Ultrafast opto-terahertz photonic crystal modulator

We present an agile optically controlled switch or modulator of terahertz (THz) radiation. The element is based on a one-dimensional photonic crystal with a GaAs wafer inserted in the middle as a defect layer. The THz electric field is enhanced in the photonic structure at the surfaces of the GaAs wafer. Excitation of the front GaAs surface by ultrashort 810 nm laser pulses then leads to an efficient modulation of the THz beam even at low photocarrier concentrations (approximately 10(16) cm(-3)). The response time of the element to pulsed photoexcitation is about 130 ps.     

Influence of activation of Si29+ ion-implantation in GaAs on ohmic contact resistance and electrical performances of MESFETs

The active layers of Metal Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors (MESFETs) are obtained by Si²⁹⁺ ion implantation in GaAs. Implantation was done at 35 keV with a higher dose near the wafer surface for facilitating easier formation of ohmic contacts, and at 180 keV with a lower dose for obtaining the device channel. Post-implantation annealing was carried out in a rapid thermal processor for activating the implants. Very high activation levels of about 60% for the n⁺ GaAs layer, and 85% for the n-GaAs channel layer were achieved by annealing at 955 °C for 25 s. Activation was characterized using C–V profiling, secondary ion mass spectrometry and by electrical device data of fabricated MESFETs. We attempt an experimental correlation between the ohmic contact resistance (R _c) and activation of both the n⁺ and the channel layer. It was found that very high and simultaneous activation of the n⁺ and channel layers results in very low contact resistances. The conduction of source-drain current into the channel is easily facilitated due to reduction in the resistance of the transition region at the interface of n⁺-contact and n-channel layers.     

Measurement of small angle based on a (1 0 0) silicon wafer and heterodyne interferometer

In this paper, a new optical material application and a heterodyne interferometer are proposed for measuring small angles. In the proposed interferometer, the optical material is a (1 0 0) silicon wafer applied to compose a new architecture of small angle sensor. The small angle measurement used the phase difference which is dependent on the incident angle at the silicon wafer surface to deduce the angular variation. The proposed architecture is simple and uses the common path method to compare test and reference signals; thus, small angles can be easily and accurately measured by estimating the phase difference. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of this method. The angular resolution and sensitivity levels superior to 7 × 10^?5° (1.3 × 10^?6 rad) and 150 (deg/deg), respectively, were attainable in a dynamic range of 0.45°.     

Activation of Al2O3 passivation layers on silicon by microwave annealing

Thin aluminum oxide layers deposited on silicon by thermal atomic layer deposition can be used to reduce the electronic recombination losses by passivating the silicon surfaces. To activate the full passivation ability of such layers, a post-deposition annealing step at moderate temperatures (≈400 ^°C, duration≈30 min) is required. Such an annealing step is commonly done in an oven in air, nitrogen, or forming gas atmosphere. In this work, we investigate the ability to reduce the duration of the annealing step by heating the silicon wafer with a microwave source. The annealing time is significantly reduced to durations below 1 min while achieving effective minority carrier lifetimes similar or higher to that of conventionally oven-annealed samples.     

DCOOD optically pumped by a 13CO2 laser: new terahertz laser lines

In this work we report on new optically pumped THz laser lines from deuterated formic acid (DCOOD). An isotopic ¹³CO₂ laser was used for the first time as a pump source for this molecule, and a Fabry–Perot cavity was used as a THz laser resonator. Optoacoustic absorption spectra were used as a guide to search for new THz laser lines. We could observe six new laser lines in the range from 303.8 μm (0.987 THz) to 725.1 μm (0.413 THz). The lines were characterized according to wavelength, relative polarization, relative intensity, and optimum working pressure. The transferred lamb-dip technique was used to measure the frequency absorption transition for both of these laser lines. Furthermore, we also present a catalogue of all THz laser lines generated from DCOOD.     

