Energy spectrum and effective mass of carriers in the InSe/GaSe superlattice

Within an effective mass approximation the energy spectrum and mass of carriers in the InSe/GaSe superlattice have been calculated. The superlattice belongs to type II: electrons are primarily confined to the InSe layers whereas the holes are mosfly confined to the GaSe layers. The characteristic feature of electronic structure of the superlattice is the existence of minibands of light carriers at the θ point of the Brillouin zone and minibands of heavy carriers at theM point. The dependence of the miniband structure on thickness of layers has been computed. It is shown that the minibands of light and heavy carriers compete with one another in energy. A general conclusion is made concerning the influence of the competition between the minibands on optic and kinetic properties of the superlattice.     

Tamm minibands in graphene-based planar superlattices

The Tamm minibands in planar superlattices composed of graphenes with different Fermi velocities and energy gaps have been investigated. It is shown that Tamm minibands arise only in the case of intersection of the dispersion curves of charge carriers in different superlattice regions.     

Optical nonlinearities in GaSe and InSe crystals upon laser excitation

The nonlinear absorption of light and its temporal evolution in the vicinity of exciton resonance in layered GaSe and InSe crystals under high optical excitation have been experimentally investigated. The decisive factor for the observed temporal dependence of the absorption coefficient and its dependence on the excitation intensity is screening excitons by nonequilibrium-carrier plasma. It is shown that the increase in the transmittance in the absorption-band edge in GaSe with a simultaneous blue shift of the band edge is caused by filling the energy bands under high optical excitation.     

Material and device properties of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 absorber films prepared by thermal reaction of InSe/Cu/GaSe alloys to elemental Se vapor

The aim of this work was to study the influence of selenization temperature on the morphological and structural properties of CuIn_1−xGa_xSe₂ (CIGS) polycrystalline thin films prepared by a two-step method. The compound and metallic precursors were deposited sequentially using GaSe, InSe and Cu sources by thermal evaporation. These identical InSe/Cu/GaSe precursors are then selenized with Se vapor in a vacuum system. All the CIGS films showed chalcopyrite structure and presence of secondary phases observed at low temperatures. High temperature treatment led to better crystalline and an increase in grain size. Solar cell devices are fabricated and J–V measurements performed under AM1.5 global solar spectra conditions at 25 °C are presented.     

New aspects of the electronic structure of the GaSb-InAs (001) superlattice

Relativistic pseudopotentials have been used to calculate the electronic structure of the GaSb-InAs (001) superlattice of period 36A.We present energy levels and charge densities of the states in the superlattice. In particular, new resonances and confined states with large amplitudes at interfaces are identified. We also show that scattering processes associated with wavelengths which are comparable with the width of the confining layers are not important in the formation of the confined states but are essential in the formation of the resonances.     

Effect of interdiffusion on electronic states in one-layer quantum ring superlattice

The effect of interdiffusion on band structure and Bloch amplitudes of two dimensional superlattice composed of initially cylindrical quantum rings is investigated in the framework of adiabatic approach and using transformation to in-plane momentum space. It is shown that the adiabatic approximation is applicable even if the ring’s height is equal to its radius, because of weak localization of electron in the superlattice plane comparing with the localization in perpendicular direction. The consideration of the dependence of effective mass on spatial coordinate and time leads to the energy correction up to 10 meV. It is shown that energy minibands rise and become wider due to interdiffusion and the dependence of Bloch amplitudes on quasimomentum direction is more pronounced in the case of diffused potential profile.     

Type-I and type-II Wannier-Stark effect in InGaAs/InGaAs superlattices

The formation of minibands is demonstrated in photocurrent experiments on shallow In_0.53Ga_0.47As/In_0.40Ga_0.60 As superlattices grown by low-pressure metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy. Field-dependent variations of the spectral shape are attributed to Wanner-Stark localization. Both type-I transitions between electrons and heavy holes and type-II transitions involving light holes confined in the In_0.40Ga_0.60 As layers are observed and distinguished by their characteristic field dependence.     

Zener tunneling of light waves in an optical superlattice

We report on the observation of Zener tunneling of light waves in spectral and time-resolved transmission measurements, performed on an optical superlattice made of porous silicon. The structure was designed to have two photonic minibands, spaced by a narrow frequency gap. A gradient in the refractive index was introduced to create two optical Wannier-Stark ladders and, at a critical value of the optical gradient, tunneling between energy bands was observed in the form of an enhanced transmission peak and a characteristic time dependence of the transmission.     

