Publications related to Microstructure of Al95.5Cr2.5Si2(N1-xOx) thin films covering from nitrides to oxides

Font Side Solutions for c-Si Solar Cells with High-Temperature Passivating Contacts

In this work, we studied the potential of using thin films deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) for two main purposes: introducing an n-type passivating contact at the front of a TOPCon solar cell, or simplifying the fabrication o ...

EPFL2024

Nanostructure and Optical Property Tailoring of Zinc Tin Nitride Thin Films through Phenomenological Decoupling: A Pathway to Enhanced Control

Aïcha Hessler-Wyser, Johann Michler, Amit Sharma, Daniele Casari, Caroline Hain, Thomas Nelis

This work addresses the need for precise control of thin film sputtering processes to enable thin film material tailoring on the example of zinc tin nitride (ZTN) thin films deposited via microwave plasma-assisted high power reactive magnetron sputtering ( ...

Amer Chemical Soc2024

Colloidal Atomic Layer Deposition on Nanocrystals Using Ligand-Modified Precursors

Raffaella Buonsanti, Anna Loiudice, Petru Pasquale Albertini, Ona Segura Lecina, Coline Marie Agathe Boulanger, Philippe Benjamin Green, Mark Adrian Newton, Krishna Kumar, Jari Leemans

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a method to grow thin metal oxide layers on a variety of materials for applications spanning from electronics to catalysis. Extending ALD to colloidally stable nanocrystals promises to combine the benefits of thin metal oxi ...

Amer Chemical Soc2024

Piezoelectric and elastic properties of Al0.60Sc0.40N thin films deposited on patterned metal electrodes

Luis Guillermo Villanueva Torrijo, Silvan Stettler, Marco Liffredo, Nan Xu, Federico Peretti

Sc-doped aluminum nitride (AlScN) allows for piezoelectric devices with large electromechanical coupling and the benefits increase with larger Sc doping in the film. However, with a larger Sc concentration, the process window narrows, and it is necessary t ...

2024

Influence of ionization and cumulative effects on laser-induced crystallization in multilayer dielectrics

Yves Bellouard, Ruben Ricca, Victor Carle Adrien Boureau

Crystallization of amorphous layers has been demonstrated under various radically different laser-exposure conditions, including continuous wave (cw) and pulsed lasers. Here, we investigate the specific role of ionization in the crystallization of dielectr ...

2024

Microstructural and electrical characterization of high temperature passivating contacts for silicon solar cells

Sofia Libraro

Recombination at metal/semiconductor interfaces represents the main limitation in mainstream c-Si solar cells, primarily based on the passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) concept. Full-area passivating contacts based on SiOx/poly-Si stacks are a candida ...

EPFL2024

Silicon nitride electric-field poled microresonator modulator

Camille Sophie Brès, Anton Stroganov, Edgars Nitiss, Boris Zabelich, Christian André Clément Lafforgue

Stoichiometric silicon nitride is a highly regarded platform for its favorable attributes, such as low propagation loss and compatibility with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology, making it a prominent choice for various linear and nonlinear ...

2024

Towards Scalable Electronics: Synthetic 2D Materials for Large-Area 2D Circuit Integration

Zhenyu Wang

In the past decades, a significant increase of the transistor density on a chip has led to exponential growth in computational power driven by Moore's law. To overcome the bottleneck of traditional von-Neumann architecture in computational efficiency, effo ...

EPFL2024

Spinel Protective Coatings for Solid Oxide Cell (SOC) Interconnects (ICs)

Samaneh Daviran

Abstract The degradation of metal interconnects (ICs) in Solid Oxide Cells (SOCs) primarily results from chromium (Cr) oxide scale growth on stainless-steel substrates, causing ohmic loss and air-side electrode poisoning by Cr. This thesis addresses these ...

EPFL2024

III-V Nitride Semiconductors Deposited At Low Temperature For Photovoltaic Applications

Jonathan Emanuel Thomet

This thesis reports on the study and use of low temperature processes for the deposition of indium gallium nitride (InGaN) thin films in order to alleviate some of the present drawbacks of its monolitic deposition on silicon for photovoltaic applications. ...