Quantum-noise-limited cavity ring-down spectroscopy

We demonstrate a heterodyne-detected cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) method that allows for a noise-equivalent absorption coefficient of 6 × 10^?14 cm^?1 Hz^?1/2, the lowest which has been reported in a CRDS measurement. It is shown that heterodyne-detected CRDS also reaches the quantum noise limit at reasonable optical powers. In addition to offering ultra-high sensitivity, this technique provides high frequency agility over a range of 2 THz in the near-infrared, which allows entire absorption bands to be recorded in minutes. As a demonstration experiment, high resolution spectra of a near-infrared carbon dioxide band have been recorded.     

Novel optical controllable terahertz wave switch

We study theoretically and demonstrate experimentally light controllable terahertz wave switch. When the modulated optical excitation source is used to irradiate a high resistivity silicon wafer, a novel controllable terahertz wave switch is achieved. The results show that the ON-OFF response time is less than 150 ms and the attenuation of the novel terahertz wave switch is more than 20 dB at frequency of 0.315 THz.     

Study of hydrogenated AlN as an anti‐reflective coating and for the effective surface passivation of silicon

Stacks of aluminum oxide and silicon nitride are frequently used in silicon photovoltaics. In this Letter, we demonstrate that hydrogenated aluminum nitride can be an alternative to this dual‐layer stack. Deposited on 1 Ω cm p‐type FZ silicon, very low effective surface recombination velocities of 8 cm/s could be reached after firing at 820 °C. This excellent passivation is traced back to a high density of fixed charges at the interface of approximately –1 × 10¹² cm^–2 and a very low interface defect density below 5 × 10¹⁰ eV^–1 cm^–2. Furthermore, spectral ellipsometry measurements reveal that these aluminum nitride layers have ideal optical properties for use as anti‐reflective coatings. (© 2013 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Generation of THz transients by photoexcited single-crystal GaAs meso-structures

We report a sub-picosecond photoresponse and THz transient generation of GaAs single-crystal mesoscopic platelets excited by femtosecond optical pulses. Our structures were fabricated by a top-down technique, by patterning an epitaxial, 500-nm-thick GaAs film grown on top of an AlAs sacrificial layer and then transferring the resulting etched away 10 × 20-μm² platelets onto an MgO substrate using a micropipette. The freestanding GaAs devices, incorporated into an Au coplanar strip line, exhibited extremely low dark currents and ~0.4 % detection efficiency at 10 V bias. The all-optical, pump–probe carrier dynamics analysis showed that, for 800-nm-wavelength excitation, the intrinsic relaxation of photocarriers featured a 310-fs-wide transient with a 290 fs fall time. We have also carried out a femtosecond, time-resolved electro-optic characterization of our devices and recorded along the transmission line the electrical transients as short as ~600 fs, when the platelet was excited by a train of 100-fs-wide, 800-nm-wavelength optical laser pulses. The platelets have been also demonstrated to be very efficient generators of free-space propagating THz transients with the spectral bandwidth exceeding 2 THz. The presented performance of the epitaxial, freestanding GaAs meso-structured photodevices makes them uniquely suitable for THz-frequency optoelectronic applications, ranging from ultrafast photodetectors to THz-bandwidth optical-to-electrical transducers and photomixers.     

High-birefringence hollow-core anti-resonant THz fiber

A novel high-birefringence hollow-core anti-resonant THz fiber is proposed in this paper. This fiber has a simple structure which consists of only ten Topas tubes. High birefringence is achieved by introducing two large tubes. The first two resonant frequencies are 1.44 and 2.88 THz by fixing tube thickness at 0.09 mm, which makes two low-loss transmission windows exist in the frequency range from 0.8 to 3.0 THz. The lowest loss is 2.10 dB/m occurring at 1.2 THz in the first transmission window and 1.68 dB/m at 2.34 THz in the second transmission window. By optimizing the structure parameters, high birefringence above 7 × 10^?4 in the frequency range from 1.0 to 1.24 THz are obtained. The highest birefringence is up to 8.7 × 10^?4 at 1.04 THz. Birefringence can be further increased to the order of 10^?3 by adjusting the structure parameters at the cost of loss increasing and the bandwidth decreasing. In addition, bent performance of this fiber is also discussed. In addition, this fiber can keep good performance when it is bent for x-direction. At the bend radius of 15 cm, the loss and birefringence has a more slightly change in the first transmission window than the second transmission window. The first transmission window own much better bent-insensitive characteristics.     

