Intersubband transitions in quantum well mid-infrared photodetectors

A study of intersubband transitions in quantum well infrared detectors working at high temperatures has been reported. This study allows a greater tunability in the device designs, with the ability to control the peak wavelength, the absorption coefficient, the dark current, the quantum efficiency and the detectivity of the modeled structure operating around 3.3 μm wavelength. The detection energy and absorption coefficient dependences with an applied electric field are given. Then, the electro-optic performances of the modeled mid-infrared detector are estimated, the dark current dependence with the applied voltage and temperature as well as the quantum efficiency and the detectivity are investigated and discussed. High detectivities were found at high temperatures revealing the good performances of the designed photodetector, especially at 3.3 μm wavelength.     

Intersubband resonant enhancement of the nonlinear optical properties in asymmetric (CdS/ZnSe) based quantum wells

In this work, the linear and nonlinear optical properties are studied theoretically in asymmetric (CdS/ZnSe/BeTe)/(ZnSe/BeTe) quantum wells. The electronic states are calculated using the envelope wave function approximation and the intersubband transition energies are studied as a function of CdS and ZnSe well thicknesses as well as doping concentration. The optimum parameters carrying out the transition energy 0.8 eV (1.55 μm wavelength) are given. Results are presented for the linear, the third order nonlinear optical absorption and the refractive index changes in the studied heterostructure. Results show that the changes in the linear and the third order nonlinear optical absorption as well as refractive index change are as important as the temperature is high, the nonlinear terms must be taken into consideration especially near the resonance.     

A variable electron beam and its irradiation effect on optical and electrical properties of CdS thin films

A low energy electron accelerator has been constructed and tested. The electron beam can operate in low energy mode (100 eV to 10 keV) having a beam diameter of 8–10 mm. Thin films of CdS having thickness of 100 nm deposited on ITO-coated glass substrate by thermal evaporation method have been irradiated by electron beam in the above instrument. The I–V characteristic is found to be nonlinear before electron irradiation and linear after electron irradiation. The TEP measurement confirms the n-type nature of the material. The TEP and I–V measurements also confirm the modification of ITO/CdS interface with electron irradiation.      

Effect of compensation doping on the electrical and optical properties of mid-infrared type-II InAs/GaSb superlattice photodetectors

This paper presents a theoretical study on the electrical and optical properties of mid-infrared type-II InAs/GaSb superlattices with different beryllium concentrations in the InAs layer of the active region. Dark current, resistance-area product, absorption coefficient and quantum efficiency characteristics are thoroughly examined. The superlattice is residually n-type and it becomes slightly p-type by varying beryllium-doping concentrations, which improves its electrical performances. The optical performances remain almost unaffected with relatively low p-doping levels and begin to deteriorate with increasing p-doping density. To make a compromise between the electrical and optical performances, the photodetector with a doping concentration of 3 × 1015 cm-3 in the active region is believed to have the best overall performances.     

Noncontact measurement of the thermal diffusivity of IR semi-transparent and semiconducting n-CdMgSe mixed crystals by means of the photothermal radiometry

In this paper we present results of noncontact measurements of the thermal diffusivity of infrared semi-transparent n-CdMgSe mixed semiconductor crystals by means of the photothermal radiometry (PTR) in a transmission configuration. In order to overcome an influence of the infrared semi-transparency and plasma waves on the PTR signal from n-CdMgSe mixed crystals the samples were covered by thin aluminum foils on both sides. The thermal diffusivities of n-CdMgSe mixed crystals were estimated from PTR phase frequency characteristics using a well-known formula. It was found that the obtained results are underestimated in comparison to thermal diffusivities estimated from the PPE (photopyro-electric) measurements. A three layer model of a PTR signal was applied in order to estimate an error in determination of the thermal diffusivity of a sample caused by aluminum foils.     

