Raman Scattering

The electron and hole mobility of Si complementary metal on oxide field effect transistors (CMOS) can be enhanced by introducing a biaxial tensile stress in the Si channel. This paper outlines several key analytical techniques needed to investigate such layers. Raman scattering is used to measure the strain in the Si channel as well as to map the spatial distribution of strain in Si at a lateral resolution better than 0.5 μm. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is used to measure the surface roughness. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is used to reveal dislocations in the structure, the nature of the dislocations and the propagation of the dislocations. Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is used to monitor the Ge content profile in the structure and the thickness of each layer. In the long term, inline nondestructive techniques are desired for epi-monitoring in manufacturing. Two techniques, spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) and x-ray reflectivity (XRR), have shown promise at this stage.

GaN epifilms are grown on the patterned sapphire substrates (PSS) (0001) and the conventional sapphire substrates (CSS) (0001) by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) using a novel two-step growth. High resolution X-ray diffraction (HR-XRD) is used to investigate the threading dislocation (TD) density of the GaN epifilms. The TD density is calculated from the ω-scans full width at half maximum (FWHM) results of HR-XRD. The edge dislocation destiny of GaN grown on the PSS is 2.7×108 cm−2, which is less than on the CSS. This is confirmed by the results of atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurement. The lower TD destiny indicates that the crystalline quality of the GaN epifilms grown on the PSS is improved compared to GaN epifilms grown on the CSS. The residual strains of GaN grown on the PSS and CSS are compared by Raman Scattering spectra. It is clearly seen that the residual strain in the GaN grown on PSS is lower than on the CSS.

Although three forms of lithium phosphate are known, a complete structural description of the highest temperature polymorph has not yet been given. In the present work, the phase transitions of lithium phosphate were investigated at high temperatures using Raman microscopy and x-ray powder diffraction. Both transitions were observed by following the temperature dependence of the totally symmetrical Raman stretching vibration of PO43−. Currently available structural information on the α form, resulting in P—O bond lengths of 1.787–1.899 Å, as determined by valence bond calculations, are disputed here. A correlation between Raman wavenumber and bond length in inorganic phosphates estimates the P—O bond length in α-Li3PO4 to be around 1.57(1) Å, which is in closer agreement with values for other orthophosphates of between 1.50 and 1.58 Å. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy has opened up a wide range of biochemical imaging applications by probing a particular Raman-active molecule vibrational mode in the specimen. However, the original implementation with picosecond pulse excitation can only realize rapid chemical mapping with a single Raman band. Here we present a novel SRS microscopic technique using a grating-based pulse shaper for excitation and a grating-based spectrograph for detection to achieve simultaneous multicolor SRS imaging with high sensitivity and high acquisition speeds. In particular, we use a linear combination of the measured CH2 and CH3 stretching signals to map the distributions of protein and lipid contents simultaneously.

The semiconductor ZnO has gained substantial interest in the research community in part because of its large exciton binding energy (60 meV) which could lead to lasing action based on exciton recombination even above room temperature. Even though research focusing on ZnO goes back many decades, the renewed interest is fueled by availability of high-quality substrates and reports of p-type conduction and ferromagnetic behavior when doped with transitions metals, both of which remain controversial. It is this renewed interest in ZnO which forms the basis of this review. As mentioned already, ZnO is not new to the semiconductor field, with studies of its lattice parameter dating back to 1935 by Bunn [Proc. Phys. Soc. London 47, 836 (1935)], studies of its vibrational properties with Raman scattering in 1966 by Damen et al. [Phys. Rev. 142, 570 (1966)], detailed optical studies in 1954 by Mollwo [Z. Angew. Phys. 6, 257 (1954)], and its growth by chemical-vapor transport in 1970 by Galli and Coker [Appl. Phys. Lett. 16, 439 (1970)]. In terms of devices, Au Schottky barriers in 1965 by Mead [Phys. Lett. 18, 218 (1965)], demonstration of light-emitting diodes (1967) by Drapak [Semiconductors 2, 624 (1968)], in which Cu2O was used as the p-type material, metal-insulator-semiconductor structures (1974) by Minami et al. [Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 13, 1475 (1974)], ZnO/ZnSe n-p junctions (1975) by Tsurkan et al. [Semiconductors 6, 1183 (1975)], and Al/Au Ohmic contacts by Brillson [J. Vac. Sci. Technol. 15, 1378 (1978)] were attained. The main obstacle to the development of ZnO has been the lack of reproducible and low-resistivity p-type ZnO, as recently discussed by Look and Claflin [Phys. Status Solidi B 241, 624 (2004)]. While ZnO already has many industrial applications owing to its piezoelectric properties and band gap in the near ultraviolet, its applications to optoelectronic devices has not yet materialized due chiefly to the lack of p-type epitaxial layers. Very high quality what used to be called whiskers and platelets, the nomenclature for which gave way to nanostructures of late, have been prepared early on and used to deduce much of the principal properties of this material, particularly in terms of optical processes. The suggestion of attainment of p-type conductivity in the last few years has rekindled the long-time, albeit dormant, fervor of exploiting this material for optoelectronic applications. The attraction can simply be attributed to the large exciton binding energy of 60 meV of ZnO potentially paving the way for efficient room-temperature exciton-based emitters, and sharp transitions facilitating very low threshold semiconductor lasers. The field is also fueled by theoretical predictions and perhaps experimental confirmation of ferromagnetism at room temperature for potential spintronics applications. This review gives an in-depth discussion of the mechanical, chemical, electrical, and optical properties of ZnO in addition to the technological issues such as growth, defects, p-type doping, band-gap engineering, devices, and nanostructures.

Raman scattering is a consequence of quantized vibrations or rotations of molecules irradiated with monochromatic light. Some light is scattered at the same frequency (Rayleigh) and some light is scattered at different frequencies (Raman). The difference in frequency corresponds to the energy of vibrational transition. The Raman scattering can be divided into two parts, the Stokes line and the anti-stokes line. For the Stokes line the energy of the scattered radiation is less than the incident radiation, so there is a loss of energy and a longer wavelength results. For the anti-stokes line the energy of the scattered radiation is more than the incident radiation, so there is a gain of energy and a shorter wavelength results. There are two types of Raman spectroscopy: rotational Raman and vibrational Raman spectroscopy. A detailed study of the wave-numbers and wavelengths of the rotational and vibrational Raman lines (Stokes and anti-Stokes) are given in this article.

This review describes advances made toward the application of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) in sensitive analysis and diagnostics. In the early sections of this review we briefly introduce the fundamentals of SERS including a discussion of SERS at the single-molecule level. Applications relevant to trace analysis, environmental monitoring, and homeland security and defense, for example high explosives and contaminant detection, are emphasized. Because the key to wider application of SERS analysis lies in the development of highly enhancing substrates, in the second half of the review we focus our attention on the extensive progress made in designing innovative soluble, supported, and ordered SERS-active nano-architectures to harness the potential of this technique toward solving current and emerging analytical tasks. No attempt or claim is made to review the field exhaustively in its entirety nor to cover all applications, but only to describe several significant mileston...