Electron radiation effects on InAs/GaAs quantum dot lasers

The InAs/GaAs quantum dot laser diodes and corresponding quantum dot samples are irradiated by 1 MeV electron. The laser performance and quantum dot photoluminescence intensity at room temperature are enhanced over a fluence range of 4 × 10¹³ cm^?2. The radiation-induced defects increase the efficiency of carrier transfer to the quantum dots, which results in the improvement of photoluminescence performance under low level displacement damage. The contact resistant of quantum dot lasers decreases because the ohmic contact is also improved by electron irradiation.     

Multiphoton avalanche generation of free carriers in a multiband crystal

A new mechanism for generating nonequilibrium electron-hole pairs in transparent wide-gap crystals under high-power picosecond light pulses of prebreakdown intensity is considered. The kinetics of free carrier generation is investigated by the numerical solution of the system of balance equations for particle concentrations within the multiband model of electron energy spectrum of the crystal. It is shown that in the intensity range of 10¹⁰–10¹² W/cm² the proposed way of nonequilibrium carrier generation is more effective in the case of picosecond pulses than the conventional multiphoton absorption. It is shown that the nonequilibrium carrier generation considered here may initiate a multiphoton avalanche.     

Characterization of free-standing GaN substrate grown through hydride vapor phase epitaxy with a TiN interlayer

Large-scale GaN free-standing substrate was obtained by hydride vapor phase epitaxy directly on sapphire with porous network interlayer. The bottom surface N-face and top surface Ga-face showed great difference in anti-etching and optical properties. The variation of optical and structure characteristics were also microscopically identified using spatially resolved cathodoluminescence and micro-Raman spectroscopy in cross-section of the GaN substrate. Three different regions were separated according to luminescent intensity along the film growth orientation. Some tapered inversion domains with high free carrier concentration of 5 × 10¹⁹ cm⁻³ protruded up to the surface forming the hexagonal pits. The dark region of upper layer showed good crystalline quality with narrow donor bound exciton peak and low free carrier concentration. Unlike the exponential dependence of the strain distribution, the free-standing GaN substrate revealed a gradual increase of the strain mainly within the near N-polar side region with a thickness of about 50 μm, then almost kept constant to the top surface.     

The mobility of free carriers in PbSe crystals

The free carrier mobility in PbSe varies strongly with temperature and carrier concentration. The electrical properties of single crystals of PbSe with carrier concentrations ranging from 10¹⁶ to 10²⁰ cm^?3 have been measured between 0·3 and 800K. The extrinsic mobility is governed by acoustical phonon scattering. An anomalous behaviour of the mobility at low temperatures and low concentrations was observed although no ionized impurities were present.     

Characterization of ROF signal based on cascaded optical carrier suppression modulation technique

The paper experimentally demonstrated the optical frequency quadrupling microwave signal generation, a 4 GHz radio frequency (RF) signals up-conversion to 16 GHz in a radio over fiber (ROF) link, using twice optical carrier suppression modulation. The RF signal was mixed with 1.25 Gbps NRZ-OOK data firstly and then modulated by two cascaded single-electrode optical intensity modulators. The obtained 1.25 Gbps/16 GHz ROF signal was transmitted and characterized in the optical fiber link. At BER of 10^?9, low power penalty of 1.0 and 1.4 dB were obtained over a fiber link with a transmission distance of 25 and 50 km.     

Phonon replicas of the electron-hole liquid luminescence line in intrinsic silicon

The TO, LO and TA phonon assisted luminescence lines associated with carrier recombination inside an electron-hole drop in Si have been studied. The carrier density n and the droplet binding energy ø per electron-hole pair have been estimated from the lineshape and position of the TA-phonon assisted line. The resulting values n = (3.0±.1) × 10¹⁸cm^-3 and ø = 7.9±.1 meV are smaller than previously published values based on an analysis of the unresolved TO-LO line. The discrepancy in the fitted density arises because the TO-LO line is broader than the sum of two TA lines separated by the known TO-LO splitting at any intensity ratio. The effect of LO phonon dispersion can explain the effect, if a TO-LO intensity ratio close to unity is assumed, contrary to previously expressed theoretical expectations.     

