[en] Optical waveguiding characteristics of amorphous TeO_2-x films deposited by reactive sputtering under different O₂:Ar gas mixtures are investigated on fused quartz and Corning glass substrates. Infra-red absorption band in the range 641-658 cm^-1 confirmed the formation of a Te-O bond, and a 20:80 O₂:Ar gas mixture ratio is found to be optimum for achieving highly uniform and transparent films at a high deposition rate. As grown amorphous films exhibited a large band gap (3.76 eV); a high refractive index value (2.042-2.052) with low dispersion over a wide wavelength range of 500-2000 nm. Optical waveguiding with low propagation loss of 0.26 dB/cm at 633 nm is observed on films subjected to a post-deposition annealing treatment at 200 deg. C. Packing density and etch rates have been determined and correlated with the lowering of optical propagation loss in the annealed films

[en] Sputtered zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films deposited on unheated glass substrate under different sputtering gas mixtures (Ar+O_2) have been investigated using X-ray diffraction and photo luminescence spectroscopy. Earlier reported studies on ZnO films prepared by different techniques exhibit either a sharp/broad near band edge (NBE) emission peak depending on the crystalline quality of the film. In the present study zinc oxide films, grown on unheated substrates, are seen to possess a preferred (002) orientation with a microstructure consisting of clustered nano-sized crystallites. The splitting in the near band edge emission (NBE) into three characteristic peaks is attributed to quantum confinement effect, and is observed specifically under an excitation of 270 nm. Deep level emission (DLE) in the range 400 to 700 nm is not observed indicating absence of deep level radiative defects.

[en] High temperature bismuth layered piezoelectric and ferroelectric ceramics of CaBi₄Ti₄O₁₅ (CBT) have been prepared using the solid state route. The formation of single phase material with orthorhombic structure was verified from x-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. The orthorhombic distortion present in the CBT ceramic sintered at 1200 deg. C was found to be maximum. A sharp phase transition from ferroelectric to paraelectric was observed in the temperature dependent dielectric studies of all CBT ceramics. The Curie's temperature (T_c=790 deg. C) was found to be independent of measured frequency. The behavior of ac conductivity as a function of frequency (100 Hz-1 MHz) at low temperatures (<500 deg. C) follows the power law and is attributed to hopping conduction. The presence of large orthorhombic distortion in the CBT ceramic sintered at 1200 deg. C results in high dielectric constant, low dielectric loss, and high piezoelectric coefficient (d₃₃). The observed results indicate the important role of orthorhombic distortion in determining the improved property of multicomponent ferroelectric material.

[en] Mg_xZn_1-xO (MZO) thin films prepared by an rf magnetron sputtering technique are reported. The films were grown at room temperature and at relatively low rf power of 50 W. MZO thin films were found to possess preferred c-axis orientation and exhibited hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO up to a Mg concentration of 42 mol%. A small variation in the c-axis lattice parameter of around 0.3% was observed with increasing Mg composition, showing the complete solubility of Mg in ZnO. The band gap of the MZO films in the wurtzite phase varied linearly with the Mg concentration and a maximum band gap ∼4.19 eV was achieved at x = 0.42. The refractive indices of the MgO films were found to decrease with increasing Mg content. The observed optical dispersion data are in agreement with the single oscillator model. A photoluminescence study revealed a blue shift in the near band edge emission peak with increasing Mg content in the MZO films. The results show the potential of MZO films in various opto-electronic applications

[en] Lanthanum doped SrBi₂Nb₂O₉ ceramics with the chemical formula SrBi_2-xLa_xNb₂O₉ (SBLN) (x=0-0.5) have been prepared through conventional solid state route. X-ray diffraction reveals the shrinkage of unit cell of strontium bismuth niobate with incorporation of La³⁺ dopant, having no lone pair electrons. Shifting of Raman phonon modes indicates the reduced rattling space of NbO₆ octahedra with increase in La doping concentration. Further, the softening of lowest frequency phonon mode with increasing x in SBLN shows the transition from ferroelectric to paraelectric at room temperature. The dielectric properties for all the compositions are studied as a function of temperature (25 to 500 deg. C) over the frequency range of 10 kHz-1 MHz. With increase in lanthanum doping concentration the phase transition becomes diffused and transition temperature gets shifted toward lower temperature. A phase transition from normal ferroelectric to paraelectric has been observed via relaxor-type ferroelectrics with increase in x. The frequency dependence of transition temperature was studied in terms of Vogel-Fulcher relation for SBLN (x=0.4)

