Chin-Pao Cheng

This study demonstrates the feasibility of producing a tantalum nitride (TaN) thin film as a diffusion barrier and buffer layer for p-type bismuth telluride [(Bi,Sb)2Te3] thermoelectric devices. A network of TaN with nitrogen (N) incorporation is structurally more stable on (Bi,Sb)2Te3 than the conventional Ni diffusion barrier because of less inter-diffusion and a greater likelihood of stoichiometry in the TaN/(Bi,Sb)2Te3 interface. The atomic inter-diffusion between the barrier layers and (Bi,Sb)2Te3 was evaluated in terms of interface adhesion energy using nanoscratching, and proved with first-principles calculations.

The effect of post-annealing on sol–gel-derived ZnO films has been investigated. For these films, structural investigations including analyses of surface morphology and microstructures were carried out by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Also, optical properties were determined by photoluminescence analysis, ellipsometry and optical pumping measurement. The XRD results indicate that the (002) peak will predominate with increasing annealing temperature. SEM images show that grain size increased with annealing temperature. Moreover, photoluminescence spectra revealed the enhancement in UV emission intensity with annealing temperature, which was attributed to an improvement in crystal quality. Room-temperature ultraviolet random lasing action was observed in the ZnO films. The threshold intensity for the lasing was estimated to be ∼70 kW/cm2. Furthermore, it was found that the formation of random laser action is affected by post-annealing, which is associated to the presence of a high-gain medium and efficient light scattering.