Juha-Pekka Lehtiö

• PhD Student at University of Turku

Most electronic and photonic devices include ohmic metal–semiconductor junction(s), of which contact resistivity needs to be minimized for best efficiency of the devices. Interface defects in the junction usually degrade the junction’s performance, thus cleaning and passivation of semiconductor surface is crucial during contact fabrication. For sil...

Current transport in polysilicon is a complicated process with many factors to consider. The inhomogeneous nature of polysilicon with its differently shaped and sized grains is one such consideration. We have developed a method that enhances existing resistivity models with a 2-D extension that incorporates the grain size distribution using a Voron...

Current transport in polysilicon is a complicated process with many factors to consider. The inhomogeneous nature of polysilicon with its differently shaped and sized grains is one such consideration. We have developed a method that enhances existing resistivity models with a two-dimensional extension that incorporates the grain size distribution u...

Polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) is an excellent material for use in microelectronic devices, both in electrical and mechanical applications. Its mechanical and electrical properties are widely adjustable, its processing technology is compatible with existing microcircuit manufacturing technology, and its availability and recyclability are at a hi...

Polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) significantly expands the properties of the ICT miracle material, silicon (Si). Depending on the grain size and shape and grain boundary structure, the properties of poly-Si exceed what single-crystal (c-Si) and amorphous (a-Si) silicon can offer, especially for radio frequency (RF) applications in microelectronics...

Oxide‐semiconductor interface quality has often a direct impact on the electrical properties of devices and on their performance. Traditionally, the properties are characterised through metal‐oxide‐semiconductor (MOS) structures by depositing a metal layer and measuring the capacitance‐voltage ( C‐V ) characteristics. However, metal deposition proc...

Significance Natural photochromic minerals have been reported by geologists for decades. However, the understanding of the photochromism mechanism has a key question still unanswered: What in their structure gives rise to the photochromism’s reversibility? By combining experimental and computational methods specifically developed to investigate thi...

Growing SiO2 layer by wet-chemical oxidation of Si surfaces before growth of another insulating film(s) is a used method to passivate Si interfaces in applications (e.g., solar cell, photodiode) at low temperatures (LT) below 450 °C. We report on potential of LT ultrahigh-vacuum (UHV) treatments combined with the wet-chemical oxidation, by investig...

Properties of Ge oxides are significantly different from those of widely used Si oxides. For example, the instability of GeOx at device junctions causes electronic defect levels that degrade the performance of Ge-containing devices (e.g., transistors and infrared detectors). Therefore, the passivating Si layers have been commonly used at Ge interfa...

III-V semiconductor - oxide interfaces have attracted huge interest due to their substantial potential in electronic applications. However, due to the extreme complexity of the modeling of the interfaces, there are only few ab initio studies of these interfaces. Several model interfaces of native InPO4 oxides are designed in this study. It is shown...

The close similarity of silicon and germanium, isoelectronic group-IV elements, makes the integration of Ge layers on Si substrates suitable for technology development, but the atomic and electronic structures of Si1−xGex surfaces are still an open issue, in particular, for the alloy systems where Si is deposited on the Ge substrate. In this study,...

Negative static charge and induced internal electric field have often been observed in the interfaces between silicon and high‐κ dielectrics, for example Al2O3 and HfO2. The electric field provides either beneficial (e.g., field‐effect passivation) or harmful (e.g., voltage instability) effect depending on the application. Different intrinsic and e...

Effects of localized Eu 4f levels on the band gap properties of Eu2O3 have attracted significant fundamental and technological interest, and the band structure of such thin films has been thoroughly studied by photoelectron spectroscopies (T. Hadamek et al., J. Appl. Phys. 127 (2020) 074101). Here we apply a scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) to...

Low-temperature (LT) passivation methods (<450 °C) for decreasing defect densities in the material combination of silica (SiO x ) and silicon (Si) are relevant to develop diverse technologies (e.g., electronics, photonics, medicine), where defects of SiO x /Si cause losses and malfunctions. Many device structures contain the SiO x /Si interface(s),...

Using scanning tunneling microscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and low-energy electron diffraction, we have studied clean and Ni-containing Si(1 0 0) surfaces and shown that the Ni contamination can easily appear at the Si(1 0 0) during its annealing at high temperature (1230 °C) because of migration of this impurity from heated parts of th...

Silica phases, SiOx forming at surfaces of various silicon crystals, e.g., Si wafers, nanowires, and nanoparticles via Si oxidation are key building blocks of diverse applications in the fields of electronics, medicine, and photonics for instance. The Si oxidation has been established to produce amorphous SiOx films, and the resulting oxide/silicon...

InAs crystals are emerging materials for various devices like radio-frequency transistors and infrared sensors. Control of oxidation-induced changes is essential for decreasing amounts of the harmful InAs surface (or interface) defects because it is hard to avoid the energetically favored oxidation of InAs surface parts in device processing. We hav...

Our understanding of bias-dependent scanning-tunneling-microscopy (STM) images is complicated not only by the multiplicity of the surface electronic structure, but also the manifold tunneling effects in probing semiconductor surfaces having directional dangling- and covalent-bond orbitals. Here we present a refined interpretation of empty-state STM...

Oxidation treatment creating a well-ordered crystalline structure has been shown to provide a major improvement for III-V semiconductor/oxide interfaces in electronics. We present this treatment's effects on InSb(111)B surface and its electronic properties with scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. Possibility to oxidize (111)B surface wi...

Effects of magnesium (Mg) alloying of GaxIn1−xAs(100) semiconductor surfaces have been investigated by low-energy electron diffraction, scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy, and responsivity analysis of an infrared-detector component. In particular, the formation of an unusual Mg-induced (2 × 1) structure on GaAs(100) surfaces is found when d...

Pulsed laser deposited Sr2FeMoO6 thin films were investigated for the first time with scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. The results confirm atomic scale layer growth, with step-terrace structure corresponding to a single lattice cell scale. The spectroscopy research reveals a distribution of local electrical properties linked to struc...

Crystalline oxide phases on InSb(111)B revealed with scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy

Control of defect densities at insulator/GaxIn1−xAs interfaces is essential for optimal operation of various devices like transistors and infrared detectors to suppress, for example, nonradiative recombination, Fermi-level pinning, and leakage currents. It is reported that a thin InOx interface layer is useful to limit the formation of these defect...