Extended homogeneous nanoripple formation during interaction of high-intensity few-cycle pulses with a moving silicon wafer

We report the study of extended nanoripple structures formed during the interaction of high-intensity 3.5 fs pulses with a moving silicon wafer. The optimization of laser intensity (8×10¹³ W?cm^?2) and sample moving velocity (1 mm?s^?1) allowed the formation of long strips (～5 mm) of homogeneous nanoripples along the whole area of laser ablation. The comparison of nanoripples produced on the silicon surfaces by few- and multi-cycle pulses is presented. We find that few-cycle pulses produce sharp and more homogenous structures than multi-cycle pulses.     

Ion irradiation induced spontaneous hypersonic long-range stimulation of silicon nitride synthesis in silicon

We studied the nature of the effect of medium-energy ion implantation on the defect system of a crystal target over distances exceeding by three to four orders of magnitude the average projected range of ions in the target material. Recently, we discovered an especially strong manifestation of this long-range effect in crystal targets: argon ion bombardment stimulated the formation of a Si₃N₄ phase in nitrogen-saturated layers of a silicon wafer, the effect being observed at a distance of up to 600 μm away from the ion stopping zone. An analysis of changes in the electrical and optical properties of the nitrogen-saturated layer depending on the argon ion dose, in comparison to the morphology development on the ion-irradiated silicon surface, suggests that sufficiently effective pulsed sources of hypersonic (in the initial propagation stage) shock waves appear in the Ar⁺ ion stopping zone. These shock waves arise as a result of the jumplike formation and evolution of a network of dislocation loops and argon blisters, accompanied by explosions of the blisters. These processes probably proceed in a self-synchronized or spontaneous manner. Argon in the blisters occurs at T = 773 K in a solid state under a pressure of 4.5×10⁹ Pa, the blister energy reaching up to 5×10⁸ eV. Estimates show that the synchronized explosions of blisters in the region of a nitrogen-saturated layer at the rear side of a 600-μm-thick silicon wafer may produce a peak pressure at the wave front exceeding 10⁸ Pa, which is sufficient to cause the experimentally observed changes.     

具有缓变折射率的太赫兹宽带增透器件

用高阻硅制作的光学元件是太赫兹系统里常用的器件, 但是其高达3.42的相对折射率所引起的阻抗失配严重影响了太赫兹系统的功率, 因此研究人员尝试了各种各样的方式在高阻硅表面镀上有效的增透膜. 在太赫兹波段, 缺乏合适的材料是增透研究中亟需解决的一个重要问题. 介绍一种结构新颖的硅材料增透器件----- 三维光子倒置光栅. 与普通高阻硅片相比, 当结构周期为15 μm时, 该器件在0.2---7.3 THz范围内对太赫兹波具有明显的增透作用, 且覆盖了大部分太赫兹波段. 此外, 该器件的使用不受太赫兹偏振方向限制, 适用于大入射角情形, 并具有高达116.3%的相对3 dB带宽.     

Effect of the doping level on temperature bistability in a silicon wafer

The influence of the doping level on the effect of the temperature bistability in a silicon wafer upon radiative heat transfer between the wafer and the elements of the heating system is studied. Theoretical transfer characteristics are constructed for a silicon wafer doped with donor and acceptor impurities. These characteristics are compared with the transfer characteristics obtained during heating and cooling of wafers with the hole conduction (with dopant concentrations of 10¹⁵, 2 × 10¹⁶, and 3 × 10¹⁷ cm^?3) and electron conduction (with impurity concentrations of 10¹⁵ and 8 × 10¹⁸ cm^?3) in a thermal reactor of the rapid thermal annealing setup. It is found that the width and height of the hysteresis loop decrease with increasing dopant concentration and are almost independent of the type of conduction of the silicon wafer. The critical value of the impurity concentration of both types is 1.4 × 10¹⁷ cm^?3. For this concentration, the loop width vanishes, and the height corresponds to the minimal value of the temperature jump (～200 K). The mechanism of temperature bistability in the silicon wafer upon radiative heat transfer is discussed.     

