Partner: Maryna Chernyshov

Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion (PL)

Recent publications
1.Demchenko I.N., Melikhov Y., Syryanyy Y., Zaytseva I., Konstantynov P., Chernyshov M., Effect of argon sputtering on XPS depth-profiling results of Si/Nb/Si, JOURNAL OF ELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY AND RELATED PHENOMENA, ISSN: 0368-2048, DOI: 10.1016/j.elspec.2017.09.009, Vol.224, pp.17-22, 2018
Abstract:

Ultrathin Si/Nb/Si trilayer is an excellent example of a system for which dimensionality effects, together with other factors like type of a substrate material and growth method, influence strongly its superconducting properties. This study offers some important insights into experimental investigation of density of states of such a system with the aim to identify an electronic structure of the interface as a function of niobium layer thickness. For that, two Si/Nb/Si trilayers with 9.5 and 1.3 nm thick niobium layer buried in amorphous silicon were studied using high-resolution (HR) XPS depth-profile techniques. Strong influence of sputtering was observed, which resulted in severe intermixture of Si and Nb atoms. Nevertheless, a sharp top interface and metallic phase of niobium were detected for the thicker layer sample. On the contrary, a Nb-rich mixed alloy at top interface was observed for the thinner layer sample.

Keywords:

High-resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, XPS, Si/Nb/Si, NbSi, Depth profiling

Affiliations:
Demchenko I.N.-Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences (PL)
Melikhov Y.-IPPT PAN
Syryanyy Y.-Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences (PL)
Zaytseva I.-Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences (PL)
Konstantynov P.-Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences (PL)
Chernyshov M.-Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion (PL)