Irradiation effects on highly oriented antiferroelectric PbZrO3 and ferroelectric Pb0.92La0.08(Zr0.65Ti0.35)O3 thin films are investigated being exposed to neutron irradiation up to fluence 2*1022 m−2. The higher resistance of antiferroelectric PbZrO3 thin films as compared to ferroelectric heterostructures to large fluences of neutron irradiation is recognized and discussed. Influence of two factors (structural and charge) was taken into account analysing irradiation effects on materials of different polarization states: ferroelectric PLZT (ceramics and thin films) and antiferroelectric PbZrO3 films.

Recently various physical phenomena involving nuclear spins in semiconductors attract much attention. The problem is to produce an array of impurity atoms with nuclear spin I=1/2 in the atom matrix wiht I=0, i.e. to produce a nuclear-spin engineered semiconductor heterostructure. Both the concentration and the spatial distribution of impurity should be controlled. It is supposed that utilization of 31P atoms as an impurity in 28Si or 30Si matrix possesses significant advantages. Such a structure could be produced by neutron transmutation doping (NTD) of 28Si/30Si/28Si isotopic heterostructure, according to the nuclear reaction 30Si+n→31Si(2.6 hour)→31P. Computer simulation of the NTD process provides the conditions necessary to create 28Si/30Si:31P/28Si heterostructure with good crystal structure and well-defined distribution of impurity concentration. Simulation was carried out using parallel computing capabilities of workstation cluster of AF Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute of the Russian Academy.

Lead zirconate PbZrO3 (PZ) and PbZr0.53Ti0.47O3 (PZT) sol-gel films with a thickness of up to 1.5 mum were deposited on TiO2/Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si substrates by spin coating technique and heterostructures of the same composition as well as on Pb0.92La0.08 (Zr0.65Ti0.35)O-3 (PLZT-8) (with a thickness of 0.4 mum) were pulse laser deposited (PLD) on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si. Observation of a typical antiferroelectric (AFE) double hysteresis loop in obtained PZ heterostructures at room temperature was attributed to the superior dielectric strength in case of thin film materials. The thermal behaviour of dielectric permittivity E of PZ film reveals a maximum near 225degreesC on heating and 219degreesC on cooling.The higher resistance of antiferroelectric PZ thin films as compared to ferroelectric (e.g., PZT, PLZT-8) heterostructures to neutron irradiation (up to fluence 2x 10(22)m(-2))* is recognized and discussed.

Sputtering yields of crystalline silicon carbide and silicon have been determined experimentally for bombardment by Ne+, Ar+ and Xe+ ions in the energy range between 0.5 and 5 keV under 60° sputtering with respect to the surface normal. Sputter crater measurements on SiC and Si and Auger depth profiles of SiC on Si have been carried out in order to determine the sputtering yields. The measurements are compared with Monte Carlo simulations which have been computed by the simulation static codes, TRIM and TRIRS and by the dynamic codes DYTRIRS and T-DYN as well as with the sputter theory. The simulation results depend strongly on the input parameters which are not well known especially for SiC. The TRIM simulation fits the experimental results very well and the differences between the results of the simulation programs are sometimes greater than their difference from experimentally measured sputtering yields.

Experimental studies of concentration profiles in W/C and Ni/C multilayers prepared by pulsed laser deposition are compared with ballistic simulations of the deposition process by means of the computer code TRIDYN. One part of the deposited particles possesses kinetic energies of about 100 eV and leads to a ballistic mixing of the deposited layers. As a consequence, diffuse interface concentration profiles arise and the concentrations within the individual layers depend on the layer thickness. The concentration profiles can be highly asymmetric between adjacent interfaces as observed e.g. in W/C multilayers. Simulations predict that the interface width for the deposition of W onto C is up to 3.5, times larger than in the opposite case. Differences between simulation results and HREM, AES, X-ray and XPS studies suggest that the resulting interface concentration profiles are essentially influenced by compound formation as well as by demixing of components occurring during deposition.