Fe3Si films are deposited onto the Si(111) wafer using sputtering with parallel facing targets. Surface modification of the deposited Fe3Si film is conducted by using a microwave plasma treatment under an Ar atmosphere at different powers of 50, 100 and, 150 W. After the Ar plasma treatment, the crystallinity of the coated Fe3Si films is enhanced, in which the orientation peaks, including (220), (222), (400), and (422) of the Fe3Si are sharpened. The extinction rule suggests that the B2–Fe3Si crystallites are the film’s dominant composition. The stoichiometry of the Fe3Si surfaces is marginally changed after the treatment. An increase in microwave power damages the surface of the Fe3Si films, resulting in the generation of small pinholes. The roughness of the Fe3Si films after being treated at 150 W is insignificantly increased compared to the untreated films. The untreated Fe3Si films have a hydrophobic surface with an average contact angle of 101.70°. After treatment at 150 W, it turns into a hydrophilic surface with an average contact angle of 67.05° because of the reduction in the hydrophobic carbon group and the increase in the hydrophilic oxide group. The hardness of the untreated Fe3Si is ~9.39 GPa, which is kept at a similar level throughout each treatment power.
Abstract. In the current work, beta-FeSi 2 films were epitaxially produced onto Si(111) wafer substrates via usage of facing-targets direct-current sputtering (FTDCS). The temperature for substrate heating was maintained at 600 °C and the sputtering pressure was set at 1.33 × 10 1 Pa. The surface morphology and contact angles of the beta-FeSi 2 films were explored consistently in this research. Images of threedimensional AFM and FESEM for the beta-FeSi 2 film surface revealed a smooth surface with a root mean square roughness of 1.31 nm and a porous area. The average contact angle between the dropped water and beta-FeSi 2 film surface was found to be 98.7°, establishing that the surface of the beta-FeSi 2 films was hydrophobic. The acquired experimental results revealed the commencement of the hydrophobic surface feature of the beta-FeSi 2 films produced via FTDCS approach.
Without a post-annealing procedure, the β-FeSi 2 thin films are epitaxially grown on Si(111) wafer substrates via facing-targets direct-current sputtering. During epitaxial growth, the temperature for heating of substrates is maintained at 600 C. The resultant p-type Si/n-type β-FeSi 2 heterojunctions are produced. At room temperature, a large leakage current under an applied reverse bias voltage together with a small photo-detective performance is observed from the measured dark and irradiated current density-voltage curves of the created heterojunctions. Both of the conductance-voltage (G/ ω-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements at different frequencies (f ) in the range of 5 kHz-1 MHz are performed in the dark at room temperature. The interface state density (N ss ) and series resistance (R s ) in the created p-type Si/n-type β-FeSi 2 heterojunctions are computed and analyzed from the measured C-V-f and G/ω-V-f curves. N ss is found to be 3.48 Â 10 12 eV À1 cm À2 at 5 kHz and decreased to 4.68 Â 10 11 eV À1 cm À2 at 1 MHz. Moreover, the values of R s at zero bias are 2.21 kΩ at 5 kHz and 13.66 Ω at 1 MHz. These results review the presence of N ss and R s in the created heterojunctions, and they can be the cause to degrade the heterojunction performance.
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