Quenching of porous silicon photoluminescence by molecular oxygen and dependence of this phenomenon on storing media and method of preparation of pSi photosensitizer

The quenching of porous silicon photoluminescence (pSi PL) by molecular oxygen has been studied in different storing media in an attempt to clarify the mechanism of the energy transfer from the silicon photosensitizer to the oxygen acceptor. Luminescent materials have been prepared by two methods: electrochemical anodizing and chemical etching. Different structural forms were used: porous layers on silicon wafer and two kinds of differently prepared powder. Dry air and liquid water were employed as storing media; quenching behaviour was under observation until total degradation of quenching properties. Singlet oxygen molecules generation through energy transfer from photoluminescent pSi was the only photosensitizing mechanism observed under dry gas conditions. This PL quenching process was preferentially developed at 760 nm (1.63 eV) that corresponds to the formation of the ¹Σ singlet oxygen state. Oxidation of the pSi photosensitizer was the main factor that led to its total deactivation in a time scale of few weeks. Regarding water medium, different photosensitizing behaviour was observed. In watery conditions, two preferred energy levels were found: the one detected in dry gas and another centred at approximately 2.2 eV (550 nm). Formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) different from singlet oxygen, such as superoxide anion or superoxide radical, can be responsible for the second one. This second quenching process developed gradually after the initial contact of pSi photosensitizer with water and then degraded. The process lasted only several hours. Therefore, functionalization of the pSi photosensitizer is probably required to stabilize its PL and quenching properties in the watery physiological conditions required for biomedical applications.     

Optical spectroscopy of GaAsGaAlAs quantum wells under an external electric field

We have studied by means of low temperature photoluminescence (PL) and photocurrent spectroscopy the effects of an external electric field on the excitons in GaAs quantum wells confined between GaAlAs. Increasing the field causes a Stark shift of the excitons toward lower energies with a simultaneous quenching in the PL intensity. At moderate fields, we find very good agreement (better than 0.5 meV) between the light- and heavy-hole exciton energies obtained by PL and photocurrent measurements. A significant deviation in energy of the PL relative to the photocurrent is observed at high fields, manifesting the increase in the contributions of impurity-bound excitons to the PL lineshape. A detailed PL study of the Stark shift as a function of well thickness has also been performed. The results show an increasing Stark shift with increasing well thickness, amounting to 110 meV for a 230 Å-wide well at a field of 10⁵ V/cm. For very wide wells (∼ 1000 Å) the behavior of bulk GaAs is recovered: the excitons become ionized before large Stark shifts can be observed. Variational calculations have been carried out and shown to account for the experimental observations of both the Stark shift and the quenching of the PL. In this light, we will discuss the mechanisms governing the optical properties of quantum wells under an external electric field.     

电场调谐InAs单量子点的发光光谱

采用稳态和时间分辨发光光谱,研究了生长在p-i-n二极管结构内的InAs单量子点发光光谱的电场调谐特性.随着电场强度的增加,观察到量子点中激子发光的Stark 效应.通过选择不同波长的激光线激发量子点样品,发现随着电场强度的增加导致量子点发光强度的减弱,这是由于量子点俘获载流子概率的减小所致,而激子寿命的增加源于电场导致激子的Stark效应. 关键词： InAs单量子点 Stark效应 电子-空穴分离     

Absorption measurements in InSe:Ho single crystal under an electric field

InSe:Ho single crystal was grown by Bridgman-Stockberger method. Electric field effects on the absorption measurements have been investigated as a function of temperature in InSe:Ho single crystal. The absorption edge shifted towards longer wavelengths and a decrease of intensity in absorption spectra occurred under an electric field of 7.5 kV/cm. Using absorption measurements, steepness parameter and Urbach energy were calculated under electric field. Applied electric field caused an increase in the Urbach energy. At 10 K and 320 K, the first exciton energies were calculated as 1.322 and 1.301 eV for zero voltage and 1.245 and 1.232 eV for applied electric field, respectively.     