Time- and frequency-domain measurements of carrier lifetimes in GaN epilayers

Results on time-resolved study of GaN photoluminescence (PL) in a power density range from 0.5 mW/cm² under CW excitation by ultraviolet light emitting diode (UV LED) to 1 GW/cm² under pulsed excitation by YAG:Nd laser in the temperature range from 8 to 300 K are presented. Measurements of PL response in the frequency domain by using amplitude-modulated emission of a UV LED as well as time-resolved PL measurements using a streak camera and light-induced transient grating technique have been used in the study. Yellow luminescence (YL) intensity increases with increasing temperature up to 120 K and faster components in YL decay switch to slower components with increasing temperature under UV LED excitation. At low carrier densities, the trapping decreases the carrier lifetime below 250 ps, while the carrier lifetime in the same GaN sample under excitation ensuring saturation of the traps equals 2 ns.     

Photoconductivity of amorphous semiconductors

An analysis of photoconductivity is presented for a material with a carrier mobility which decreases as a power law with time. We calculate the steady state and transient response, and show that the model applies to hydrogenated amorphous silicon and other amorphous semiconductors. In a-Si:H the effective mobility is obtained from 10^?6 to 1 sec. The recombination is of bimolecular type and the carrier density is almost independent of excitation intensity.     

Observation of the Fermi-edge singularity in n-doped single asymmetric quantum wells: the influence of residual acceptors

The investigation of the evolution of the photoluminescence spectra, in single asymmetric quantum wells (SAQWs), from a typical emission spectrum to a Fermi-edge singularity, is carried out as a function of both the optical excitation intensity and the temperature. The three samples used here are n-doped, low carrier density (below 5×10¹¹ cm⁻²), GaAs/Al_0.35Ga_0.65As SAQWs grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The strong collective recombination of electrons with different k states up to the Fermi wave vector as well as the optical signature of the Fermi-edge singularity is observed in two samples containing residual acceptors inside the GaAs SAQW. In contrast, a third sample containing no experimental evidence of residual acceptors in the GaAs SAQW shows no optical signature of the Fermi-edge singularity.     

Magneto-transport properties of silicon inversion layers at low carrier densities

Conductivity σ and magneto-resistance of n- and p-channel MOSFET's with low oxide-charge density were investigated between 1.2 K and 4.2 K and carrier concentrations between 10¹¹/cm² and 10¹²/cm². Data were taken at different source drain electric field strengths. At small source drain fields and low carrier concentrations σ showed an activated behaviour with the activation energy decreasing with increasing carrier concentration. At source drain fields of the order 1 V/cm pronounced deviations from the activated behaviour were observed. In addition, the channel current-voltage characteristics of the devices studied were nonlinear. Shubnikov-De Haas oscillations were recorded at surface carrier concentrations as low as 10¹¹/cm². The data cannot be explained with a hopping model or by the existence of a mobility edge.     

Silicon microelement vibration testing using conventional and heterodyned time-average interferometry with automated temporal and spatial phase stepping

This paper focuses on the applicability of the temporal (TPS) and spatial carrier (SCPS) phase-shifting techniques to the time-average interferogram intensity modulation distribution determination. Both techniques use the same mathematical formulae, but in different domains: temporal and spatial ones. They are sensitive to different types of errors. The influence of main experimental errors: phase-step miscalibration, spatial carrier miscalibration, average intensity changes and intensity noise in both the presented techniques on the fringe function determination (|J₀| or J₀² in case of sinusoidal vibrations), is discussed. The techniques are compared to find the most appropriate one. The time-average technique with heterodyning for small vibration–amplitude measurements is also discussed. The application of the SCPS method to this technique is shown for the first time.     

