Faraday rotation spectrum has been measured at room temperature in a magnetic nanocomposite of ␥-Fe 2 O 3 /SiO 2. The material consists of isolated ␥-Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticles dispersed in a silica matrix, and it was prepared through a sol-gel method. The composite contains 18% of ␥-Fe 2 O 3 in weight with an average particle size of 20 nm. It has a coercitivity of 30 Oe and an M S of 6 emu/g. The specific Faraday rotation spectrum exhibits a narrow peak centered around 765 nm, reaching a value of 110°/cm and an absorption coefficient of 64 cm Ϫ1. Faraday rotation versus applied field has also been measured, and a cycle similar to the one described by the magnetization has been found.

The microstructure and the lateral epitaxy mechanism of formation of homoepitaxially and selectively grown GaN structures within windows in SiO2 masks have been investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy. The structures were produced by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy for field emission studies. A GaN layer underlying the SiO2 mask provided the crystallographic template for the initial vertical growth of the GaN hexagonal pyramids or striped pattern. The SiO2 film provided an amorphous stage on which lateral growth of the GaN occurred and possibly very limited compliancy in terms of atomic arrangement during the lateral growth and in the accommodation of the mismatch in the coefficients of thermal expansion during cooling. Observations with TEM show a substantial reduction in the dislocation density in the areas of lateral growth of the GaN deposited on the SiO2 mask. In many of these areas no dislocations were observed.

Thin films of AlxGa1−xN (0.05 ≤ x ≤ 0.96) having smooth surfaces were deposited directly on both vicinal and on-axis 6H-SiC(0001) substrates. Cross-sectional TEM of Al0.13Ga0.87N revealed stacking faults near the SiC/Nitride alloy interface and numerous threading dislocations. EDX, AES and RBS were used to determine the compositions, which were paired with their respective CL near band-edge emission energies. A negative bowing parameter was determined. The CL emission energies were similar to the bandgap energies obtained by SE. FE-AES of the initial growth of Al0.2Ga0.8N revealed an aluminum rich layer near the interface. N-type (silicon) doping was achieved for AlxGa1−xN for 0.12 ≤ x ≤ 0.42. Al0.2Ga0.8N/GaN superlattices were fabricated with coherent interfaces. Additionally, HEMT structures using an AlN/GaN/AlN buffer structure were fabricated.

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Temperature-dependent contact resistivity of nonalloyed Pd/Pt/Au contacts to p-GaN films as well as temperature-dependent sheet resistivity of p-GaN films has been investigated in order to understand anomalously low contact resistivity (∼10−4 Ω cm2) considering the large work-function difference between the Pd and p-GaN. As the measured temperature decreases from 300 to 100 K, the contact resistivity increases by more than one order of magnitude. In addition, the sheet resistivity increases linearly with exp(To/T)1/4, implying variable-range hopping conduction via deep-level defects (DLDs). The density of the DLDs in the p-GaN films is estimated to be over 1019 cm−3, which suggests that the carriers may flow from the Pd directly to the dense DLDs, resulting in the anomalously low contact resistivity.