On the characteristics of helium filled nano-pores in amorphous silicon thin films

TL;DR

This study combines theoretical and experimental techniques to characterize helium-filled nanopores in amorphous silicon, revealing that helium behavior is consistent across pores, bubbles, and bulk phases, with properties mainly governed by helium density.

Contribution

It provides a parameter-free theoretical analysis validated by experiments, demonstrating the similarity of helium behavior in different confined environments.

Findings

Helium density and pressure in nanopores can be accurately determined.

Helium behavior in nanopores, bubbles, and bulk phases is essentially the same.

Scaling of scattering results confirms the universality of helium properties across environments.

Abstract

The properties of helium-filled nanopores in amorphous silicon are elucidated by combining theoretical knowledge of helium electronic structure with the results of Scanning Transmission electron microscopy/electron energy loss spectroscopy (STEM/EELS). Two of the properties determined are the density and pressure of the confined helium, these being key properties which are needed for application. The experimental data consists, firstly of the shift of the helium 1s^2-> 1s2p(^1P) excitation energy from that of a free atom upon entering a condensed phase, and secondly, the intensities of both the elastically and inelastically scattered electron beams. Analysis uniting theory with the STEM/EELS measurements for both the helium-filled pores and earlier similar studies of helium encapsulated as bubbles in solid silicon is combined with fully trustworthy and closely related data for helium in its bulk condensed phases. The non-empirical theory used, containing no free parameters, is validated by the excellent agreement between the energy shifts predicted for bulk condensed helium with the entirely independently measured values. The above comparisons between the pores and bubbles with the bulk material show that the helium behaviour is essentially the same in all three of these environments. This means that, although the pressure is clearly temperature dependent, the other important properties are governed solely by the helium density. Although the energy of the electron beam used for the pore measurements differs from that in the bubble experiments, it is shown that scaling the results of either the pore or bubbles results using standard scattering theory almost exactly reproduces the experimental results for the other system. This provides confirmatory evidence that the behaviour of the helium in the pores is essentially the same as that in the bubbles.