Thermal and carrier transport originating from photon recycling and non-radiative recombination in laser micromachining of GaAs thin films

Coupled thermal and carrier transports (electron/hole generation, recombination, diffusion and drifting) in laser photoetching of GaAs thin film is investigated. A new volumetric heating mechanism originating from SRH (Shockley–Read–Hall) non-radiative recombination and photon recycling is proposed and modeled based on recent experimental findings. Both volumetric SRH heating and Joule heating are found to be important in the carrier transport, as well as the etching process. SRH heating and Joule heating are primarily confined within the space-charge region, which is about 20 nm from the GaAs surface. The surface temperature rises rapidly as the laser intensity exceeds 10⁵ W/m². Below a laser intensity of 10⁵ W/m², the thermal effect is negligible. The etch rate is found to be dependent on the competition between photovoltaic and photothermal effects on surface potential. At high laser intensity, the etch rate is increased by more than 100%, due to SRH and Joule heating. Received: 24 January 2002 / Accepted: 11 April 2002 / Published online: 10 September 2002 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +1-310/206-2302, E-mail: xiang@seas.ucla.edu     

Electron scattering mechanisms in indium-tin-oxide thin films prepared at the various process conditions

The carrier concentrations and mobilities of indium-tin-oxide (ITO) thin films by DC magnetron sputtering at the various process conditions were measured by means of the Hall technique. The relationship between the carrier concentration and mobility showed two distinct features: (i) roughly up to the carrier concentration of 9.0 × 10²⁰/cm³, both the carrier concentration and mobility increased together; (ii) above the carrier concentration of 9.0 × 10²⁰/cm³, the carrier mobility decreased as the carrier concentration further increased. The distinct behavior of the carrier concentration and mobility was due to the transition of the dominant electron scattering mechanism. ITO thin film with a low degree of crystallinity was governed by the grain boundary scattering. However, the ionized impurity scattering was dominant in ITO thin film with a high carrier concentration over 9.0 × 10²⁰/cm³. The overall characterizations related to the carrier concentration and mobility were also performed using X-ray diffractometer, UV-vis-NIR spectrometer, scanning electron microscope, atomic force microscope.     

Optimization of pulsed laser deposited ZnO thin-film growth parameters for thin-film transistors (TFT) application

In this work we present the optimization of zinc oxide (ZnO) film properties for a thin-film transistor (TFT) application. Thin films, 50±10 nm, of ZnO were deposited by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) under a variety of growth conditions. The oxygen pressure, laser fluence, substrate temperature and annealing conditions were varied as a part of this study. Mobility and carrier concentration were the focus of the optimization. While room-temperature ZnO growths followed by air and oxygen annealing showed improvement in the (002) phase formation with a carrier concentration in the order of 10¹⁷–10¹⁸/cm³ with low mobility in the range of 0.01–0.1 cm²/V?s, a Hall mobility of 8 cm²/V?s and a carrier concentration of 5×10¹⁴/cm³ have been achieved on a relatively low temperature growth (250 °C) of ZnO. The low carrier concentration indicates that the number of defects have been reduced by a magnitude of nearly a 1000 as compared to the room-temperature annealed growths. Also, it was very clearly seen that for the (002) oriented films of ZnO a high mobility film is achieved.     

Defect and photoluminescence profiles from thermally converted Cr-doped GaAs

Specimens of Cr-doped semi-insulating (SI) GaAs have been annealed in quartz ampoules under vacuum at elevated temperatures. Some samples, depending on temperature and time of anneal, were partially or wholly converted to p-type. In these cases CV measurements have been combined with serial sectioning to produce carrier concentration profiles. The As overpressure dependencies indicate acceptors to be associated with Ga vacancies. The diffusion coefficient of the Ga vacancies was estimated to be about 3.35 × 10^-14cm²sec^-1 at 950°C. Low temperature photoluminescence on the converted samples show a reasonably good correspondence between carrier distribution profile and the intensity of copper luminescence peak on photoluminescence spectra taken at various depth in the crystals.     

