Boron doped zinc oxide films have been successfully deposited from a gas mixture of 0.05% diethyl zinc, 2.3% ethanol and various diborane concentrations in the temperature range 300°C to 430°C in an atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition reactor. The dopant diborane was found to decrease the film growth rate. The crystallite sizes of doped films were smaller than those of undoped films. Hall coefficient and resistance measurements at room temperatures gave conductivities between 250 and 1700 Ω-1, electron densities between 1.4×1020 and 6.7×1020 cm-3, and mobilities between 7 and 23 cm2/V-s. Optical measurements showed that a film with a sheet resistance of 8.8 Ω/square has an average visible absorption of about 8% and maximum infrared reflectance close to 85%. The ratio of conductivity to absorption coefficient is between 0.05 Ω-1 and 0.55 Ω-1. The band gap of doped film was widened and followed the Burstein-Moss relation.

Piezoelectric bimorphs and piezoelectric strain sensors based on sputtered ZnO films were fabricated on Si3N4 cantilever beams to form tactile sensors. The sensors were used to determine object positions. Deflections of the bimorphs showed a quadratic dependence on the applied voltages. Deflection as large as 1166 μm were registered for a bimorph of 2980 μm long. The apparent d33 of ZnO under a bias of -4 volts was - 103 × 1O-12 m/V, which was approximately 20 times larger than the previously reported values of -5.12 × 10-12m/V. The large deflections of the bimorphs were due to the quadratic effect under strong electric field.

Transparent conducting tin oxide films were prepared by an electron beam evaporation technique. As-deposited films were amorphous or polycrystalline depending on the substrate temperature and the time of deposition. In order to get transparent and conducting thin films of SnO2, as-deposited films were subjected to further heat-treatment in air at 650°C for 2 hours. Physical properties of as-deposited and annealed films are discussed with reference to substrate temperature and deposition time.

Nanometer size lead iodide particles have been synthesized in the porous network of a cross-linked polymer matrix. The optical band gap of the nanocrystals is shifted towards higher energy as compared to the bulk value. This shift is attributed to the quantum size effect on excitons. Intercalation with aniline leads to a further shift in the band gap which depends on the dipole moment of the intercalated guest species. Differential scanning calorimetry and high temperature x-ray diffraction have been used to analyze the ferroelectric transition in Pbl2.

Mercuric iodide (HgI2) single crystals deposited with transparent indium-tin-oxide (ITO), and semitransparent gold and nickel contacts were investigated by thermally stimulated current spectroscopy (TSC). The differences in the TSC spectra from these samples indicate that the defect structure in HgI2 may be modified by the contact material. These defects act as carrier traps and have strong implications in the application of HgI2 nuclear detectors. A method of numerical analysis was developed to extract information such as carrier trap activation energy, capture cross-section, and trap concentration-lifetime product from the TSC measurements.

The optical properties of the red modification of mercuric iodide (HgJ2) were studied by optical absorption, magnetic circular dichroism, photoluminescence and optically detected magnetic resonance investigations. The experiments demonstrate the involvment of acceptors with energy levels at Ev + 0.14 ± 0.01 eV and 0.15 ± 0.01 eV in the absorption and recombination at 2.2 eV. The g - values are 0.85 and 0.74, respectively.

1 μm ZnO films were deposited on SiO2 by reactive sputtering using a D. C. magnetron gun. The microstructure, orientation and chemistry of the deposited layers were examined. It is shown that the oxygen partial pressure plays an important role in the structure of the layer through a mechanism of surface diffusion.