[en] The influence of γ-ray doses (10-50 Gy) on the optical and electrical properties of radio-frequency sputtered tellurium dioxide (TeO_x) thin film was studied. The composition of the as-deposited TeO_x films deposited under 25% oxygen and 100% oxygen in the sputtering gas mixture (Ar+O₂) was x=2 and 3, respectively. TeO₃ films were found to be highly sensitive to the γ-radiation doses and the value of optical band gap decrease from 4.18 to 3.56 eV with increasing radiation dose from 10 to 50 Gy. Current-voltage characteristics of the films showed an increase in the value of conductivity with increasing radiation doses. Monotonic decrease in the values of dielectric constant for the deposited films with increase in radiation dose was observed. The effect of γ-ray doses on the properties of TeO_x film has been correlated with the rearrangement of the bipyramidal structure of amorphous TeO_x thin film

[en] Theoretical studies on the surface acoustic wave (SAW) properties of c-axis oriented LiNbO₃/IDT/diamond and diamond/IDT/128⁰ rotated Y-X cut LiNbO₃ multilayered structures have been considered. Both layered structures exhibit a positive temperature coefficient of delay (TCD) characteristic, and a zero TCD device is obtained after integrating with an over-layer of either tellurium dioxide (TeO₂) or silicon dioxide (SiO₂). The presence of a TeO₂ over-layer enhanced the electromechanical coupling coefficients of both multilayered structures, which acts as a better temperature compensation layer than SiO₂. The temperature stable TeO₂/LiNbO₃/IDT/diamond layered structure exhibits good electromechanical coefficient and higher phase velocity for SAW device applications. On the other hand, a high acousto-optical (AO) figure of merit (30-37) x 10^-15 s³ kg^-1 has been obtained for the temperature stable SiO₂/diamond/IDT/LiNbO₃ layered structure indicating a promising device structure for AO applications

[en] Ultraviolet photoconductivity relaxation in ZnO thin films deposited by rf magnetron sputtering are investigated. Effect of oxygen partial pressure in the reactive gas mixture and film thickness on the photoconductivity transients is studied. A different photodetector configuration comprising ZnO thin film with an ultrathin overlayer of metals like Cu, Al, Sn, Au, Cr, and Te was designed and tested. Photoresponse signal were found to be stronger (four to seven times) in these configurations than the pure ZnO thin films. Sn(30 nm)/ZnO sample exhibits highest responsivity of ∼8.57 kV/W whereas Te(20 nm)/ZnO structure presents highest sensitivity of ∼31.3x10³ compared to unloaded ZnO thin film. Enhancement in the photoresponse of ZnO thin films is attributed to the change in surface conductivity due to induced charge carriers at the interface because of the difference in work function and oxygen affinity values of metal overlayer with the underlying semiconducting layer. Charge carrier transfer from the metal layer to ZnO creates a surplus of electrons at the interface; a fraction of which are captured by the defect centers (traps) at the surface whereas the remaining one represents free carriers in the conduction band and are responsible for the enhanced photoconductivity.

[en] The influence of sputtered SiO₂ over-layer on the SAW propagation characteristics of a 128 deg. rotated Y-cut X-propagating lithium niobate SAW filter has been studied. Experimentally measured SAW phase velocity and temperature coefficient of delay (TCD), with varying SiO₂ over-layer thickness, show a significant deviation from the theoretically calculated values using the bulk material parameters of SiO₂. The observed deviation is attributed to the differences in the material parameters (density, elastic and dielectric constants and their temperature coefficient) of the deposited SiO₂ over-layer. The density and the dielectric constant of the deposited SiO₂ layer were determined separately, and the elastic constants and their temperature coefficients were estimated by fitting the experimental velocity and TCD data, respectively. The deviation in the dielectric constant and the density in comparison to the bulk was insignificant, and the estimated values of the elastic constants (C₁₁ = 0.75x10¹¹ N m^-2 and C₄₄ 0.225x10¹¹ N m^-2) were found to be lower, and the respective temperature coefficients (5.0x10^-4 deg C^-1 and 2.0x10^-4 deg C^-1) were high in comparison to the bulk material parameters

[en] Radio frequency Magnetron sputtering technique was employed to fabricate ZnO thin films on quartz substrate at room temperature. The effect of varying oxygen to argon (O_2/Ar) gas ratio on the structural and photoluminescence properties of the film is analyzed.X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra reveals the formation of hexagonal wurtzite structured ZnO thin films with preferred orientation along (002) plane. Photoluminescence (PL) characterization reveals the preparation of highly crystalline films exhibiting intense Ultraviolet (UV) emission with negligible amount of defects as indicated by the absence of Deep Level Emission (DLE) in the PL spectra.