A light-transmitting electroconductive film (20) according to the present invention includes a region containing krypton at a content ratio of less than 0.1 atomic % at least partially in a thickness direction (D) of the light-transmitting electroconductive film (20). A transparent electroconductive film (X) according to the present invention includes a transparent substrate (10); and the light-transmitting electroconductive film (20) disposed on one surface side in the thickness direction (D) of the transparent substrate.

The present invention relates to a superconductive rare-earth metal oxyhydride material and a method for producing the material. The method comprising the steps of: —first the formation on a substrate of a layer of an oxygen free rare-earth metal hydride with a predetermined thickness using a physical vapor deposition process; and —second exposing the rare-earth metal hydride layer to oxidative agent for oxidation where the oxygen reacts with the rare-earth metal hydride that results with obtaining rare-earth metal oxyhydride, the oxidation being below a predetermined limit defined by a measured transparency being less than 10%.

Method for producing a photochromic material and a component including the photochromic material, where the method comprises the steps of:-first the formation on a substrate of a layer of an essentially oxygen free metal hydride with a predetermined thickness using a physical vapor deposition process; and -second exposing the metal hydride layer to oxygen where the oxygen reacts with the metal hydride, resulting in a material with photochromic properties.

Provided are a method for preparing a high-performance wafer-level lead sulfide near infrared photosensitive thin film. Firstly, a surface of the selected substrate material is cleaned; next, a vaporized oxidant is introduced into a vacuum evaporation chamber under a high background vacuum degree, and a PbS thin film is deposited on the clean substrate surface to obtain a microstructure with medium particle, loose structure and consistent orientation. Finally, under a given temperature and pressure, a high-performance wafer-level PbS photosensitive thin film is obtained by sensitizing the film prepared at step S2 using iodine vapor carried by a carrier gas. This preparation method is simple, low-cost and repeatable. The PbS photosensitive thin film has a high photoelectric detection rate. The 600K blackbody room temperature peak detection rate is >8×1010 Jones. The corresponding non-uniformity in a wafer-level photosensitive surface is <5%, satisfying the requirements of preparation of a PbS Mega-pixel-level array imaging system.

A part is adapted to be used in a semiconductor processing equipment. The part includes a substrate and a protective coating. The protective coating covers at least a part of the substrate, is made of silicon carbide, and has an atomic ratio of carbon in the protective coating increases in a direction away from the substrate while an atomic ratio of silicon in the protective coating decreases in the direction. The atomic ratio of silicon in the protective coating is larger than that of the carbon near the substrate, and the atomic ratio of silicon in the protective coating is smaller than that of carbon near the outer surface of the protective coating. A method for making the part is also provided.

Embodiments of the disclosure provide methods and apparatus for fabricating magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) structures on a substrate for MRAM applications. In one embodiment, a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) device structure includes a junction structure disposed on a substrate, the junction structure comprising a first ferromagnetic layer and a second ferromagnetic layer sandwiching a tunneling barrier layer, a dielectric capping layer disposed on the junction structure, a metal capping layer disposed on the junction structure, and a top buffer layer disposed on the metal capping layer.

A thin film formation apparatus includes a chamber, a platen disposed within the chamber, a heater configured to heat the platen within the chamber, a gas inlet communicating with an interior of the chamber and configured to supply a reducing gas and inert gas to the interior of the chamber, a target disposed within the chamber and spatially separated from the platen, and a microwave plasma source disposed adjacent to the target. The reducing gas includes at least one of hydrogen (H.sub.2) and deuterium (D.sub.2).

A coated tool for hot stamping of coated or uncoated sheet metals, comprising a coated substrate surface to be in contact with the coated or uncoated metal sheet, wherein the coating in the coated substrate surface comprises one or more inferior layers and one or more superior layers, where the inferior layers are deposited closer to the substrate surface than the superior layers, and: the inferior layers are designed for providing load bearing capacity, the superior layers are designed for providing galling resistance, at least one superior layer is deposited having a multi-nanolayer structure wherein: one type of nanolayer is composed of at least 90 at.-% of chromium and nitrogen, a second type of nanolayer is composed of at least 90 at.-% of titanium, aluminum and nitrogen, a third type of nanolayer is composed of at least 90 at.-% of vanadium carbon and nitrogen.

A method for applying a coating having at least one TiCN layer to a surface of a substrate to be coated by means of high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS), wherein, to deposit the at least one TiCN layer, at least one Ti target is used as the Ti source for producing the TiCN layer, said target being sputtered in a reactive atmosphere by means of a HIPIMS process in a coating chamber, wherein the reactive atmosphere comprises at least one inert gas, preferably argon, and at least nitrogen gas as the reactive gas, wherein: the reactive atmosphere additionally contains, as a second reactive gas, a gas containing carbon, preferably CH4, used as the source of carbon to produce the TiCN layer wherein, while depositing the TiCN layer, a bipolar bias voltage is applied to the substrate to be coated, or at least one graphite target is used as the source of carbon for producing the TiCN layer, said target being used for sputtering in the coating chamber using a HIPIMS process with the reactive atmosphere having only nitrogen gas as the reactive gas, wherein the Ti targets are preferably operated by means of a first power supply device or a first power supply unit and the graphite targets are operated with pulsed power by means of a second power supply device or a second power supply unit.

The present invention provides methods to sputter deposit films comprising alkali metal compounds. At least one target comprising one or more alkali metal compounds and at least one metallic component is sputtered to form one or more corresponding sputtered films. The at least one target has an atomic ratio of the alkali metal compound to the at least one metallic component in the range from 15:85 to 85:15. The sputtered film(s) incorporating such alkali metal compounds are incorporated into a precursor structure also comprising one or more chalcogenide precursor films. The precursor structure is heated in the presence of at least one chalcogen to form a chalcogenide semiconductor. The resultant chalcogenide semiconductor comprises up to 2 atomic percent of alkali metal content, wherein at least a major portion of the alkali metal content of the resultant chalcogenide semiconductor is derived from the sputtered film(s) incorporating the alkali metal compound(s). The chalcogenide semiconductors are useful in microelectronic devices, including solar cells.