First-principles calculations have been performed on the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of seven 3d transition-metal （TM） impurities （V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu） doped armchair （5,5） and zigzag （8,0） beryllium oxide nanotubes （BeONTs）. The results show that there exists a structural distortion around the 3d TM impurities with respect to the pristine BeONTs. The magnetic moment increases for V- and Cr-doped BeONTs and reaches a maximum for Mn-doped BeONT, and then decreases for Fe-, Co-, Ni-, and Cu-doped BeONTs successively, consistent with the predicted trend of Hund＇s rule to maximize the magnetic moments of the doped TM ions. However, the values of the magnetic moments are smaller than the predicted values of Hund＇s rule due to the strong hybridization between the 2p orbitals of the near O and Be ions of BeONTs and the 3d orbitals of the TM ions. Furthermore, the V-, Co-, and Ni-doped （5,5） and （8,0） BeONTs with half-metal ferromagnetism and thus 100% spin polarization character are good candidates for spintronic applications.
Cu thin films with different thicknesses were deposited by magnetron sputtering at various oblique angle θ of incidence between the deposition flux and the substrate surface normal.Cross-section microstructure and surface morphology of the films were investigated by scanning electron microscope(SEM)and atomic force microscope(AFM),respectively.Then the scaling behaviors of film surface roughening were analyzed in terms of dynamic scaling theory.With the increasing of the deposition angle θ,the angleφbetween grain growth direction and substrate surface normal increased gradually.With increasing θ in the range of<50°,the roughness exponent α increased from 0.76 to 0.82 and the growth exponent β decreased from 0.42 to 0.35.However,when θ increased to 70°,α and β changed to 0.72 to 0.61,respectively.The evolution of the scaling exponents effectively revealed the fact that the film surface roughening arises from the competition between surface diffusion and shadowing effect.
The main purpose of the present micro-structural analysis by transmission electron microscopy(TEM)and X-ray diffraction(XRD)was to investigate whether amorphous Zr-Ge-N films are a potential candidate as a diffusion barrier for Cu wiring used in Si devices.The Zr-Ge-N films were prepared by a radio frequency(RF)reactive magnetron sputter-deposition technique using N2 and Ar mixed gas,and the film structure was found to be sensitive to the gas flow ratio of N2 vs.Ar during sputtering.Polycrystalline Zr-Ge-N films were obtained when the N2/(Ar+N2)ratio was smaller than 0.2 and amorphous-like Zr-Ge-N films were obtained when the ratio was larger than 0.3.Diffusion barrier test was performed by annealing the Cu/Zr-Ge-N/Si film stack under Ar atmosphere.The deposited Zr-Ge-N(C)films remained amorphous even after high temperature annealing.The Cu diffusion profile in the film was assessed by the Auger electron spectroscopy(AES).The results indicate that Cu diffusion was minimal in amorphous Zr-Ge-N(C)films even at high annealing temperatures of 800℃.
