Properties and structure of AlSiN and AlSiON films
Magneto-optical disks employ rare earth-transition metal amorphous alloy films (RE-TM films) as recording films, therefore improvement of the corrosion resistance of such disks is an important problem which must be resolved to enable practical application. Development of protective layers for magneto-optical disks is important to improving corrosion resistance. Such protective layers must offer excellent protective performance, and must also have a large refractive index in order that a large Kerr effect enhancement be obtained. AlSiN and AlSiON films are being developed for use as protective films meeting these requirements. However, as yet not much is known about the structure, bonding states, and relation between composition and refractive index of such films. This article reports on the refractive indices, structures, and bonding states of AlSiN and AlSiON sputtered films.
Effect of Growth Temperature on Formation of Amorphous Nitride Interlayer between AlN and Si(111)
The formation of an amorphous interlayer between AlN and Si(111), which may degrade the film quality, is studied by varying the substrate temperature from 860 to 1010 °C in metal–organic chemical vapor deposition with a preflow of trimethylaluminum. The microstructure and chemistry of the amorphous interlayer have been investigated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Cross-sectional TEM examinations show that AlN is directly in contact with Si for growth at 860 °C. At higher growth temperatures, an amorphous interlayer can be formed even if an AlN layer has been previously deposited on Si, and its thickness increases with growth temperature. The XPS depth profile across the amorphous interlayer formed at 1010 °C shows that both Al and N exhibit similar distribution, which gradually decreases toward the Si substrate whereas the Si concentration has the opposite distribution. The composition of the amorphous interlayer is determined to consist of Al, Si, and N.
Law in a law-governed union (Recht in einer Rechtsunion) : the Court of Justice of the European Union and the free law doctrine
The Court of Justice of the European Union characterizes the Union as a Rechtsunion: a law-governed union. The conception of “the law” in Article 19 paragraph 1 of the Treaty on European Union transcends the Treaties, according to the Vice-President of the Court of Justice, Koen Lenaerts. This thesis demonstrates with reference to the work of Georg Jellinek that the Union is a non-sovereign state and, with reference to the work of Eugen Ehrlich in particular, that the state-based perception of law is a misperception. Not all production of law is reserved to the state and not all law is state-recognized law. There is extra-state law. It has been alleged that the Court of Justice of the European Union has had “a free law attitude”. The author discusses the free law doctrine developed at the beginning of the twentieth century and has made literal translations of writings in German, French and Italian by the main representatives of the free law movement. The free law doctrine provides a descriptive framework for the case-law of courts. The author describes the creation by the Court of Justice of four constitutional principles of Union law through its case-law. He concludes that every court is, to quote Hermann Kantorowicz, praeter legem law-creatively active and has, in that sense, a free law attitude. The decisions of judges are often volitional decisions. How the law will be applied should be predictable but volitional decisions, because they are unpredictable, are inconsistent with the principle of legal certainty. In the Union and its member states the judiciary and not the statute or “the law” is pre-eminent. The author suggests how the concept of law should be defined in a material Rechtsunion. He argues that societal legal norms could be provided with an appropriate position consistent with the principle of legal certainty by making the validity of a societal legal norm contingent on its material lawfulness.