Rodrigo Martins

The electrosynthesis of polypyrrole (PPy) has been achieved on aluminium in aqueous medium of tartaric acid by means of cyclic voltammetry, potentiostatic and galvanostatic techniques. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray microanalysis by energy spectroscopy dispersion (EDS) applying on surfaces show that the PPy coating is developed from the metal surface through the cracks of the initial Al2O3 layer. A mechanism involving the participation of the supporting electrolyte and the pyrrole (Py) in distinct active sites was proposed based on the linear sweep voltammetry. It is observed for all applied electrochemical techniques that the pyrrole concentration has to be higher than 0.1 M to allow the polypyrrole electrodeposition in acid medium. Scanning electron microscopy, secondary electrons (SE) and backscattering electrons (BE), shows that the PPy coating obtained in galvanostatic and potentiostatic modes starts with small islands at weak applied potentials or current densities. Moreover, EDS reveals a good homogeneity and compactness of the film achieved in galvanostatic method. The corrosion results in 3% NaCl medium show that the PPy coating decreases the corrosion behaviour of the aluminium. The bilayer Al2O3/PPy shows a capacitor with future applications. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The aim of this work is to present a model able to explain the role of the lateral drift current on the experimental behaviour exhibited by p-i-n amorphous silicon solar cells (J-V characteristics, responsivity and the apparent device degradation behaviour), when the ratio between the covered and uncovered metal collected areas of the device is higher than one or recrystallization occurs in the edges of the p-i-n junction.

The aim of this work is to present experimental data concerning the role of the oxygen partial pressure during the production process on the properties (structure, morphology, composition, and transport properties) exhibited by doped microcrystalline silicon oxycarbide films. The films were produced by a two consecutive decomposition and deposition chamber system, where a spatial separation between the plasma and the growth regions is achieved. The films produced by this technique are highly conductive and highly transparent with suitable properties for optoelectronic applications requiring wide band-gap and low-conductivity materials. © 1995, American Vacuum Society. All rights reserved.

This paper deals with the study of the role of gas temperature and of the ratio of r.f. power to gas flow on the particle's formation in amorphous silicon films grown by the plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition technique, by monitoring the plasma impedance behaviour under different process conditions. The results achieved show the existence of two main boundary regions separating the so-called α-regime (no powder formed) from the γ-regime (powder formed). Those regions are reached either by heating the gas, changing the gas pressure or using high power to gas flow ratios, corresponding to the establishment of a balance between the plasma resistance and the plasma reactance. In the β-region the probability to incorporate nanoparticles in the films is low and the films exhibit photosensitivity's of about 105 with density of states determined by the constant photocurrent method below 6×1015 cm-3 with Urbach energies below 50 meV. In the θ-region small nanoparticles can be incorporated leading to films with density of states below 3×1015 cm-3, with Urbach energies above 50 meV and photosensitivity's above 106, about two orders of magnitude larger than that of conventional amorphous silicon grown in the α-regime.

N- and p-type weakly absorbing and highly conductive microcrystalline thin μc-Six:Cy:Oz:H films, have been produced by a TCDDC (Two Consecutive Decomposition and Deposition Chamber) system1. The optoelectronic and structural results show that we are in the presence of a mixed phase of Si microcrystals (c-islands) embedded in a-Six:Cy:Oz:H (a-tissue). Based on that, we propose a model where transport mechanisms are explained by the potential fluctuations related to films heterogeneities. Thus, conduction is due to carriers that by tunneling or percolation "pass" or "go" trough the barriers and/or percolate randomly by the formed channels. © 1989.

This paper discusses the effect of order and disorder on the electrical and optical performance of ionic oxide semiconductors based on zinc oxide. These materials are used as active thin films in electronic devices such as pn heterojunction solar cells and thin-film transistors. Considering the expected conduction mechanism in ordered and disordered semiconductors the role of the spherical symmetry of the s electron conduction bands will be analyzed and compared to covalent semiconductors. The obtained results show p-type c-Si/a-IZO/poly-ZGO solar cells exhibiting efficiencies above 14% in device areas of about 2.34 cm2. Amorphous oxide TFTs based on the Ga-Zn-Sn-0 system demonstrate superior performance than the polycrystalline TFTs based on ZnO, translated by ION/IOFF ratio exceeding 107, turn-on voltage below 1-2 V and saturation mobility above 25 cm2/Vs. Apart from that, preliminary data on p-type oxide TFT based on the Zn-Cu-O system will also be presented. © 2009 SPIE.