Determination of energy difference and width of minibands in GaAs/AlGaAs superlattices by using Fourier transform photoreflectance and photoluminescence

In this work, Fourier transform photoreflectance (in a form of fast differential reflectance spectroscopy) has been used to study the interband optical transitions in molecular beam epitaxially grown GaAs/AlGaAs superlattices. The dependence of the measured features on the growth parameters (QW and barrier widths) has been studied. The minibands widths and energy differences between them have been obtained and matched to these coming from effective mass calculations. In addition, it has been shown that Fourier transform photoluminescence measurement might be used in the far infrared region (up to ∼15 μm) to the direct detection of the energies of intraband transitions between the electron minibands (subbands) in the superlattice and QW system.     

The electronic structure of InAs/GaSb(001) superlattices-two dimensional effects

Detailed calculations of the two dimensional effects in the electronic structure of InAs/GaSb(001)superlattices are presented for the first time. Comparison of the calculated thickness dependence of the superlattice band gap with optical absorption measurements shows that, at the Γ-point, the conduction band edge of InAs lies about 60 meV below the valence band edge of GaSb. Eigenfunctions of the highest light and heavy hole bands, and the lowest two conduction bands exhibit spatially confined nature in the GaSb and InAs regions respectively, thus establishing the two-dimensional nature of these bands. The calculated conduction band effective mass in the plane of the superlattice near the Γ-point is found to be enhanced by a factor of 2.5 over the bulk InAs value and compares very well with the appropriate mass extracted from recent magnetoresistance measurements.     

Normal photoemission demonstration of two and three dimensionality of electron states in layer compounds

Energy spectra have been measured for photoelectrons emitted normal to the surfaces of GaSe and InSe. Some of the peaks display considerable energy dispersion ～ 1 eV as a function of photon energy indicating that the corresponding bands are three-dimensional. Two-dimensional bands with small energy dispersion (? 0.3 eV) are also observed. These features are related to the extent of Se p_z-character in calculated pseudopotential wave-functions.     

Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling induced spin-polarization and resonance-split in n-well semiconductor superlattices

Using the transfer matrix method, we investigate the electron transmission over multiple-well semiconductor superlattices with Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling in the potential-well regions. The superlattice structure enhances the effect of spin polarization in the transmission spectrum. The minibands of multiple-well superlattices for electrons with different spin can be completely separated at the low incident energy, leading to the 100% spin polarization in a broad energy windows, which may be an effective scheme for realizing spin filtering. Moreover, for the transmission over n-quantum-well, it is observed that the resonance peaks in the minibands split into n-folds or (n−1)-folds depending on the well-width and barrier-thickness, which is different from the case of tunneling through n-barrier structure.     

Effect of Al and Ga interdiffusion on the electronic states in GaAs/Ga<Subscript>1−x</Subscript>Al<Subscript>x</Subscript>As semiconductor superlattice

The effect of interdiffusion of Al and Ga atoms on the confining potential and band structure of a three-dimensional superlattice, composed of initially spherical GaAs/Ga_1?xAl_xAs quantum dots, is investigated in the framework of the modified Wood-Saxon potential model. It is shown that the interdiffusion leads to the disappearance of the quantum dots’ spherical symmetry and to the broadening of the superlattice energy minibands.     

Structure and optoelectronic properties of Si/O superlattice

We have carried out structural study of the Si/O semiconductor atomic superlattices (SAS) with up to 18 Si/O layers fabricated by molecular beam epitaxy and in situ oxygen exposure on both Sb-doped and undoped Si buffer layers, and correlated the results with our photoluminescence, electroluminescence (EL) and I–V data. The Si/O SAS is a new type of superlattice, where monolayers of oxygen are sandwiched between the Si layers. High-resolution cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) study has confirmed the presence of the superlattice and shown epitaxy in the Si/O superlattices. The high structural quality of the layers grown on the undoped Si buffer layers with low density of stacking faults—less than 10⁷/cm²—was established by TEM. Although structure perfection is very important allowing this new class of superlattices to be extended to other systems, it is important to point out that a 9-period SAS-based EL device with emission of light in green has been life-tested with stable output for over 1 year of continuous operation. The Si/O superlattice also serves as an epitaxially grown insulating layer as possible replacement of silicon-on-insulator. Together with the tailor-made effective band gap, this epitaxially grown superlattice may serve as future silicon-based three-dimensional integrated circuits.     