Electroreflectance study of CuIn1−xGaxSe2 thin film solar cells

We have investigated the optical properties of CuIn_1−xGa_xSe₂ (CIGS) thin film solar cells using their electroreflectance (ER) at room temperature. The ER spectra exhibited one broad and two narrow signal regions. Using the photoluminescence (PL) and photocurrent (PC) spectra, the peaks in the low-energy region (1.02–1.35 eV) can be assigned to the CIGS thin film. The PC results implied that the peaks in the high-energy region (2.10–2.52 eV) can be assigned to the CdS band-gap energy. Using the applied bias voltage, the broad signals in the 1.35–2.09 eV region can be assigned to the Franz–Keldysh oscillation (FKO) due to the internal electric field. The ER spectra exhibited a distorted CdS signal for the CIGS thin film solar cell with low shunt resistance and efficiency.     

Temperature dependence of the photoluminescence and phosphorescence time decay of magnesia-stabilized zirconia

Temperature dependence of photoluminescence (PL) spectra and time decay ranging from 90 to 330 K are investigated in magnesia-stabilized zirconia single crystals. The emission PL spectra can be decomposed into two bands. The prominent one is centered in the blue-green region of the spectrum whereas the secondary one is centered in the yellow-orange region. The temperature dependence of these bands are analyzed in terms of the so-called configuration coordinate model. The Huang-Rhys parameter for the prominent band is found near 40 and the effective phonon at about 0.030 eV. Thermal quenching energy is determined to be 0.24 eV from the decreasing part of the I(T) curve. Luminescent decays were satisfactorily fitted by two exponentials over the whole temperature range investigated. Total lifetime temperature dependence can be accounted for by assuming a radiative decay from two metastable levels with a separation energy of 0.073 eV. Results are discussed on the basis of the major defects, oxygen vacancies and complex defects.     

Photoluminescence of ZnO:Sb nanobelts fabricated by thermal evaporation method

Uniform ZnO nanobelts (NBs) were synthesized by a facile thermal evaporation method. Recombination mechanism of acceptor-related emissions in Sb doped ZnO NBs was investigated by temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) spectra. UV near-band-edge (NBE) emissions were dominant by acceptor-bound exciton (A⁰X) at 3.358 eV and free electron-to-acceptor (FA) at 3.322 eV transitions at 81 K. Studies on A⁰X intensity showed a quenching channel, the thermal dissociations of A⁰X to a free exciton and electron hole pair with the temperature increase. The active energy of A⁰X was estimated to be 19 meV using thermal quenching formula. The acceptor ionization energy was calculated to be 190 meV using Haynes rule. These results were very similar to those of antimony or phosphorus doped ZnO films.     

Estimation of built-in dipole moment in InAs quantum dots

We have fabricated a Schottky diode embedding InAs self-assembled quantum dots (QDs) grown by alternately supplying In and As sources. As a function of the electric field, we have investigated the photoluminescence (PL) for the InAs QDs in the Schottky diode at 300 K. We controlled the electric field in order that the QD layer was located in the depletion region of Schottky diode. The relationship between the electric field and the depletion width of the Schottky diode was deduced through the capacitance-voltage measurement. The Stark shift was observed in PL spectra for QDs; the energy of the PL line shifted to the lower energy as the electric field increased. It was also observed that the PL emission intensity gradually decreased. By the fitting to the experimental data, we determined a built-in dipole moment, corresponding to an electron-hole separation.     

Irreversible quenching of luminescence in porous silicon

The influence of applied voltage on photoluminescence (PL) in porous silicon was studied. A strong PL band around 680 nm was observed when excited by a 300 nm ultraviolet light with no voltage applied, but upon increasing the bias voltage, a strong and progressive decrease of the PL intensity was observed leading finally to a complete quenching of the emitted light at 1.80 V. The peak position of the emission appears to be stable. This effect is completely irreversible, and the spectra depend on the increased voltage to the sample and corresponding temperature increase. Nonradiative recombination resulting from the thermal oxidation was suggested to be responsible for the quenching.     

The conduction mechanism of stress induced leakage current through ultra-thin gate oxide under constant voltage stresses

The conduction mechanism of stress induced leakage current （SILC） through 2nm gate oxide is studied over a gate voltage range between 1.7V and stress voltage under constant voltage stress （CVS）. The simulation results show that the SILC is formed by trap-assisted tunnelling （TAT） process which is dominated by oxide traps induced by high field stresses. Their energy levels obtained by this work are approximately 1.9eV from the oxide conduction band, and the traps are believed to be the oxygen-related donor-like defects induced by high field stresses. The dependence of the trap density on stress time and oxide electric field is also investigated.     

