| 研究実績の概要 |
The very challenging topic of fabricating thin films of alkaline earth hexaborides using the molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) technique was carried out. Initial difficulties with achieving crystalline films were overcome during the summer, and strontium boride thin films of relatively high crystallinity have now been successfully fabricated.
In addition to this, a home-made CVD was constructed, and the successful growth of strontium hexaboride thin films by a CVD process using elemental strontium and decaborane as the precursors, was achieved. We have performed a detailed study of the structure and crystallinity of the films and found that highly crystalline SrB6 can be deposited remarkably fast using the described CVD process. We also measured the thermoelectric properties of the films and found them to be similar to reported bulk values apart from an unexpectedly high electrical resistivity. The work is significant because it shows that using elemental metal sources together with decaborane can be an effective way to deposit highly crystalline boride thin films, which should be useful in future studies of metal boride thin films. The description of the deposition process and measurement of thermoelectric properties also opens the way for efforts to fabricate thin film based nanostructures for thermoelectrics. Surprisingly fast film growth was also achieved (“Deposition of Thermoelectric Strontium Hexaboride Thin Films by a Low Pressure CVD Method" Journal of Crystal Growth, in minor revision).
|
