Influences of Nd doping on preparing Mg ₂ Si semiconductor thin films by thermal evaporation

Abstract

In this work, the thermal evaporation method was adopted to prepare Nd-doped Mg 2 Si semiconductor thin films on n-Si(111) substrate. The structure, morphology and optical properties of these Mg 2 Si thin films doped with Nd were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and Raman spectroscopy (RAMAN). The XRD results showed that Nd dopant led to weakened Mg 2 Si diffraction peaks and bigger lattice constants. The scanning electron microscopy results indicated decreased size of Mg 2 Si grains and clusters formed by the grains because of Nd dopant. The RAMAN results showed that the intensity of the characteristic peaks near 256 and 690 cm −1 decreased due to the influence of Nd doping.