Direct Observation by Transmission Electron Microscopy of the Early Stages of Growth of Superconducting Thin Films

1989 ◽  
Vol 169 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Grant Norton ◽  
Lisa A. Tietz ◽  
Scott R. Summerfelt ◽  
C. Barry Carter
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Thin Films ◽  
Transmission Electron Microscopy ◽  
Substrate Surface ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Specimen Preparation ◽  
Superconducting Thin Films ◽  
Ion Milling ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Transmission Electron

AbstractThe fabrication of high quality thin films often depends on the early stages of the growth process during which epitaxy is established. The substrate surface structure generally plays a critical role at this stage. Many observations of the high‐Tc superconductor film‐substrate interface structure and chemistry have been made by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of cross‐section samples. Ion‐milling induced damage, however, can be severe in these specimens. In the present study, the early stages of the growth of high Tc superconducting thin films of YBa2Cu3O7δ have been studied by TEM using a technique which requires no post‐deposition specimen preparation.

Microstructure of In-Situ Grown YBa2Cu4O8 Thin Films Deposited by MOCVD

1992 ◽  
Vol 275 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Uehara ◽  
H. Sakai ◽  
H. Hayashi ◽  
Y. Shiohara ◽  
S. Tanaka
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Thin Films ◽  
Transmission Electron Microscopy ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Substrate Surface ◽  
Film Surface ◽  
Superconducting Thin Films ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Transmission Electron

ABSTRACTHigh-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HREM) has been used to study the microstructures of Y-Ba-Cu-0 superconducting thin films in which the YBa2Cu4O8 phase was the main phase. From cross-sectional observations, the c-normal 123 phase predominated in the film near the substrate surface, while the c-normal 124 phase occupied the region near the film surface. Another remarkable microstructure was that a-normal 123 variants overcame the c-normal 123 region, but the c-normal 124 phase surpassed the a-normal 123 phase in the upper part of the film.

Ion thinning of integrated circuit transverse specimens for transmission electron microscopy

1992 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 1426-1427
Author(s):  
F. Shaapur
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Transmission Electron Microscopy ◽  
Integrated Circuit ◽  
Substrate Surface ◽  
Homogeneous Material ◽  
Material System ◽  
Ion Milling ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
Motion Profile

Non-uniform ion-thinning of heterogenous material structures has constituted a fundamental difficulty in preparation of specimens for transmission electron microscopy (TEM). A variety of corrective procedures have been developed and reported for reducing or eliminating the effect. Some of these techniques are applicable to any non-homogeneous material system and others only to unidirectionalfy heterogeneous samples. Recently, a procedure of the latter type has been developed which is mainly based on a new motion profile for the specimen rotation during ion-milling. This motion profile consists of reversing partial revolutions (RPR) within a fixed sector which is centered around a direction perpendicular to the specimen heterogeneity axis. The ion-milling results obtained through this technique, as studied on a number of thin film cross-sectional TEM (XTEM) specimens, have proved to be superior to those produced via other procedures.XTEM specimens from integrated circuit (IC) devices essentially form a complex unidirectional nonhomogeneous structure. The presence of a variety of mostly lateral features at different levels along the substrate surface (consisting of conductors, semiconductors, and insulators) generally cause non-uniform results if ion-thinned conventionally.

Transmission Electron Microscopy of Semiconductor Based Products

1998 ◽  
Vol 523 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Mardinly ◽  
David W. Susnitzky
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Transmission Electron Microscopy ◽  
Ion Beam ◽  
Semiconductor Industry ◽  
Size Reduction ◽  
Specimen Preparation ◽  
Specimen Thickness ◽  
Ion Milling ◽  
Feature Size ◽  
Transmission Electron

AbstractThe demand for increasingly higher performance semiconductor products has stimulated the semiconductor industry to respond by producing devices with increasingly complex circuitry, more transistors in less space, more layers of metal, dielectric and interconnects, more interfaces, and a manufacturing process with nearly 1,000 steps. As all device features are shrunk in the quest for higher performance, the role of Transmission Electron Microscopy as a characterization tool takes on a continually increasing importance over older, lower-resolution characterization tools, such as SEM. The Ångstrom scale imaging resolution and nanometer scale chemical analysis and diffraction resolution provided by modem TEM's are particularly well suited for solving materials problems encountered during research, development, production engineering, reliability testing, and failure analysis. A critical enabling technology for the application of TEM to semiconductor based products as the feature size shrinks below a quarter micron is advances in specimen preparation. The traditional 1,000Å thick specimen will be unsatisfactory in a growing number of applications. It can be shown using a simple geometrical model, that the thickness of TEM specimens must shrink as the square root of the feature size reduction. Moreover, the center-targeting of these specimens must improve so that the centertargeting error shrinks linearly with the feature size reduction. To meet these challenges, control of the specimen preparation process will require a new generation of polishing and ion milling tools that make use of high resolution imaging to control the ion milling process. In addition, as the TEM specimen thickness shrinks, the thickness of surface amorphization produced must also be reduced. Gallium focused ion beam systems can produce hundreds of Ångstroms of amorphised surface silicon, an amount which can consume an entire thin specimen. This limitation to FIB milling requires a method of removal of amorphised material that leaves no artifact in the remaining material.

