DURIP Proposal for An Ion-Assisted Sputtering Deposition System for Nano-Modulated Oxide Coatings

摘要

Major requisitions include a four-target RF sputtering system from Denton VacuumIndustry and a scanning probe microscope system from AutoProbe Inc. Using these instruments, oxide thin films of various compositions and heterostructures have been prepared to investigate the phenomenon of fatigue. It was found that the rate of degradation is sensitive to the type of charge carriers. Electrons accelerate fatigue while holes do not. It was also found that fatigue has a strong frequency dependence. This is best characterized by monitoring the increase of coercive field as a function of frequency after fatigue. The latter phenomenon has been modeled using interface dynamics involving bow-out and defect trapping.