Recent Developments in Biological, Structural and Functional Thin Films and Coatings: Functional Films and Coatings
Sponsored by: TMS Functional Materials Division, TMS: Thin Films and Interfaces Committee
Program Organizers: Adele Carrado, University of Strasbourg; Heinz Palkowski, Clausthal University of Technology; Gerald Ferblantier, University of Strasbourg - IUT LP / ICube Laboratory - CNRS; Ramana Chintalapalle, University of Texas at El Paso; Nuggehalli Ravindra, New Jersey Institute of Technology; Nancy Michael, University of Texas at Arlington; Vikas Tomar, Purdue University

Tuesday 8:30 AM
February 25, 2020
Room: Oceanside
Location: Marriott Marquis Hotel

Session Chair: Gerald Ferblantier, Icube Laboratory UNISTRA


8:30 AM  Keynote
Growth and Characterization of Doped-silicon-based Nanomaterials for Optical Applications: Herve Rinnert1; 1Institut Jean Lamour - Université de Lorraine
    Silicon nanocrystals (Si-NCs) have been extensively studied for about three decades since they exhibit an intense red light emission induced by the quantum confinement of carriers allowing radiative recombination much more efficiently than in bulk silicon. Despite many efforts, a full efficient silicon based optoelectronics is not yet available. Moreover, the emission wavelength range remains limited. Doping Si-NCs is an alternative way to render Si-based materials optically active and to obtain a wide wavelength range. In this work, rare-earth doping as well as phosphorus and boron doping were investigated. Thin films were obtained by e-beam assisted evaporation under ultra-high vacuum. The emission properties of the doped materials will be discussed in relation with the chemical content, localization of dopants and structural characterization at the nanoscale. Some applications in relation with solar cells, plasmonics or sensors will be presented.

9:10 AM  Invited
3D Design of Multifunctionnal Plasmonic Nanoparticles Assemblies Embedded in Dielectrics: Caroline Bonafos1; Nicolas Chery1; Clément Majorel1; Meiling Zhang1; Nicolas Mallet2; Patrick Benzo1; Maxime Bayle3; Alessandro Pugliara4; Kremena Makasheva5; Béatrice Pécassou1; Enrique Navarro6; Christian Girard1; Anne-Sophie Royet7; Pablo Acosta Alba7; Sébastien Kerdilès7; Yohann Spiegel8; Frank Torregrosa8; Guilhem Larrieu2; Filadelfo Cristiano2; Hervé Rinnert9; Fabrice Gourbilleau10; Robert Carles1; Vincent Paillard1; 1CEMES-CNRS; 2LAAS-CNRS; 3Université de Nantes; 4UMS Raimond Castaing; 5Université de Toulouse; 6IPE-CSIC; 7CEA-LETI; 8IBS; 9Université de Nancy; 10CIMAP
    Plasmonics is a growing discipline with promising applications in key areas such as energy and health. It is based on the optical properties of noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) that can focus incident light at the nanometer scale. Recently, a strategy to design and produce hybrid metallic-dielectric substrates for optical spectroscopy and imaging has been proposed. By using low energy ion beam synthesis through micrometric masks, different architectures consisting of 3D patterns of Ag nanoparticles embedded in dielectric layers are conceived to simultaneously exploit the Localised Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR) and optical interference phenomena. We will show that these embedded AgNPs are multifunctional objects to be used either as plasmonic enhancers, charge carrier or ion reservoirs. To go beyond, alternative “metal free” plasmonics nanostructures consisting of 2D layers of hyper-doped Si nanostructures will be presented, with expected LSPR in the IR and adjustable frequency as a function of the dopant concentration.

9:40 AM  
ZnSnO Thin Films as a Good Candidate for Transparent and Conducting Oxides (TCO) Applications: Gerald Ferblantier1; Karima Bouras2; Abdelillah Slaoui2; Guy Schmerber3; 1Icube Laboratory - University of Strasbourg - IUT Louis Pasteur de Schiltigheim; 2Icube Laboratory - Strasbourg University; 3IPCMS-Strasbourg University
    This work reports on the physical properties and applications of polycrystalline or amorphous TCO semiconductors. As the usefulness of TCO thin films depends on both their optical and electrical properties, both parameters should be considered together. These properties depends on the nature, atomic arrangements of metal cations in crystalline or amorphous oxide structures, on the resident morphology, and on the presence of intrinsic or intentionally introduced defects. ZnO:RE (Rare Earth), SnO:RE and ZTO semiconductors could be a good alternatives to ITO as transparent electrode applications due to their low resistivity, inexpensive source materials, and their non-toxicity. In this work ZnO and SnO based TCO thin films were deposited on quartz and silicon substrates using magnetron co-sputtering method. These matrixes have been functionalized with RE elements and their optical and electrical properties have been studied. Finally a TCO layer was deposited on CIGS based solar cells to investigate the photovoltaic performances.

10:00 AM Break

10:30 AM  
Elaboration and Characterization of Thin Films of SiP Lamellar Alloys : Mathieu Stoffel1; Sebastien Geiskopf1; Alix Valdenaire1; Xavier Devaux1; Erwan André1; Cedric Carteret1; Alexandre Bouché1; Michel Vergnat1; Hervé Rinnert1; 1Université de Lorraine/Institut Jean Lamour
     Group IV-V semiconductor alloys have received only little attention till now. Very recently, however, DFT calculations have shown that SiP is an indirect bandgap semiconductor which becomes direct when being thinned to a monolayer. Moreover, SiP is a lamellar alloy which is promising for future 2D optoelectronic devices.In this work, we investigate SiP thin films prepared by evaporation under high vacuum.The films were prepared by co-evaporation of Si from an e-beam and P from a GaP decomposition source. The structural and vibrational properties were investigated by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and the associated spectroscopies (EDS and EELS), infrared and Raman spectroscopies. After annealing at 1100°C, STEM investigations reveal the presence of lamellar SiP grains crystallizing in an orthorhombic structure which coexist with Si polycrystals. The features observed in both infrared and Raman spectra are found to be in excellent agreement with DFT calculations.

10:50 AM  
Influence of Interface Chemistry on the Adhesion between Metallic Films and Polymer Substrates: Megan Cordill1; Marian Kennedy2; 1Erich Schmid Institute; 2Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Clemson University
    Flexible and foldable electronics are becoming more visible for consumers. These devices are often manufactured with metallic films or islands deposited onto compliant polymer substrates. More research is needed to fully understand how to control the metal-polymer interface of the vital interconnecting metal lines found in flexible electronics to improve reliability. While the methods to quantify the interface adhesion are available, a direct comparison of the adhesion of a standard metallic films on different substrates performed to correlate interfacial chemistry and adhesion. Our results demonstrate that a Ti adhesion interlay did not improve the adhesion of Ag films to polyimide (PI) or polyethylene naphthalene (PEN). In addition, the Ag-PI interface had a higher adhesion energy relative to the Ag-PEN interface due to the unique chemical interface which forms between film and substrate.