Interfacial Mismatch and Interface Structure of Epitaxial Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3 (90%)- PbTiO3 (10%) Relaxor Thin Films

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (S2) ◽  
pp. 462-463
Author(s):  
G. Y. Yang ◽  
V. Nagarajan ◽  
Z. L. Wang ◽  
Y. H. Li ◽  
R. Ramesh
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Thin Films ◽  
Transmission Electron Microscopy ◽  
Interface Structure ◽  
Relaxor Ferroelectrics ◽  
Dielectric Constants ◽  
Ion Milling ◽  
Sensing Applications ◽  
Transmission Electron

Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3 (PMN)- and its solid solution with PbTiO3 (PT) is one of the lead-based relaxor ferroelectrics and has been the most widely studied materials because of their high dielectric constants and high electrostrictive coefficients. The potential impact of the thin film ferroelectric relaxors in the integrated actuators and sensing applications has stimulated research on the growth and characterization of thin films. Thin films have been made by pulsed-laser deposition (PLD), sol-gel and metalrganic chemical-vapor deposition. It is known that electrical properties may be strongly influenced by the microstructure of films and the interface structures between different phase in such heterostructure systems. In this paper, we report the investigation of interfacial mismatch and interface structure of epitaxial Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3 (90%)- PbTiO3 (10%) relaxor thin film by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM).Thin film capacitors of Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3 (90%) - PbTiO3 (10%) (PMN-PT) were grown by PLD on (100)-oriented LaA1O3 (LAO) substrates. La0.5Sr0.5CoO3 (LSCO) layer was deposited as electrode. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy samples were prepared following the traditional procedures including cutting, gluing, polishing and ion milling.

Preparation of Electropolished Transverse Sections of Thin Aluminum Sheet for Transmission Electron Microscopy

1987 ◽  
Vol 115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Smith
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Transmission Electron Microscopy ◽  
Transverse Section ◽  
Aluminum Sheet ◽  
Specimen Preparation ◽  
Ion Milling ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
Thin Aluminum ◽  
Time Required

ABSTRACTThe preparation of transverse section TEM foils from thin (0.2 mm to 1.5 mm) aluminum sheet would usually be accomplished by a combination of dimpling and ion milling. Both of these techniques are time consuming. A technique has been developed which allows these transverse section foils to be prepared by electropolishing, which greatly reduces the time required for specimen preparation. This technique also produces far more thin area for examination than a comparable foil which has been dimpled and ion milled, and eliminates artifacts produced by ion milling.

New Technique for Successful Thermal Barrier Coating Specimen Preparation for Transmission Electron Microscopy

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-236
Author(s):  
M.R. Brickey ◽  
J.L. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Transmission Electron Microscopy ◽  
Thermally Grown Oxide ◽  
Thermal Barrier ◽  
Specimen Preparation ◽  
Ion Milling ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Barrier Coating ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
Thermal Histories

Abstract Reliability of thermal barrier coatings (TBC) hinges on the adhesion of a thermally grown oxide scale to an insulative ceramic topcoat and an underlying metallic bondcoat. The width of the scale and its interfaces makes transmission electron microscopy (TEM) an appropriate tool for its analysis. However, specimen preparation has proven to be a challenging obstacle leading to a dearth of TEM research on TBCs. A new approach to cross-section TBC TEM specimen preparation is described. The principal advantages of this technique are reproducibility, reduced specimen damage, and time savings resulting from decreased ion milling. This technique has been successfully applied to numerous TBC specimens with various thermal histories.

Preparation of wurtzitic AlN thin films with a novel crystallographic alignment on MgO substrates by molecular-beam epitaxy

1998 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1414-1417 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. Heffelfinger ◽  
D. L. Medlin ◽  
K. F. McCarty
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Thin Films ◽  
Transmission Electron Microscopy ◽  
Molecular Beam Epitaxy ◽  
Molecular Beam ◽  
Substrate Surface ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
Aln Film

Thin films of wurtzitic AlN have been deposited by molecular-beam epitaxy onto (001) oriented MgO substrates. The films are epitactic and align with the and the , as evidenced by transmission electron microscopy. This configuration, which matches a close-packed direction of the film and substrate, allows for growth of two symmetrically equivalent orientation variants of the AlN film. These variants are distinguished by a 90° rotation about the direction that is normal to the substrate surface. Each variant also aligns the and the to within 5° of being parallel to the (200)MgO. The microstructure of the AlN films and origins of these novel alignments are discussed.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document