Spin-polarized transport in graphene nanoribbon superlattices

By the Green’s function method,we investigate spin transport properties of a zigzag graphene nanoribbon superlattice(ZGNS) under a ferromagnetic insulator and edge effect.The exchange splitting induced by the ferromagnetic insulator eliminates the spin degeneracy,which leads to spin-polarized transport in structure.Spin-dependent minibands and minigaps are exhibited in the conductance profile near the Fermi energy.The location and width of the miniband are associated with the geometry of the ZGNS.In the optimal structure,the spin-up and spin-down minibands can be separated completely near the Fermi energy.Therefore,a wide,perfect spin polarization with clear stepwise pattern is observed,i.e.,the perfect spin-polarized transport can be tuned from spin up to spin down by varying the electron energy.     

A 69Ga, 115In NQR study of polytypes of GaS,GaSe and InSe

Pulsed Fourier transform NQR spectroscopy has been used to study polytypism in the monochalcogenides GaS, GaSe and InSe at 77 K. The spectrum of GaS was consistent with a major contribution from the β phase but showed evidence of higher polytypes, possibly due to ? or γ type faulting. The GaSe spectrum is simply interpreted as an equal mixture of ? and γ types. The four InSe spectra ($\text{I}\text{=}\text{9}\text{2}$¹¹⁵In), showed a multiplicity of lines. The sharpness of the NQR lines of all spectra suggests the existence of regions with a hitherto overlooked high degree of order.     

Photon BLOCH oscillations in porous silicon optical superlattices

We report the first observation of oscillations of the electromagnetic field in an optical superlattice based on porous silicon. These oscillations are an optical equivalent of well-known electronic Bloch oscillations in crystals. Elementary cells of our structure are composed by microcavities whose coupling gives rise to the extended collective modes forming optical minigaps and minibands. By varying thicknesses of the cavities along the structure axis, we have created an effective electric field for photons. A very high quality factor of the confined optical state of the Wannier-Stark ladder may allow lasing in porous silicon-based superlattices.     

Optical constants and interband transitions in the layer compound InSe

The relevant optical constants of InSe are obtained by applying the Kramers-Kronig relations to accurate near normal incidence reflectance data in the 1.5–5.5 eV energy range. In absence of band calculations, the observed structures are tentatively interpreted by analogy with GaSe ones.     

Density of states of superlattices with multiple layers per period

Density-of-states (DOS) investigations of polytype superlattices (SLs), whose period consists of more than two different layers, are presented. Local DOS (LDOS) is computed as a function of both the electron energy and the space coordinate, which illustrates — in a direct way — the spatial localization, over the SL period, of states forming the energy minibands. A few examples of AlGaAs-based polytype SLs with a coupled-well, step-well and δ-doped basis are analysed, indicating that various LDOS distributions within SL minibands can be arranged. By changing the basis geometry, the electronic DOS can either be selectively confined to a particular SL layer or extend over the whole SL period, which provides a means of modifying the spatial overlap of states from different SL minibands and thus, tuning the respective interband transitions. In particular, polytype SLs with similar miniband structures may exhibit essentially different LDOS features and, consequently, the different transport and optical characteristics. Therefore, it is emphasized that — for a particular device application of a complex-basis SL — not only the electronic level structure should be appropriately designed, but also the corresponding space-charge distributions should be carefully considered.     

六角氮化硼(h-BN)对单层硒化铟(InSe)的调制效应及这一新结构的电子性质

采用基于密度泛函理论的第一性原理计算和分析了三种InSe/h-BN异质结的结构和电子性质.研究发现InSe/h-BN异质结具有间接带隙特点,并且价带顶和导带底的贡献均来自于InSe,差分电荷密度表明体系中没有明显的电荷交换.通过体系能带结构,我们发现h-BN层对单层InSe有着明显的调控效应.对比纯粹应变调控下单层的InSe的能带结构,发现h-BN对InSe能带结构的调控效应实际上是由InSe和h-BN之间的相互作用而诱导的晶格应变引起的.我们的研究结果表明,单层InSe沉积或生长在不同h-BN片上可以获得不同的晶格应变,实现对单层InSe能带结构的有效调控.