminution dans la quantité d’oxy- gène. Comme cela ne concorde avec aucune des deux situations envisagées, dégradation ou non, il n’était pas possible de déterminer par ces mesures si l’absence de signal de photo- luminescence était due à l’humidité. Des mesures RBS/ERD ont donc été effectuées afin de mesurer s’il y avait insertion de l’autre composant de l’humidité, soit l’hydrogène. Nous avons trouvé que la quantité d’hydrogène présente était 3.6 fois plus élevée que ce qui de- vrait être le cas à partir de la quantité des précurseurs évaporés. Une si grande différence ne peut être expliquée par la dégradation par l’humidité, il y a forcément d’autres mécanismes qui provoquent une augmentation de la quantité d’hydrogène. Il s’avère donc que la chimie entourant la synthèse et la dégradation des échantillons est plus complexe qu’initialement considérée. / In order to observe the influence of the number of atomic layers on the optical properties of ultrathin layers of methylammonium lead iodide perovskite, samples were synthesized using three different methods, one by a two-step liquid synthesis and two by evaporation. The quality of the samples synthesized by the liquid method was verified by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction spectroscopy measurements. We observed that the soaking times used were not long enough to convert all the PbI2. No other sample was synthesized by this method since the thickness of these was too great for our goal. The samples synthesized by evaporation were checked by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry. In order to verify the optical properties of these samples, photoluminescence measurements were made. No emission that can be attributed to perovskites has been found. Under the assumption that this was due to moisture degradation of the perovskite layers, RBS measurements using oxygen resonance were performed to see if there was an increase in the amount of oxygen compared to a virgin silicon substrate. We found (11±2)×1015atoms/cm2 of oxygen for the substrate versus (7±2)×1015atoms/cm2 of oxygen for the sample. There is 36% less oxygen in the sample, whereas the quantity of silicon in the surface is similar in both measurements, suggesting the same initial oxide thickness. It seems that one of the synthesis steps removes oxygen and that there is globally a decrease in the amount of oxygen. Since this does not concord with either of the two situations considered, degradation or not, it was not possible to determine just from these measurement if the lack of photoluminescence signal was due to moisture. RBS / ERD measurements were then taken to measure whether there was an increase in the other component of moisture, hydrogen. We found that the amount of hydrogen present was 3.6 time higher then predicted by the amount of evaporated precursors. Such a large difference can not be explained solely by moisture degradation, there are inevitably other mechanisms that cause an increase in the amount of hydrogen. It turns out that the chemistry surrounding the synthesis and the degradation of the samples is more complex than initially considered.

Controlled thermonuclear fusion may become an attractive future electrical power source. The most promising of all fusion machine concepts is called a tokamak. The fuel, a plasma made of deuterium and tritium, must be confined to enable the fusion process. It is also necessary to protect the wall of tokamaks from erosion by the hot plasma. To increase wall lifetime, the high-Z metal tungsten is foreseen as wall material in future fusion devices due to its very high melting point. This thesis focuses on the following consequences of plasma impact on a high-Z wall: (i) erosion, transport and deposition of high-Z wall materials; (ii) fuel retention in tokamak walls; (iii) long term effects of plasma impact on structural machine parts; (iv) dust production in tokamaks. An extensive study of wall components has been conducted with ion beam analysis after the final shutdown of the TEXTOR tokamak. This unique possibility offered by the shutdown combined with a tracer experiment led to the largest study of high-Z metal migration and fuel retention ever conducted. The most important results are:   - transport is greatly affected by drifts and flows in the plasma edge; - stepwise transport along wall surfaces takes place mainly in the toroidal direction; - fuel retention is highest on slightly retracted wall elements; - fuel retention is highly inhomogeneous.   A broad study on structural parts of a tokamak has been conducted on the TEXTOR liner. The plasma impact does neither degrade mechanical properties nor lead to fuel diffusion into the bulk after 26 years of duty time. Peeling deposition layers on the liner retain fuel in the order of 1g and represent a dust source. Only small amounts of dust are found in TEXTOR with overall low deuterium content. Security risks in future fusion devices due to dust explosions or fuel retention in dust are hence of lesser concern. / <p>QC 20170630</p>

Solar absorber coatings are one of the key components in concentrated solar power (CSP) plants. Currently operating at temperatures up to 565°C and suffering from emissive losses, their energy conversion efficiency could be improved by applying high-temperature stable materials with solar selective properties, i.e. high absorptivity and low emissivity. In this work, the transparent conductive oxide (TCO) SnO2:Ta is developed as a solar selective coating (SSC) for CSP absorbers. Starting with simulations covering basic requirements for SSCs, the deposition process of SnO2:Ta is optimized and extensive optical characterization and modelling are performed. It is shown that upon covering with a SiO2 antireflective layer, a calculated absorptivity of 95% and an emissivity of 30% are achieved for the model configuration of SnO2:Ta on top of a perfect black body (BB). High-temperature stability of the developed TCO up to 800 °C is shown in situ by spectroscopic ellipsometry and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry. The universality of the concept is then demonstrated by transforming silicon and glassy carbon from non-selective into solar selective absorbers by depositing the TCO on top of them. Finally, the energy conversion efficiencies ηCSP of SnO2:Ta on top of a BB and an ideal non-selective BB absorber are compared as a function of solar concentration factor C and absorber temperature TH.