EPFL2023

Plasma-Assisted Hybrid Vapour Deposition Technology for Thin Film Fabrication

Caroline Hain

Continuous development of thin film deposition technologies is essential for the fabrication of films that meet the specific requirements of their target applications and working conditions. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the number of accessible a ...

EPFL2023

Vapor Deposition of Perovskite Solar Cells

Quentin Jean-Marie Armand Guesnay

Thanks to the continuous improvement of crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells, largely dominating the market, photovoltaic electricity is nowadays the cheapest source of energy on the market. Yet, solar energy is far from being completely harvested, as t ...

EPFL2023

Synthesis of metal oxide-overcoated carbon materials by liquid phase ALD and their applications in catalysis

Farzaneh Talebkeikhah

Coating nano particles and other substrates for efficiency enhancement, protection and obtaining new atomic structures is a widespread research topic in catalysis and material synthesis. Thus far, different approaches of coating, ranging from simplest to s ...

EPFL2023

Effect of Mo addition on the mechanical and tribological properties of magnetron sputtered TiN films

Sami Rtimi

Ternary-based titanium nitride (TiN) thin films have drawn attention toward rational applications due to their wear resistance, high hardness, and corrosion resistance. The influence of Mo content on the structural, tribo-logical, and mechanical properties ...

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA2023

Iron Reduction in Profundal Sediments of Ultraoligotrophic Lake Tahoe under Oxygen-Limited Conditions

Meret Aeppli

Increased periods of bottom water anoxia in deep temperate lakes due to decreasing frequency and depth of water column mixing in a warming climate may result in the reductive dissolution of iron minerals and increased flux of nutrients from the sediment in ...

2023

Unit-cell-thick zeolitic imidazolate framework films for membrane application

Yu Han, Deepu Joseph Babu, Kumar Varoon Agrawal, Luis Francisco Villalobos Vazquez de la Parra, Heng-Yu Chi, Shaoxian Li, Qi Liu, Jian Hao, Shuqing Song

Zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) are a subset of metal-organic frameworks with more than 200 characterized crystalline and amorphous networks made of divalent transition metal centres (for example, Zn2+ and Co2+) linked by imidazolate linkers. ZIF th ...

NATURE PORTFOLIO2023

Investigation and Mitigation of Moisture- and Potential-Induced Degradation Mechanisms of Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells and Modules

Olatz Arriaga Arruti

Photovoltaic (PV) technology is one of the most promising renewable energy sources. The PV market is dominated by crystalline silicon (c-Si) based technologies, thus ensuring their long-term performance is of paramount importance for manufacturers, investo ...

EPFL2023

Competition between Carrier Injection and Structural Distortions in Electron-Doped Perovskite Nickelate Thin Films

Jean-Marc Triscone, Duncan Thomas Lindsay Alexander, Jonathan Spring, Bernat Mundet

The discovery of superconductivity in doped infinite-layer nickelate thin films has brought increased attention to the behavior of the doped perovskite phase. Despite this interest, the majority of existing studies pertain to hole-doped perovskite rare-ear ...

WILEY2023

Structure, Oxygen Content and Electric Properties of Titanium Nitride Electrodes in TiNx/La:HfO2/TiNx Stacks Grown by PEALD on SiO2/Si

Philippe Buffat, Elena Suvorova Buffat

This work reports experimental results of the quantitative determination of oxygen and band gap measurement in the TiNx electrodes in planar TiNx top/La:HfO2/TiNx bottom MIM stacks obtained by plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition on SiO2. Methodological ...

2022

Three-dimensional in situ imaging of single-grain growth in polycrystalline In2O3:Zr films

Quentin Thomas Jeangros, Michael Elias Stückelberger, Monica Morales Masis

Understanding grain morphology and kinetics of solid-phase crystallization is important for controlling the functional properties of polycrystalline materials. Here, in situ coherent X-ray diffraction imaging and transmission electron microscopy elucidate ...

SPRINGERNATURE2022