The aim of this paper is to present data on the dependence of the electro-optical characteristics and structure of n-type microcrystalline silicon films on the r.f. power used during the deposition of films produced by the plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition technique. The interest of these films arise from the fact that they combine some electro-optical advantages of amorphous (wide optical gap) and crystalline materials (electronic behaviour), highly interesting in the production of a wide variety of optoelectronic devices such as solar cells and thin film transistors. In this paper, microcrystalline n-type films presenting simultaneously optical gaps of about 2.3 eV, dark conductivity of 6.5 S cm-1 and Hall mobility of about 0.86 cm2 V-1 s-1 will be reported, the highest combined values for n-type microcrystalline silicon films, as far as we know. © 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.

The aim of this work is to present a model to interpret the static and the dynamic detection and resolution limits of 1D thin film position sensitive detectors based on p-i-n a-Si:H devices. The model can determine the device characteristics that influence the spatial limits and the response time of the device.

This work presents experimental data concerning the role of the oxygen partial pressure used during the preparation process, on the structure, composition and optoelectronic properties of wide band gap doped microcrystalline silicon oxycarbide films produced by a TCDDC system [1].

Today there is a strong interest in the scientific and industrial community concerning the use of biopolymers for electronic applications, driven mainly by low-cost and disposable applications. Adding to this interest, we must recognise the importance of the dream of wireless auto-sustained and low-energy-consumption electronics. This dream can be fulfilled by cellulose paper, the lightest and the cheapest known substrate material, as well as the Earth's major biopolymer and of tremendous global economic importance. Most of the paper used up to now is optimised in terms of the required mechanical and physical properties to be used as the support of inks of different origins. In the future, specific electronic heterogeneous paper sheets should be fabricated aiming to get paper fibers with required bulk and surface functionalities, proper water/vapour barrier, size and diameter/thickness of the fibrils and full paper thickness. This will be the function of components/devices to be incorporated/integrated such as thin-film transistors, complementary metal oxide semiconductor devices, passive electronic components (resistances, inductors and capacitors), memory transistors, electrochromics and thin-film paper batteries. © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Amorphous/nanocrystalline silicon p i′ i i′ n devices fabricated on micromachined glass substrates are integrated with oligonucleotide-derivatized gold nanoparticles for a colorimetric detection method. The method enables the specific detection and quantification of unamplified nucleic acid sequences (DNA and RNA) without the need to functionalize the glass surface, allowing for resolution of single nucleotide differences between DNA and RNA sequences-single nucleotide polymorphism and mutation detection. The detector's substrate is glass and the sample is directly applied on the back side of the biosensor, ensuring a direct optical coupling of the assays with a concomitant maximum photon capture and the possibility to reuse the sensor. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.

The aim of this work is to present an analytical model which can to interpret the role of the collecting resistive layer on the static performances exhibited by 2D amorphous silicon hydrogenated p-i-n thin film position sensitive detectors. In addition, experimental results concerning the device linearity and spatial resolution are presented and checked against the predicted values of the analytical model proposed. © 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.

The aim of this work is to study the role of hydrogen dilution and filament temperature on the properties of nanocrystalline silicon thin films (undoped and doped) produced by the hot wire technique. These deposition parameters are correlated to the film's structure, composition and electro-optical properties with special emphasis on boron doped nanocrystalline silicon carbide reported here. © 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

This paper deals with the determination of plasma impedance and ion density in r.f. plasmas using different mixtures of silane with methane or ethylene and r.f. powers. The aim is to correlate these parameters with carbon and hydrogen contents of the films produced. The data achieved show that the best carbon incorporation is achieved using ethylene gas mixtures, under low gas mixture concentration, where the substrate also sustains a low ion bombardment. The data also show that particulates in the plasma can be more easily formed in the ethylene-based processes. © 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

A linear array thin film position sensitive detector (LTFPSD) based on hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) is proposed for the first time. Taking advantage of the optical properties presented by a-Si:H devices, we have developed a LTFPSD with 128 integrated elements able to be used in 3D inspections/measurements. Each element consists of a one-dimensional LTFPSD, based on a p-i-n diode produced in a conventional PECVD system, where the doped layers are coated with thin resistive layers to establish the required device equipotentials. By proper incorporation of the LTFPSD into an optical inspection camera it will be possible to acquire information about an object/surface, through the optical cross-section method. The main advantages of this system, when compared with the conventional CCDs, are the low complexity of hardware and software used and that the information can be continuously processed (analog detection). © 1995 American Institute of Physics.