Off‐resonance Raman analysis of wurtzite CdS ground to the nanoscale: structural and size‐related effects

Different techniques were used to follow the transformation of CdS platelets during grinding and under hydrostatic pressure. X‐ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy revealed that the platelets included zinc blende (cubic) CdS nanodomains dispersed in a wurtzite (hexagonal) single‐crystalline matrix. Extended grinding led to a decrease of the grain size and to a progressive transformation of the hexagonal stacking into a cubic one. The same phase transition was observed up to 9 GPa under hydrostatic pressure. Off‐resonance Raman spectra collected at different stages of the transition led us to connect band groups that were usually overlooked (in resonance conditions) or considered separately. They all probe the stacking disorder and their intensity can be related to the density of stacking faults. Off‐resonance Raman spectroscopy offers a way of probing the optical properties of CdS (and, more generally, layered semiconductors) as a function of the structure and of the confinement of vibrations by structural defects. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optically controlled initialization and read-out of an electron spin bound to a fluorine donor in ZnSe

Here we report photon antibunching and magneto-spectroscopy of a single electron spin bound to a fluorine donor in a ZnMgSe/ZnSe QW nanostructure. The results confirm the presence of an optically controllable lambda-system which allows the optical manipulation of the electron bound to the neutral fluorine donor as a spin qubit. Moreover, we achieved optical spin pumping of the qubit by resonant excitation of each of the four allowed transitions of the lambda system. We verified the spin transfer by detecting single photons when the bound electron decays into the opposite spin state. The results presented here constitutes an elegant initialization and the read-out procedure of the electron spin qubit bound to a fluorine donor which are prerequisite for coherent optical control of an impurity based solid-state spin qubit.     

Evaluation of electrical and optical characteristics of ZnO/CdS/CIS thin film solar cell

In this study, device modeling and simulation are conducted to explain the effects of each layer thickness and temperature on the performance of ZnO/CdS/CIS thin film solar cells. Also, the thicknesses of the CIS and CdS absorber layers are considered in this work theoretically and experimentally. The calculations of solar cell performances are based on the solutions of the well-known three coupling equations: the continuity equation for holes and electrons and the Poisson equation. Our simulated results show that the efficiency increases by reducing the CdS thickness. Increasing the CIS thickness can increase the efficiency but it needs more materials. The efficiency is more than 19% for a CIS layer with a thickness of 2 μm. CIS nanoparticles are prepared via the polyol route and purified through centrifugation and precipitation processes.Then nanoparticles are dispersed to obtain stable inks that could be directly used for thin-film deposition via spin coating.We also obtain x-ray diffraction(XRD) peak intensities and absorption spectra for CIS experimentally. Finally, absorption spectra for the CdS window layer in several deposition times are investigated experimentally.     

Annealing temperature effect on the structural, optical and electrical properties of ZnS thin films

Zinc sulfide thin films were prepared on glass substrates at room temperature using a chemical bath deposition method. The obtained films were annealed at temperatures ranging from 100 to 500 °C in steps of 100 °C for 1 h. The films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), optical absorption spectra, and electrical measurements. X-ray diffraction analysis indicates that the deposited films have an amorphous structure, but after being annealed at 500 °C, they change to slightly polycrystalline. The optical constants such as the refractive index (n_r), the extinction coefficient (k), and the real (ε₁) and imaginary (ε₂) parts of the dielectric constant are calculated depending on the annealing temperature. Aside from the ohmic characteristics of the I-V curve, a nonlinear I-V curve owing to the Schottky contact is also found, and the barrier heights (?_bn) for Au/n-ZnS and In/n-ZnS heterojunctions are calculated. The conductivity type was identified by the hot-probe technique.     

Effect of boron ion implantation on the structural, optical and electrical properties of ZnSe thin films

Zinc Selenide (ZnSe) thin films were deposited onto well cleaned glass substrates using vacuum evaporation technique under a vacuum of 3×10⁻⁵ mbar. The prepared ZnSe samples were implanted with mass analyzed 75 keV B⁺ ions at different doses ranging from 10¹² to 10¹⁶ ions cm⁻². The composition, thickness, microstructures, surface roughness and optical band gap of the as-deposited and boron-implanted films were studied by Rutherford backscattering (RBS), grazing incidence X-ray diffraction, Atomic force microscopy, Raman scattering and transmittance measurements. The RBS analysis indicates that the composition of the as-deposited and boron-implanted films is nearly stoichiometric. The thickness of the as-deposited film is calculated as 230 nm. The structure of the as-deposited and boron-implanted thin films is cubic. It is found that the surface roughness increases on increasing the dose of boron ions. In the optical studies, the optical band gap value decreases with an increase of boron concentration. In the electrical studies, the prepared device gave a very good response in the blue wavelength region.     