Leakage current and capacitance characteristics of Si/SiO2/Si single-barrier varactor

We investigate, both experimentally and theoretically, current and capacitance (I–V/C–V) characteristics and the device performance of Si/SiO₂/Si single-barrier varactor diodes (SBVs). Two diodes were fabricated with different SiO₂ layer thicknesses using the state-of-the-art wafer bonding technique. The devices have very low leakage currents (about 5×10^-2 and 1.8×10^-2 mA/mm²) and intrinsic capacitance levels of typically 1.5 and 50 nF/mm² for diodes with 5-nm and 20-nm oxide layers, respectively. With the present device physical parameters (25-mm² device area, 760-μm modulation layer thickness and ≈10¹⁵-cm^-3 doping level), the estimated cut-off frequency is about 5×10⁷ Hz. With the physical parameters of the present existing III–V triplers, the cut-off frequency of our Si-based SBV can be as high as 0.5 THz. Received: 9 February 2001 / Accepted: 9 February 2001 / Published online: 23 March 2001     

Characteristics of silicon solar cell emitter with a reduced diffused phosphorus inactive layer

The diffusion of phosphorus using a phosphorous oxychloride (POCl₃) source in silicon has been used widely in crystalline silicon solar cells. The thermal diffusion process in the furnace consists of two steps: pre-deposition and drive-in. The phosphorous doping profile via thermal diffusion often exhibits high concentrations in the surface-near emitter, which result in a recombination increase. This layer, called the dead layer, should be inhibited in order to fabricate high efficiency silicon solar cells. In this paper, the amount of the POCl₃ flow rate was varied during the pre-deposition process in order to minimize the dead layer, and the characteristics of the phosphosilicate glass (PSG) and emitter were analyzed. From the secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) and electrochemical capacitance–voltage profiler (ECV) measurements, the emitter formed using a POCl₃ flow rate of 1000 sccm contained the least amount of inactive dopant and resulted in reasonable performance in the silicon solar cell. As the POCl₃ flow rate increased, the doped silicon wafer included electrically inactive P near the surface, which functions as a defect degrading the electrical performance of the emitter. As a result of this, the removal of the dead layer containing the inactive P was attempted through dipping the doped wafer in a HF solution. After this process, the emitter saturation current density and implied V_oc were improved. The completed solar cells and their external quantum efficiencies at a short wavelength also demonstrated improved performance. A quantitative analysis of the emitter can provide a deeper understanding of methods to improve the electrical characteristics of the silicon solar cell.     

A quantum cascade laser-based optical feedback cavity-enhanced absorption spectrometer for the simultaneous measurement of CH4 and N2O in air

Optical feedback cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy (OF CEAS) has been demonstrated with a thermoelectrically cooled continuous wave distributed feedback quantum cascade laser (QCL) operating at wavelengths around 7.84 μm. The QCL is coupled to an optical cavity which creates an absorption pathlength greater than 1000 m. The experimental design allows optical feedback of infra-red light, resonant within the cavity, to the QCL, which initiates self-locking at each TEM₀₀ cavity mode frequency excited. The QCL linewidth is narrowed to below the mode linewidth, greatly increasing the efficiency of injection of light into the cavity. At the frequency of each longitudinal cavity mode, the absorption coefficient of an intracavity sample is obtained from the transmission at the mode maximum, measured with a thermoelectrically cooled detector: spectral line profiles of CH₄ and N₂O in ambient air were recorded simultaneously and with a resolution of 0.01386 cm^?1. A minimum detectable absorption coefficient of 5.5×10^?8 cm^?1 was demonstrated after an averaging time of 1 s for this completely thermoelectrically cooled system. The bandwidth-normalised limit for a single cavity mode is 5.6×10^?9 cm^?1?Hz^?1/2 (1σ).     

