This study revealed the nature of native defects and their roles in ZnO through positron annihilation and optical transmission measurements. It showed oxygen vacancies are the origin for the shift in the optical absorption band that causes the red or orange coloration. It also revealed experimental evidence that the donor nature of oxygen vacancy is approximately 0.7 eV. In addition, this work showed the Zn interstitial was not the donor in the as-grown ZnO and supported recent calculations that predicted hydrogen in an oxygen vacancy forms multicenter bonds and acts as a shallow donor.

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Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a wide-band gap semiconductor that has attracted tremendous interest for optical, electronic, and mechanical applications. First-principles calculations by [C. G. Van de Walle, Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 1012 (2000)] have predicted that hydrogen impurities in ZnO are shallow donors. In order to determine the microscopic structure of hydrogen donors, we have used IR spectroscopy to measure local vibrational modes in ZnO annealed in hydrogen gas. An oxygen–hydrogen stretch mode is observed at 3326.3 cm−1 at a temperature of 8 K, in good agreement with the theoretical predictions for hydrogen in an antibonding configuration. The results of this study suggest that hydrogen annealing may be a practical method for controlled n-type doping of ZnO.

High-purity aluminum foils were examined using positron annihilation spectroscopy ͑PAS͒ after dissolution for various times in 1 M NaOH at room temperature. Measurements of the S and W shape parameters of the annihilation photopeak at 511 keV show the presence of voids of at least nanometer dimension located at the metal-oxide film interface. The large S parameter suggests that the metallic surface of the void is free of oxide. Voids are found in as-received foils and are also produced by dissolution in NaOH, evidently by a solid-state interfacial process. Atomic force microscopy ͑AFM͒ images of NaOH-dissolved foils, after stripping the surface oxide film in chromic-phosphoric acid bath, reveal cavities on the order of 100 nm size. The average cavity depth is in quantitative agreement with the PAS-derived thickness of the interfacial void-containing layer, and the dissolution time dependence of the defect layer S parameter closely parallels that of the fractional coverage of the foil surface by cavities; thus, the cavities are believed to be interfacial voids created along with those detected by PAS. The cavity distribution on the surface closely resembles that of corrosion pits formed by anodic etching in 1 M HCl, thereby suggesting that the interfacial voids revealed by AFM serve as sites for pit initiation.

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A direct comparison between Al-Cu and Al-Cu-Mg alloys shows that the mechanism, by which Mg affects the microstructure and the aging kinetics of the alloys, is related to the formation of vacancy-Cu-Mg complexes that act as embryos for the nucleation of coherent solute clusters. The presence of Mg stabilizes the vacancies in the Guinier-Preston ͑GP͒ zones. Experimental evidence of the association of the vacancies with the solute atoms was obtained by Doppler-broadening spectroscopy of the positron annihilation radiation using two Ge detectors in coincidence. The evolution of the average content of Cu in the proximity of the vacancies was monitored at different stages of aging at temperatures below the solvus of GP zones, after the solution heat treatment of the alloy.

Magnesium-doped gallium oxide may be utilized as a semi-insulating material for future generations of power devices. Spectroscopy and hybrid functional calculations were used to investigate defect levels in Czochralski-grown β-Ga2O3. Substitutional Mg dopants act as deep acceptors, while substitutional Ir impurities are deep donors. Hydrogen-annealed Ga2O3:Mg shows an IR peak at 3492 cm−1, assigned to an O-H bond-stretching mode of a neutral MgH complex. Despite compensation by Ir and Si and hydrogen passivation, high concentrations of Mg (1019 cm−3) can push the Fermi level to mid-gap or lower.

This study presents a methodology for an in-depth characterization of six representative commercial nanofiltration membranes. Laboratory-made polyethersulfone membranes are included for reference. Besides the physical characterization [molecular weight cut-off (MWCO), surface charge, roughness and hydrophobicity], the membranes are also studied for their chemical composition [attenuated total reflectance Fourier spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)] and porosity [positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS)]. The chemical characterization indicates that all membranes are composed of at least two different layers. The presence of an additional third layer is proved and studied for membranes with a polyamide top layer. PAS experiments, in combination with FIB (focused ion beam) images, show that these membranes also have a thinner and a less porous skin layer (upper part of the top layer). In the skin layer, two different pore sizes are observed for all commercial membranes: a pore size of 1.25-1.55 angstroms as well as a pore size of 3.20-3.95 angstroms (both depending on the membrane type). Thus, the pore size distribution in nanofiltration membranes is bimodal, in contrast to the generally accepted log-normal distribution. Although the pore sizes are rather similar for all commercial membranes, their pore volume fraction and hence their porosity differ significantly.