Thin Cu2O films in the thickness range 0.75–230 nm have been prepared on high-quality corning glass, quartz, and Si(100) substrates by radio frequency magnetron sputtering of Cu targets and subsequent oxidation in a furnace under air. Ultraviolet–visible light absorption spectroscopy experiments reveal a blue shift of the energy between the top valence and the first excited conduction sub-bands. The shift increases smoothly as the film thickness decreases. The maximum value observed for the thinnest film is very large, reaching a value of 1.2 eV. Such a shift was not easy to be observed in the past due to the very small Bohr radius of Cu2O. The experimental results, which indicate the presence of intense quantum confinement effects, are well-described by theoretical calculations based on the potential morphing method in the Hartree–Fock approximation.

No abstract

No abstract

Ultraviolet-visible absorption spectra of nanoscaled EuS thin films reveal a blue shift of the energy between the top-valence and bottom-conduction bands. This band-gap tuning changes smoothly with decreasing film thickness and becomes significant below the exciton Bohr diameter ∼3.5 nm indicating strong quantum confinement effects. The results are reproduced in the framework of the potential morphing method in Hartree Fock approximation. The large values of the effective mass of the holes, due to localization of the EuS f-states, limit the blue shift to about 0.35 eV. This controllable band-gap tuning of magnetic semiconductor EuS renders it useful for merging spintronics and optoelectronics.

The chemical diffusion coefficient of hydrogen in a 50 nm thin film of vanadium (0 0 1) is measured as a function of concentration and temperature, well above the known phase boundaries. Arrhenius analysis of the tracer diffusion constants reveal large changes in the activation energy with concentration: from 0.10 at 0.05 in H V to 0.5 eV at 0.2 in H V. The results are consistent with a change from tetrahedral to octahedral site occupancy, in that concentration range. The change in site occupancy is argued to be caused by the uniaxial expansion of the film originating from the combined hydrogen induced expansion and the clamping of the film to the substrate.