Effects of the ZnSe concentration on the structural and optical properties of ZnSe/PVA nanocomposite thin film

This study investigated the effects of ZnSe nanoparticles (NPs) on the structural and (linear and nonlinear) optical properties of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) thin film. Three samples of ZnSe NP-doped PVA thin films with different concentrations of ZnSe were produced on a glass substrate. The ZnSe NPs were synthesized by pulsed laser ablation of the ZnSe bulk target immersed in distilled water using a 1064 nm wavelength and a high frequency pulsed Nd:YAG laser. The optical bandgap energies of the films were extracted from their UV-Vis-NIR absorption spectra. The corresponding energy bandgaps of the nanocomposite films declined as the ZnSe NPs doping concentration increased. X-ray diffraction analysis was used to characterize the crystalline phases of the ZnSe/PVA nanocomposite films. The concentration-dependent nonlinear optical absorption and nonlinear refraction behaviors of the films after exposure to 532-nm nanosecond laser pulses were investigated using the Z-scan technique. The nonlinear absorption response of the films was positive when measured using an open aperture scheme, which was attributed to the two-photon absorption mechanism. In addition, the nonlinear refraction indices had a negative value and they increased as the concentration of ZnSe NPs in the films increased.     

Effects of hydroxyl groups and hydrogen passivation on the structure,electrical and optical properties of silicon carbide nanowires

The effects of hydrogen and hydroxyl passivation on the structure, electrical and optical properties of SiCNWs were investigated. The passivation performance of different atoms (groups) were discussed by analyzing the distribution of electronic states and the polarity of chemical bonds. The results show that passivation can improve the stability of SiCNWs structure, and the effect of hydroxyl is better than hydrogen passivation. And hydrogen and hydroxyl passivation both increase the band gap of SiCNWs, and the changing trend of band gap is relevant to the polarity of the covalent bond formed by the passivation of surface atoms. Moreover, passivation enhances the stability of the optical properties of SiCNWs, resulting in narrowing of light absorption, photoconductivity and other spectra, and the response peak shifts to the deep ultraviolet region, which means that hydrogen or hydroxyl passivation of SiCNWs is likely to be a candidate material for deep ultraviolet micro-nano optoelectronic devices.     

Effect of position-dependent effective mass on linear and nonlinear optical properties of a cubic quantum dot

In this paper, we first obtain an analytic relation for studying the position-dependent effective mass in a GaAs/Al_xGa_1−xAs cubic quantum dot. Then, the effect of position-dependent effective mass on the intersubband optical absorption coefficient and the refractive index change in the quantum dot are studied. Our numerical calculations are performed using both a constant effective mass and the position-dependent effective mass. We calculate the linear, nonlinear and total intersubband absorption coefficient and refractive index change as a function of the incident optical intensity and structural parameters such as dot length. The results obtained from the present work show that spatially varying electron effective mass plays an important role in the intersubband optical absorption coefficient and refractive index change in a cubic quantum dot.     

Structural and optical characterization of wurtzite type ZnS

ZnS films were grown on (001) GaAs substrates at different temperatures by RF magnetron sputtering. The ZnS chemical stoichiometry was determined by Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), besides it allowed to find the residual impurities, mainly oxygen. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis and Raman scattering reveal that ZnS deposited thin films showed hexagonal wurtzite crystalline phase. The films average crystallite size range was from 8.15 to 31.95 nm, which was determined using the Debye–Scherrer equation for the peak W(101). Besides an experimental study of first- and second-order Raman scattering of ZnS films is made. An energy level diagram involving oxygen traps and interstitial sulphur ions is used to explain the origin of the radiative transitions observed in the room temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectra.     

分子束外延生长ZnSe自组织量子点光、电行为研究

分别应用光致发光、电容电压和深能级瞬态傅里叶谱技术详细研究ZnSe自组织量子点样品的光学和电学行为.光致发光温度关系表明ZnSe量子点的光致发光热猝火过程机理.两步猝火过程的理论较好模拟和解释了相关的实验数据.电容电压测量表明样品表观载流子积累峰出现的深度(样品表面下约100nm处)大约是ZnSe量子点层的位置.深能级瞬态傅里叶谱获得的ZnSe量子点电子基态能级位置为ZnSe导带下的011eV,这与ZnSe量子点光致发光热猝火模型得到的结果一致.     