Photoluminescence kinetics of wurtzite GaN quantum dots in an AlN matrix

The photoluminescence (PL) of GaN quantum dots in an AlN matrix is studied. It is found that the maximum of the PL line does not shift when the laser excitation power varies. The transient PL spectra indicate that the quenching kinetics is nonexponential and the quenching law depends on the spectral range. The experimental data are explained in the framework of a model taking into account the strong built-in electric field in wurtzite structures and the transport of charge carriers between them.     

Electronic structure and the local electroneutrality level of SiC polytypes from quasiparticle calculations within the GW approximation

The most important interband transitions and the local charge neutrality level (CNL) in silicon carbide polytypes 3C-SiC and nH-SiC (n = 2?C8) are calculated using the GW approximation for the self energy of quasiparticles. The calculated values of band gap E _g for various polytypes fall in the range 2.38 eV (3C-SiC)-3.33 eV (2H-SiC) and are very close to the experimental data (2.42?C3.33 eV). The quasiparticle corrections to E _g determined by DFT-LDA calculations (about 1.1 eV) are almost independent of the crystal structure of a polytype. The positions of CNL in various polytypes are found to be almost the same, and the change in CNL correlates weakly with the change in E _g, which increases with the hexagonality of SiC. The calculated value of CNL varies from 1.74 eV in polytype 3C-SiC to 1.81 eV in 4H-SiC.     

Electric-field-controlled photoluminescence of CdSe nanocrystal-doped SiO2 on Si

Dense-packed CdSe nanoclusters synthesized by sequential ion implantation of Cd⁺ and Se⁺ in thermally grown SiO₂ are subjected to high electric field strengths in a metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) structure. The nanocrystal-containing device shows efficient CdSe band-edge photoluminescence (PL) when excited by a cw-HeCd laser operating at a wavelength of 442 nm at room temperature. An effective PL quenching and enhancement has been observed. Depth-resolved μ-PL measurements reveal an exponential decrease, which is depth-correlated with a layer of nanoparticles near the surface, whereas the optical non-linearity of the PL increases in parallel. The PL spectra and particle size distribution suggest an energy transfer from the nanoscopic to adjacent large particles. It can be concluded from these results that charge injection into the near-surface region of the nanocluster/SiO₂ system might be the reason for the asymmetric and hysteretic electro-optic response.     

Optical spectroscopy of a-plane-oriented ZnO epilayers grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy

a-plane ZnO layers were successfully grown, by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy, on r-plane (011–2) sapphire substrates. Several features attributed to the A, B and C free excitonic transitions are identified through temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) and reflectivity measurements. The temperature dependence of the peak energy positions of these transitions was studied from 8 K to 300 K. So, the PL peak energy of the A free exciton was plotted and fitted with a Varshni empirical equation. In the σ polarization (E⊥c), for which A and B are allowed, the reflectivity spectrum measured at 8 K was fitted by using a program based on the theory of the spatial resonance dispersion Hopfield model. Our results indicate that the A and B free excitonic features are at a higher energy than those in ZnO on c-oriented sapphire and show a good PL even at 250 K. These results also show that the new and intense emission peak observed in the region of the first phonon replica (3.33–3.28 eV) and identified as a stacking fault in the epilayer disappears at high temperature above 150 K.     

退火对非故意掺杂4H-SiC外延材料386 nm和388 nm发射峰的影响

10 K条件下,采用光致发光(PL)技术研究了不同退火处理后非故意掺杂4H-SiC外延材料的低温PL特性.结果发现,在370—400 nm范围内出现了三个发射峰,能量较高的峰约为3.26 eV,与4H-SiC材料的室温禁带宽度相当.波长约为386 nm和388 nm的两个发射峰分别位于~3.21 eV和~3.19 eV,与材料中的N杂质有关.当退火时间为30 min时,随退火温度的升高,386 nm和388 nm两个发射峰的PL强度先增加后减小,且退火温度为1573 K时,两个发射峰的PL强度均达到最大. 关键词： 光致发光 退火处理 能级 4H-SiC     

Study on the drain bias effect on negative bias temperature instability degradation of an ultra-short p-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor

This paper studies the effect of drain bias on ultra-short p-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (PMOSFET) degradation during negative bias temperature (NBT) stress. When a relatively large gate voltage is applied, the degradation magnitude is much more than the drain voltage which is the same as the gate voltage supplied, and the time exponent gets larger than that of the NBT instability (NBTI). With decreasing drain voltage, the degradation magnitude and the time exponent all get smaller. At some values of the drain voltage, the degradation magnitude is even smaller than that of NBTI, and when the drain voltage gets small enough, the exhibition of degradation becomes very similar to the NBTI degradation. When a relatively large drain voltage is applied, with decreasing gate voltage, the degradation magnitude gets smaller. However, the time exponent becomes larger. With the help of electric field simulation, this paper concludes that the degradation magnitude is determined by the vertical electric field of the oxide, the amount of hot holes generated by the strong channel lateral electric field at the gate/drain overlap region, and the time exponent is mainly controlled by localized damage caused by the lateral electric field of the oxide in the gate/drain overlap region where hot carriers are produced.     

Visible photoluminescence and its mechanisms from a-SiOx : H films with different stoichiometry

The photoluminescence (PL) properties of H-rich amorphous silicon oxide thin films prepared by dual-plasma chemical vapor deposition have been studied. The three commonly reported PL bands centered around 1.7, 2.1 and 2.9 eV have been detected from the same type of a-SiO_x : H material, only by varying the oxygen content (x≈1.35, 1.65, 2). In order to characterize the PL bands, the samples in as-prepared and annealed states up to 900°C have been analyzed by XPS, FT-IR, gas effusion, ESR and ellipsometry. Temperature quenching experiments are crucial to distinguish the 1.7 eV band, fully consistent with a bandtail-to-bandtail transition, from radiative defect luminescence mechanisms attributed either to defects related to Si–OH groups (2.9 eV) or to oxygen vacancy defects (2.1 eV).     

Temperature dependent photoluminescence study on ZnO/Graphene nanocomposite films

We report observation of both free and defect-mediated excitonic emissions from temperature-dependent PL study on ZnO/graphene oxide (G-O) nanocomposite grown by ultrasonic assisted spray pyrolysis (UASP). From the temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the ZnO/G-O nanocomposite, new graphene-related peak was observed at 372 nm along with the exciton transition bound to neutral acceptors or deep donors. The PL intensity of new graphene-related peaks (3.33 eV) become more prominent with increasing G-O concentration, and it was saturated or decreased with the addition of >7.0 wt% of G-O. This feature indicates that new graphene-related states were created below conduction band of ZnO, which supports the excitonic PL enhancement by graphene-embedding is contributed not by charge transfer, but by vacancy filling effect of G-O.     

InN的光致发光特性研究

研究了利用金属有机化学气相淀积生长的氮化铟薄膜的光致发光特性. 由于氮化铟本身具有很高的背景载流子浓度, 费米能级在导带之上, 通过能带关系图以及相关公式拟合光致发光图谱可以得到生长的氮化铟的带隙为0.67 eV, 并且可以计算出相应的载流子浓度为n=5.4×10¹⁸ cm^-3, 从而找到了一种联系光致发光谱与载流子浓度两者的方法. 另外通过测量变温条件下氮化铟的发光特性, 研究了发光峰位以及发光强度随温度的变化关系, 发现光致发光强度随温度的升高逐渐降低, 发光峰位随温度的升高只是红移, 并没有出现"S"形的非单调变化, 这种差异可能是由于光致发光谱的半高宽过高导致, 同时也可能与载流子浓度以及内建电场强度有关. 关键词： 氮化铟 金属有机化学气相淀积 光致发光 载流子浓度     

Correlation between defect-related electroluminescence and charge trapping in Gd-implanted SiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> layers

When amorphous silica is bombarded with energetic ions, various types of defects are created as a consequence of ion-solid interaction (oxygen deficient centers (ODC), non-bridging oxygen hole centers (NBOHC), E^′-centers, etc.). Luminescent peaks from oxygen deficiency centers at 2.7 eV, non-bridging oxygen hole centers at 1.9 eV and defect centers with emission at 2.07 eV were observed by changing the concentration of implanted Gd³⁺ ions. Charge trapping in Gd-implanted SiO₂ layers was induced using constant current electron injection to study the electroluminescence intensity with dependence on the applied voltage change. The process of electron trap generation during high field carrier injection results in an increase of the electroluminescence from non-bridging oxygen hole centers. Direct correlation between electron trapping and the quenching of the electroluminescence at 2.07 eV and 2.7 eV was observed with variation of the implanted Gd concentration. PACS 78.60.i; 72.20.Jv; 78.20.-e