Browsing by Author "Fernandes, M."
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- An indium-oxide electrode with discontinuous Au layers for plasmonic devicesPublication . Vygranenko, Yuri; Lavareda, G.; André, V.; Brogueira, Pedro; Amaral, A.; Fernandes, M.; Fantoni, Alessandro; Vieira, ManuelaIn this contribution we report on a low cost plasmonic electrode for light-sensing applications. The electrode combines a conducting nonstoichiometric indium oxide (InOx) layer with an ultrathin (~5 nm) discontinuous Au layer. The InOx and Au layers were deposited on glass substrates by plasma enhanced reactive thermal evaporation and thermal evaporation, respectively. Several device configurations with one or two Au layer(s) sandwiched between InOx layers were fabricated and characterized. The morphological and structural properties of both Au and InOx layers were analyzed using AFM and XRD techniques. In particular, the effect of thermal annealing (673 K, 15 min) on the surface morphology of Au layers grown on bare glass and InOx-coated substrate was investigated. It has been also found that the oxide film grown above an underlying nanostructured Au layer is amorphous, while a reference InOx film on glass is nanocrystalline with a smooth surface. The electrical properties of InOx grown on the Au surface are worsened due to Au-induced structural disorder. The observed difference in transmission spectra of the glass/InOx/Au and glass/Au/InOx structures indicates the difference in the morphology of the metal layer. Thus, the optical and morphological properties of the InOx electrode can be varied in a wide range by incorporating several Au layers.
- Applications for a-Si:H TFTs: modelling and simulationPublication . Lourenço, P.; Fantoni, Alessandro; Fernandes, M.; Costa, J.; Vieira, ManuelaHydrogenated amorphous silicon thin film transistors have been used as switching elements in liquid crystal displays and large area matrix addressed sensor arrays. Later, these devices have also been used as analogue active elements in organic light emitting diode displays. However, this technology suffers from bias induced meta-stability. This issue introduces both threshold voltage and subthreshold slope shifts over time when gate bias is applied. Such instabilities jeopardize long term performance of circuits that rely on these components. Nevertheless, hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin film transistors present an exponential transfer characteristic when operating on subthreshold region and their typical power consumption is under 1 µW. This low power characteristic makes these devices ideally suited for low power electronic design. This work demonstrates, through transient analysis of a wellestablished simulation model for hydrogenated amorphous silicon, the viability of thin film transistors technology to perform both analogue and digital functions. Hence, these structures may be used in both application fields. To this end, two different sets of analyses have been conducted with hydrogenated amorphous silicon based thin film transistors. The first set considers a driving circuit for an active matrix of organic light emitting diodes, biased in a way to minimize the “memory effect” (increasing shift on threshold voltage) due to long term operation. The second set of analyses were conducted upon the implementation of complementary output universal gates, namely NOR/OR and XNOR/XOR elements.
- Automated rf-PERTE system for room temperature deposition of TCO coatingsPublication . Fernandes, M.; Vygranenko, Y.; Vieira, M.; Lavareda, G.; Carvalho, C. Nunes de; Amaral, A.In this work we present a fully automated plasma-enhanced reactive thermal evaporation system (rf-PERTE) that can be used for the deposition of transparent metal oxide films without intentional heating of the substrate. The system and developed software enables the full control over critical deposition conditions such as mass flow of oxygen, process pressure, current flowing through crucible and rf-power. These parameters are automatically adjusted during the deposition thus keeping them in a narrow process window. This way, highly transparent and conductive coating can be deposited with a high degree of reproducibility of the optical and electrical characteristics. The resistivity of 9×10-4 Ω-cm and the peak transmittance of 90% in the visible spectral range were achieved for indium oxide films deposited on glass substrates. This technique is also suitable for the deposition of transparent conducting coatings in a wide range of plastic materials for flexible solar cells. In particular, we have successfully deposited indium oxide on PEN (polyethylene naphthalate) sheets with electrical and optical properties approaching the ones for films on glass.
- Electrical, optical and photoconductive properties of Sn-doped indium sulfofluoride thin filmsPublication . Vygranenko, Yuri; Fernandes, M.; Vieira, Manuela; Lavareda, G.; Carvalho, C. Nunes De; Brogueira, P.; Amaral, A.; Barradas, N. P.; Alves, E.This work reports on undoped and Sn-doped indium sulfofluoride thin-films deposited by radio-frequency plasma-enhanced reactive thermal evaporation. The deposition was performed evaporating pure indium or indium-tin alloy in SF6 plasma at substrate temperatures ranging from 373 to 423 K. Rutherford backscattering analysis and secondary-ion mass spectrometry were used to determine the chemical composition of the films. The film characterization includes electrical, optical, and photoconductivity measurements. The resistivity of undoped material varies in a wide range of 1 G Omega-cm to 2 T Omega-cm depending on deposition conditions. Sn doping leads to a decrease in the resistance down to 8 M Omega-cm. The films are highly transparent in the visible-infrared region due to an indirect bandgap of 2.7-3 eV. Moreover, the doped material is highly photosensitive in the blue -UV region. Photoconductivity kinetics under various excitation conditions was also studied. The synthesized material is a promising candidate for a buffer layer in chalcogenide-based solar cells.