Measurement of Refractive Index for High Reflectance Materials with Terahertz Time Domain Reflection Spectroscopy

A method to measure the refractive index for high reflectance materials in the terahertz range with terahertz time domain reflection spectroscopy is proposed. In this method, the THz waveforms reflected by a silicon wafer and high reflectance sample are measured respectively. The refractive index of the silicon wafer, measured with the THz time domain transmission spectroscopy, is used as a reference in the THz time domain reflective spectroscopy. Therefore, the complex refractive index of the sample can be obtained by resorting to the known reflective index of the silicon and the Fresnel law. To improve the accuracy of the phase shift, the Kramers-Kronig transform is adopted. This method is also verified by the index of the silicon in THz reflection spectroscopy. The bulk metal plates have been taken as the sample, and the experimentally obtained metallic refractive indexes are compared with the simple Drude model.     

太赫兹片上系统中低温砷化镓薄膜光电导天线的研究

太赫兹时域光谱技术是一种在太赫兹频段内,广泛应用的光谱测量技术。这种技术可以用于许多物质的频谱分析,对于研究化学、半导体与生物分子等领域有着无可比拟的作用。然而用该系统进行样品探测时,受回波的影响频谱分辨率较低;受太赫兹波光斑大小以及待测样品与电磁波相互作用距离长短的影响,样品消耗量较多,并且整个系统的占用空间较大,这些局限性都限制了太赫兹时域光谱系统的进一步发展。为了突破太赫兹时域光谱系统的局限性,设计了一种将太赫兹泵浦区、探测区和传输波导集成到一个硅片上的太赫兹片上系统,该系统不仅能够解决上述系统的局限性,还能够省去样品测量前的光路准直环节,使样品的测量过程更加简便,同时集成化的系统也很大程度上提高了太赫兹波传输的稳定性。在太赫兹片上系统中,泵浦区和探测区的光电导天线是由低温砷化镓和金属电极制成,由于受到太赫兹片上系统的高度集成化和低温砷化镓晶体生长条件的限制,如何制备出低温砷化镓半导体薄膜衬底,并将其转移与键合,是太赫兹片上系统研制过程中的关键环节。首先利用分子束外延（MBE）技术制备出由半绝缘砷化镓、砷化镓缓冲层、砷化铝牺牲层和低温砷化镓层构成的外延片,然后利用盐酸溶液与砷化铝和低温砷化镓反应速度差别较大的原理,将200 nm厚的AlAs牺牲层腐蚀掉,从而得到2 μm厚的低温砷化镓薄膜。为了更加高效并且完整地得到低温砷化镓薄膜,研究了盐酸溶液在不同温度和不同浓度下与AlAs牺牲层的选择性腐蚀速率的关系。给出了低温砷化镓薄膜制备过程中盐酸的最佳体积比浓度和最佳温度,即在73 ℃下13.57%的盐酸溶液中进行砷化铝牺牲层的腐蚀。相比于已有工艺,这种腐蚀方法对实验设备的要求较低并且具有较高的安全性。最后,将单层低温砷化镓薄膜转移键合至硅片上,并制成光电导天线的结构。利用飞秒激光脉冲进行激发探测到太赫兹信号。由此说明,低温砷化镓薄膜的获取、转移与键合工艺能够满足芯片级太赫兹系统的制作要求,这为太赫兹片上系统的进一步研制打下了坚实的基础。     

Thin macroporous silicon heterojunction solar cells

We demonstrate the processing of a heterojunction solar cell from a purely macroporous silicon (MacPSi) absorber that is generated and separated from a monocrystalline n‐type Cz silicon wafer by means of electrochemical etching. The etching procedure results in straight pores with a diameter of (4.7 ± 0.2) µm and a distance of 8.3 µm. An intrinsic amorphous Si (a‐Si)/p⁺‐type a‐Si/indium tin oxide (ITO) layer stack is on the front side and an intrinsic a‐Si/n⁺‐type a‐Si/ITO layer stack is on the rear side. The pores are open when depositing the layers onto the 3.92 cm²‐sized cell. The conductive layers do not cause shunting through the pores. A silicon oxide layer passivates the pore walls. The energy‐conversion efficiency of the (33 ± 2) µm thick cell is 7.2%. (© 2012 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)