Dependence of film thickness on the electrical and optical properties of ZnO-Cu-ZnO multilayers

ZnO-Cu-ZnO multilayers were prepared by simultaneous RF magnetron sputtering of ZnO and DC magnetron sputtering of Cu. Cu films with different thickness were used as the intermediate metal layer. The optical and electrical properties of the multilayers studied by UV-vis spectrophotometer and four point probe method, respectively, shows that transmittance increases with decrease of copper thickness up to an optimum thickness of 5 nm and sheet resistance decreases with increase of thickness. Low resistivity and high transmission were obtained when the film structure has a thickness of ZnO/Cu/ZnO: 50/5/50 nm. The performance of the multilayers as transparent conducting material was better than the single layer ZnO of equal thickness.     

Abnormal current-voltage characteristics and metal-insulator transition of amorphous carbon film/silicon heterojunction

The amorphous carbon film/n-Si (a-C/n-Si) heterojunctions have been fabricated by direct current magnetron sputtering at room temperature, and their current-voltage characteristics have been investigated. The results show that these junctions have good rectifying properties in the temperature range 80-300 K. The interesting result is that the current-voltage curve changes dramatically with increasing applied voltage and temperature. For the forward bias voltages, the junction shows Ohmic mechanism characteristic in the temperature range 240-300 K. However, the conduction mechanism changes from Ohmic for the low bias voltages to space charge limited current for the high bias voltages in the temperature range 80-240 K. While for the reverse bias voltages, it changes from Schottky emission to breakdown with increasing voltage. Another important phenomenon is that the temperature dependence of the junction resistance shows a metal-insulator transition, whose transition temperature can be controlled by the bias voltage.     

氢致LaMg2Ni合金薄膜的光电性能变化

采用电子束蒸发法沉积LaNi/Mg多层膜,再于350℃真空退火合金化的方法制备了厚度为375nm的LaMg₂Ni合金薄膜.在吸、放氢过程中,该合金薄膜能够在高反射的金属态和透明的半导体态之间可逆地转变.在可见光波长范围内的平均透射率和电阻率在反射态和透明态之间的对比度大于10⁴.利用扫描电子显微镜和原子力显微镜观察了吸放氢前后薄膜的表面及剖面形貌.结果表明,在氢化过程中薄膜表面的平整性降低且不可恢复,是脱氢态中出现低反射现象的主要原因. 关键词： 薄膜 光电性能 氢 形貌     

新型光学聚合物——Topas环烯烃共聚物微结构光纤的设计及特性分析

以新型光学聚合物Topas 环烯烃共聚物（折射率为1.53）为基质,设计了四种微结构聚合物光纤.应用有限元方法对各种光纤在波长0.5—2.0 μm范围内的基模有效折射率、模场面积和数值孔径进行了计算.研究了结构参数对模场分布、单模特性和色散特性的影响.得出了具有极大/小模场面积、无限单模传输和平坦近零色散的光纤结构参数.与石英、聚甲基丙烯酸甲酯基质的微结构光纤相比,该光纤具有更大的数值孔径和较宽的平坦近零色散范围.为光纤的制备提供了理论指导. 关键词： 微结构聚合物光纤 有限元方法 传输特性 Topas 环烯烃共聚物     

Temperature dependent electrical characteristics of Sn/p-Si Schottky diodes

Current-voltage and capacitance-voltage characteristics of Sn/p-Si Schottky diodes measured in the temperature range 80-320 K are presented and analysed. Anomalous strong temperature dependencies of the ideality factor and apparent barrier height were obtained. There was also a considerable difference between the apparent barrier heights obtained from current-voltage and capacitance-voltage characteristics. These anomalies are explained by the domination of the current by a high level of thermionic-field emission, and by the presence of deep levels near the Sn/Si interface, which yield a reduction of free hole concentration and a significant temperature dependence of the charge stored near the metal-semiconductor (MS) interface. The evaluation of temperature dependence of forward current for thermionic-field emission resulted in the following parameters: characteristic energy E₀₀ = 9.8 meV, Schottky barrier height at zero bias Φ_b0 = 0.802 eV, bias coefficient of barrier height β = 0, and effective Richardson constant A* = 37.32 A cm⁻² K⁻².