STRUCTURAL AND ELECTRICAL PERFORMANCE OF MoO₃/Li/MoO₃ FILMS DESIGNED AS MICROWAVE RESONATORS

Abstract

In this work, the effect of the insertion of lithium slabs of thicknesses of 50 nm between stacked layers of MoO3 is considered. Stacked layers of MoO3 comprising lithium slabs are prepared by the thermal evaporation technique onto Au substrates under vacuum pressure of 10(-5) mbar. The effects of Li slabs are explored by the X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, current-voltage characteristics and impedance spectroscopy techniques in the frequency domain of 0.01-1.80 GHz. While the presence of Li slabs did not alter the amorphous nature of structure, it forced the growth of rod-like grains of diameters of 100-160 nm and lengths of 1.5 mu m. Electrically, the presence of Li in the samples enhanced the rectifying properties of the devices and force reverse to forward current ratios larger than 60 times. Li slabs also controlled the negative capacitance effect and resonance -antiresonance regions in the Au/MoO3/MoO3/C stacked layers. While the Au/MoO3/MoO3/C devices displayed high conductance and low impedance values in the studied frequency domain, the Au/MoO3/Li/MOO3/C devices exhibited low conductance and high impedance mode in the frequency domain of 0.01-0.59 GHz. It is also found that the presence of Li slabs improved the performance of the devices through driving it to exhibit lower reflection coefficient and high return loss values near 0.80 GHz. The features of the devices nominate them for use as RF-Microwave traps or resonators.