The aim of this work is to interpret the role of the lateral leakage current on the a-Si:H solar cell performances (J-V characteristics, responsivity and the apparent device degradation behaviour), under low illumination conditions.

This new production technique is based on the growth of a-Si films on a reactor where gas decomposition promoted by a capacitively coupled r. f. power system takes place in a chamber separated from that where amorphous films are deposited under the action of an electromagnetic static field. Using this method, we shall reduce films contamination caused by the residual gas desorbed from reactor walls. At the same time, there is a reduction plasma ion and electron damages on the deposited films. The main species impinging upon our substrates will be mainly composed of long life radicals with high mobilities and high diffusion rates, which will give origin to a random silicon network free of long poly-silane chains.

The electron transport in n-type polycrystalline zinc oxide, nanocrystalline Zinc-Gallium-Oxygen and amorphous Indium-Zinc-Oxygen systems produced by rf magnetron sputtering at room temperature, under different oxygen partial pressure were investigated. It was found that the carrier transport is not band tail limited, being governed by metal cations irrespective to the film's structure. The highest net room temperature electron mobility was achieved on the amorphous films and noticed that for the single component oxides the mobility decreases as the carrier concentration increases, while the reverse behaviour was observed for the multicomponent oxides, independently of their structure. These behaviours are related to the role that negative charge defects in excess of 1010 cm- 2 generated on multicomponent oxides have on carriers scattering and so on their electronic performances. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

This paper discusses the electron transport in the n-type amorphous indium-zinc-oxygen system produced at room temperature by rf magnetron sputtering, under different oxygen partial pressures. The data show that the transport is not band tail limited, as it happens in conventional disordered semiconductors, but highly dependent on its ionicity, which explains the very high mobilities (≥ 60 cm 2 V -1 s -1) achieved. The room temperature dependence of the Hall mobility on the carrier concentration presents a reverse behaviour than the one observed in conventional crystalline/polycrystalline semiconductors, explained mainly by the presence of charged structural defects in excess of 4 × 10 10 cm -2 that scatter the electrons that pass through them. © 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Silicon oxycarbide microcrystallinc layers, n- and p-doped, highly conductive and highly transparent have been produced using a Two Consecutive Decomposition and Deposition Chamber (TCDDC) system. The films exhibit suitable properties for optoelectronic applications where wide band gap materials with required conductivity and stability are needed. In this paper we present the role of partial oxygen pressure (po2) in controlling the composition, structure and transport properties (conductivity. δd and optical gap, Eop) of silicon oxycarbide microcrystalline layers. © 1994 Materials Research Society.

The effects of Sn thickness electrodeposited over Cu on the structural and morphological performance of the joints formed were investigated. The electrical stability of the joints formed was analyzed under extreme aggressive conditions. Results indicated that the proposed soldering technology greatly satisfied the demands concerning soldering specifications.

This paper aims to discuss the effect of order and disorder on the electrical performances of covalent silicon semiconductors and ZnO based ionic oxide semiconductors used as active channel layers in thin film transistors. The effect of disorder on covalent semiconductors directly affects their electrical transport properties due to the asymmetric behaviour of sp states, while in ionic oxide semiconductors it is found that this effect is small due to the fact that angular disorder has no effect on the spherical symmetry of s states. To this we must add that the mobility of carriers in both systems is quite different, being also affected by electron-phonon interactions (weak in silicon and strong in ionic oxides leading to formation of polarons). Besides, the impurity doping effect and the presence of vacancies in disordered silicon and in ionic oxides behave differently, which will influence the thin film properties and so, the performances of the devices produced. © 2007 Springer-Verlag.