Thin-film transistors (TFTs) are primarily used as a switching element in liquid crystal displays. Currently, amorphous silicon is the dominant TFT technology for displays, but higher performance TFTs will become necessary to enable ultra-definition resolution high-frequency large-area displays. Amorphous zinc tin oxide (ZTO) TFTs were fabricated by RF magnetron sputter deposition. In this study, the effect of both deposition and post annealing conditions have been evaluated in regards to film structure, composition, surface contamination, and device performance. Both the variation of oxygen partial pressure during deposition and the temperature of the post-deposition annealing were found to have a significant impact on TFT properties. X-ray diffraction data indicated that the ZTO films remain amorphous even after annealing to 600° C. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry indicated that the Zn:Sn ratio of the films was ~1.7:1 which is slightly tin rich compared to the sputter target composition. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy data indicated that the films had significant surface contamination and that the Zn:Sn ratios changed depending on sample annealing conditions. Electrical characterization of ZTO films using TFT test structures indicated that mobilities as high as 17 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ could be obtained for depletion mode devices. It was determined that the electrical properties of ZTO films can be precisely controlled by varying the deposition conditions and annealing temperature. It was found that the ZTO electrical properties could be controlled where insulating, semiconducting and conducting films could be prepared. This precise control of electrical properties allowed us to incorporate sputter deposited ZTO films into resistive random access memory (RRAM) devices. RRAM are two terminal nonvolatile data memory devices that are very promising for the replacement of silicon-based Flash. These devices exhibited resistive switching between high-resistance states to low-resistance states and low-resistance states to high-resistance states depending on polarity of applied voltages and current compliance settings. The device switching was fundamentally related to the defect states and material properties of metal and insulator layers, and their interfaces in the metalinsulator-metal (MIM) structure. / Graduation date: 2012 / Access restricted to the OSU Community at author's request from Jan. 6, 2012 - Jan. 6, 2013

Transition metal interface effects of on the crystallization of carbon and silicon were investigated. The graphitization of carbon was studied by ion beam sputter deposition of atomic carbon onto a nickel surface at temperatures ranging from room temperature to 550 °C. The resulting films were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, nuclear reaction analysis combined with Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. A temperature-induced and a nickel-induced effect on the graphitic ordering is demonstrated. The carbon films showed a two layered structure: directly on the nickel surface up to 8 monolayers of graphitic carbon, further deposited carbon formed less ordered structures, preferably perpendicular to the surface. The results are discussed on the basis of hyperthermal atom deposition, surface diffusion, metal-induced crystallization and dissolution-precipitation. The analysis points to a dominating role of surface diffusion-assisted crystallization in the carbon ordering process. The kinetics of silver-induced crystallization of amorphous silicon were studied in a series of isothermal annealing experiments at 350 °C, 400 °C, 450 °C and 500 °C. The annealing process was monitored in situ employing Raman spectroscopy and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry from which time resolved information on the phase transformation and hence the kinetics are obtained. The grain structure of the crystallized silicon film was investigated with optical and scanning electron microscopy which reveals grain diameters of 5 to 8 µm. The small scale crystallinity was measured with X-ray diffraction and crystal domain sizes from 20 to 50 nm were observed. The phase transformation kinetics are discussed based on the Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov theory. The analysis points to a two-dimensional, diffusion limited process with fast Avrami-type nucleation and an activation energy of 0.8 eV/at.:Contents 1. Introduction 2. Metal-Induced Crystallization 2.1. Introduction and State of the Art of Metal-Induced Crystalliza-tion 2.2. Thermodynamics of Metal-Induced Crystallization 2.3. Kinetics of Metal-Induced Crystallization 3. Ion Beam Analysis 3.1. Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry 3.2. Nuclear Reaction Analysis 4. Raman Spectroscopy 4.1. Light Scattering in Solids 4.2. Theory 4.2.1. The Raman Spectrum of Graphitic Carbon 4.2.2. The Silicon Raman Spectrum 5. The Cluster Tool at the Ion Beam Center 5.1. General Concept 5.2. Sputtering Chamber 5.3. The Environmental Chamber 5.4. The Analysis Chamber 5.5. The Ion Beam Analysis Chamber 5.5.1. The Experimental Setup 6. The Carbon Nickel System 6.1. Experimental Details 6.1.1. Film growth 6.1.2. Characterization 6.2. Results 6.3. Discussion 7. The Silicon Silver System 7.1. Experimental 7.1.1. Film Preparation 7.1.2. In Situ Raman Spectroscopy 7.1.3. In Situ Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry 7.2. Results 7.2.1. Raman Spectroscopy 7.2.2. Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry 7.2.3. X-ray Diffraction 7.2.4. Optical and Scanning Electron Microscopy 7.3. Discussion 8. Conclusion and Outlook A. Appendix A.1. Spectroscopic Lineshapes A.1.1. The Lorentzian Lineshape A.1.2. The Breit-Wigner-Fano Lineshape A.1.3. The Doniach-Sunjic Lineshape A.1.4. The Gaussian Lineshape A.1.5. The Voigt Lineshape A.2. Statistcial Distribution Functions A.2.1. The Gamma Distribution Bibliography / Der Einfluss von Übergangsmetallkontaktflächen auf die Kristallisation von Kohlenstoff und Silizium wurde untersucht. Dazu wurde Kohlenstoff bei Temperaturen von Raumtemperatur bis 550 °C auf Nickel mittels Ionenstrahl-Sputtern abgeschieden. Die so erzeugten Filme wurden mit Röntgenphotoelektronen Spektroskopie, Kernreaktionsanalyse kombiniert mit Rutherford Rückstreu Spektrometrie, Raman Spektroskopie und Transmissions-Elektronenmikroskopie charakterisiert. Ein Nickel- und ein Temperatureffekt auf den Graphitisierungsprozess wird nachgewiesen. Die Kohlenstofffilme zeigten einen zweilagigen Aufbau: Direkt auf der Nickeloberfläche bis zu 8 Monolagen graphitischen Kohlenstoffs, weiterer abgeschiedener Kohlenstoff bildet weniger geordnete Strukturen, die bevorzugt senkrecht zur Oberfläche ausgerichtet sind. Die Ergebnisse werden auf Basis von hyperthermischer, atomarer Abscheidung, Oberflächendiffusion, Metall-induzierte Kristallisation und Lösung-Ausfällung diskutiert. Die Analysen deuten auf eine dominante Rolle der Oberflächendiffusion im Graphitisierungsprozess hin. Die Kinetik der Silber-induzierten Kristallisation von amorphen Silizium wurde in einer Reihe von isothermalen Temperexperimenten bei 350 °C, 400 °C, 450 °C und 500 °C untersucht. Der Tempervorgang wurde mit in situ Raman Spektroskopie und in situ Rutherford Rückstreu Spektrometrie charakterisiert, wodurch zeitaufgelöste Information über den Phasenübergang und damit die Kinetik gewonnen wurden. Das Gefüge der entstandenen Siliziumschichten wurde mit optischer und Rasterelektronenmikroskopie untersucht, welche Korndurchmesser von 5 bis 8 µm zeigten. Die Kristallinität wurde mit Röntgendiffraktometrie analysiert. Hierdurch wurden Kristallitgrößen von 20 bis 50 nm bestimmt. Die Kinetik des Phasenüberganges wird anhand der Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov Theorie diskutiert. Dies deutet auf einen zeidimensionalen, diffusionslimitierten Prozess mit schnell abklingender Avrami-Keimbildung hin. Die Aktivierungsenergie wurde zu 0.8 eV/At. bestimmt.:Contents 1. Introduction 2. Metal-Induced Crystallization 2.1. Introduction and State of the Art of Metal-Induced Crystalliza-tion 2.2. Thermodynamics of Metal-Induced Crystallization 2.3. Kinetics of Metal-Induced Crystallization 3. Ion Beam Analysis 3.1. Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry 3.2. Nuclear Reaction Analysis 4. Raman Spectroscopy 4.1. Light Scattering in Solids 4.2. Theory 4.2.1. The Raman Spectrum of Graphitic Carbon 4.2.2. The Silicon Raman Spectrum 5. The Cluster Tool at the Ion Beam Center 5.1. General Concept 5.2. Sputtering Chamber 5.3. The Environmental Chamber 5.4. The Analysis Chamber 5.5. The Ion Beam Analysis Chamber 5.5.1. The Experimental Setup 6. The Carbon Nickel System 6.1. Experimental Details 6.1.1. Film growth 6.1.2. Characterization 6.2. Results 6.3. Discussion 7. The Silicon Silver System 7.1. Experimental 7.1.1. Film Preparation 7.1.2. In Situ Raman Spectroscopy 7.1.3. In Situ Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry 7.2. Results 7.2.1. Raman Spectroscopy 7.2.2. Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry 7.2.3. X-ray Diffraction 7.2.4. Optical and Scanning Electron Microscopy 7.3. Discussion 8. Conclusion and Outlook A. Appendix A.1. Spectroscopic Lineshapes A.1.1. The Lorentzian Lineshape A.1.2. The Breit-Wigner-Fano Lineshape A.1.3. The Doniach-Sunjic Lineshape A.1.4. The Gaussian Lineshape A.1.5. The Voigt Lineshape A.2. Statistcial Distribution Functions A.2.1. The Gamma Distribution Bibliography