A theory for filamentation in semiconductor lasers including the dependence of dielectric constant on injected carrier density

A model for the self-focusing mechanism in semiconductor lasers is analysed and applied to the formation of lasing filaments in p-n junction devices. The self-focusing is attributed to an increase of dielectric constant in the semiconductor in regions of high light intensity due to a depletion of the injected carrier concentration. Two mechanisms are postulated for the dependence of dielectric constant on carrier concentration; the free carrier effect and the band-to-band interaction. The band-to-band interaction is computed as a function of photon energy, and found to give the major contribution to a total dielectric constant perturbation of typically −0.05 at threshold. This agrees with experiment. A single-mode solution is obtained for the waveguide equation of an isolated filament or a set of coupled filaments. This shows that the filament width contracts with current. Expressions are obtained for the optical intensity distribution, for the guided wavelength, for the effect of carrier diffusion, and for the higher-order mode cut-offs. The calculated filament width at 300 K varies typically between 12 and 3 microns for currents from 1 to 60% above threshold; at 77 K the width is almost doubled. This agrees reasonably with experiment. In general the analysis shows that the strength of self-focusing in heterostructure lasers depends on the number of carriers injected at threshold per cm² per micron thickness of the optical confinement region.     

The optical conductivity of free carriers in GaAs

The optical conductivity of free electrons in polar semiconducting compounds has recently been calculated by use of a generalized Boltzmann equation derived from the equation of motion of the quantum density matrix. This reduces to the quasi-classical Boltzmann transport equation in the low frequency limit: the optical conductivity thus obtained spans a spectral range from around 30cm^?1 to 1.2 × 10⁴cm^?1 in GaAs. In this paper, the optical conductivity is calculated for GaAs as a function of carrier concentration in terms of a frequency dependent relaxation time which reduces to the usual relaxation time in the limit of low frequencies and an elastic scattering mechanism. The low frequency limit of the relaxation time is used to estimate the mobility as a function of carrier concentration. The frequency dependent relaxation time is given for GaAs at 298 K over the spectral region from 45 cm^?1 to 2.3 × 10³cm^?1 for carrier concentrations from 3.4 × 10¹⁵cm^?3 to 8.7 × 10¹⁸cm^?3.     

Schnell rotierender Lichtbogen als spektroskopische Lichtquelle

An electric arc quickly moved magnetically forms a closed plasma cone or plasma ring between two concentrically arranged electrodes. Aerosols and suspended matters can be brought into the plasma in an optimum manner with a little carrier gas flow, and can be excited to emission. The dates applied and attained till now are: Arc current 5…?20 A, magnetic field strength 10⁴…?4 · 10⁵ A/m, magnetic induction 0.1…?0.3 T, rotation frequency 8…?15 kc, carrier gas air or argon maximum flow 0.5 1/min, intensity increase for CuI-lines up to factor 100. Further applications are possible for special lamps and electric arc diagnostics.     

Indirekte Band-Band-Stoßrekombination in Germanium

Photoemission from Ge, caused by carrier injection via ap-n-junction was observed at a wavelength about 1 μm at room temperature. The dependence on energy, temperature and carrier density shows, that there appears a high energy tail of a radiative band to band recombination, which cannot be the tail of the usual radiative recombination in Ge. The intensity of the photoemission is proportional ton ² p ². The experimental results are explained as follows: Via indirect band to band Auger-recombination a hole is brought into the split-off band. In this band, the hole reaches thermal equilibrium with the lattice. While it remains in this band, it is able to recombine radiatively with electrons of the conduction band.     

Transient photoconductivity in NiO

Extensive experimental observations have failed to confirm reported observations of transient photoconductivity in single crystal NiO. The negative results are due either to rapid deep trapping, low quantum efficiency for carrier photogeneration, or to carrier drift mobilities μ < 4 × 10^?5 cm²/V sec at 300K.