Study of period number effect in the superlattice infrared photodetector

Superlattices have been demonstrated previously by our group in the design of the multicolor infrared photodetector. In general, the period number of the superlattice may be up to several dozens. In this paper, we have investigated the performance of the infrared photodetectors especially with 3, 5 and 15 periods. The detector structure contains a thick blocking barrier embedded between two superlattices with different period numbers but with the same well and barrier widths. This double-superlattice structure shows switchable spectral responses between two spectral regions by the voltage polarities. The photoresponse in each spectral region is also tunable by the magnitude of the applied voltage. The voltage-dependent behavior reveals the photoelectron relaxation and transport mechanism in the superlattice miniband. Superlattice with few periods has high electron group velocity, less relaxation effect and less collection efficiency. Therefore the superlattice with few periods may have better responsivity and narrower photoresponse range than the one with many periods. Based on the experimental results of our devices, it is observed that the superlattice with fewer periods has better detectivity, responsivity, wider range of the operational temperature, and more flexible miniband engineering than the conventional multiple quantum well infrared photodetector.     

Superlattice CoCrPt/Ru/CoFe structure fabricated by pulsed laser deposition

The synthetic antiferromagnets (SAF) have been used in spin-valve sensor in data storage industry [1]. We report a new hard/Ru/soft sandwich structure (SHBL) fabricated by pulsed lased deposition to replace current single layer structure for information recording application. SHBL consists of two magnetic layers separated by thin nonmagnetic layers, typically with Ru layers of 0.7-1.2 nm, through which antiferromagnetic coupling is induced. Varying the relative thickness of the magnetic layers, the spacer layers, and the type of magnetic materials can alter magnetic properties of CoCrPt/Ru/CoFe superlattice. The coercivity H_c and grain size of magnetic layer is also dependent on the laser fluence. High laser fluence results in both small grain size and high H_c. The observed phenomena are related to high quenching and deposition rates during PLD at high fluence, resulting in more pronounced phase segregation.     

First principles calculation of the opto-electronic properties of (110) growth axis SiGe superlattices

Using two versions of the first principles full potential linear muffin-tin orbitals method (FPLMTO) which enable an accurate treatment of the interstitial regions, the electronic and optical properties of (110) growth axis Si/SiGe superlattices are investigated. A comparative study with (001) growth axis superlattices is made. In particular, it is found that the bottom of the conduction band (CB) is closer to Γ$\Gamma$ in the (110) system but the optical activity is not enhanced. Furthermore, the absorption spectra of the superlattices are calculated and are found to be quite different from those of bulk Si and Ge but fairly close to their average.     

Fabrication of type-II InAs/GaSb superlattice long-wavelength infrared focal plane arrays

In this paper, we present an InAs/GaSb type-II superlattice (SL) with the M-structure for the fabrication of a long-wavelength (10 μm range) infrared (LWIR) focal plane arrays (FPA), which are grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The M-structure is named for the shape of the band alignment while the AlSb layer is inserted into the GaSb layer of InAs/GaSb SL. A 320 × 256 LWIR FPA has been fabricated with low surface leakage and high R₀A product of FPA pixels by using anodic sulfide and SiO₂ physical passivation. Experiment results show that the devices passivated with anodic sulfide obviously have higher R₀A than the un-sulphurized one. The 50% cutoff wavelength of the LWIR FPA is 9.1 μm, and the R₀A is 224 Ω cm² with the average detectivity of 2.3 × 10¹⁰ cm Hz^1/2 W⁻¹.     

Four-component superlattice empirical pseudopotential method for InAs/GaSb superlattices

For the design of InAs/GaSb superlattice (SL) heterojunction infrared photodetectors with very low dark current we have extended the standard two-component superlattice empirical pseudopotential method (SEPM) and implemented a four-component model including interface layers. For both models, the calculated bandgap values for a set of SL samples are compared to bandgaps determined by photoluminescence measurements. While the bandgap resulting from the two-component model agrees well with experimental data for SL structures with individual layer thicknesses of 7 monolayers and more, we show that for SLs with thinner GaSb layers the four-component SEPM model is accurate, when the As-content in the interface and barrier layers is included in the model.     

RHEED study on continuously repeated step flow and layer-by-layer growth modes in SrRuO3/SrMnO3 superlattice

Nanolayered superlattices composed of ferromagnetic SrRuO₃ and antiferromagnetic SrMnO₃ layers were grown on SrTiO₃ (100) substrates by pulsed laser deposition. Multilayers were grown under predetermined synthesis conditions resulting in growth of SrRuO₃ and SrMnO₃ by step flow and layer-by-layer modes, respectively. The growth of SrMnO₃ was observed to occur through the layer-by-layer during the entire deposition process despite the expected increase in surface roughness because of the incorporation of SrRuO₃ upper layers. Monitoring by reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) revealed that the growth of every SrMnO₃ layer consisted of a pre-stage during which the gaps on the relatively rough SrRuO₃ surface were filled before the actual growth of the SrMnO₃ layer, which resulted in incomplete half oscillation and change from spot patterns to streaky patterns. The in-plane lattice constant did not show any considerable change in the case of SrRuO₃ and SrMnO₃ layers, despite the considerable lattice mismatch between the two materials (SrRuO₃, SrMnO₃) and SrTiO₃. On the other hand, the RHEED patterns showed the existence of lattice mismatch effects in the out-of-plane lattice constant, which showed significant strains of opposite signs in the different layers, indicating a strong dependence on the composition of the layers and superlattice periodicity. In this paper, the growth characteristics of a SrRuO₃/SrMnO₃ multilayer along with its magnetic properties will be discussed.     

Si—nipi超晶格亚带结构的研究

本文采用各项异性有效质量近似,加入局域密度泛函近似下的交换关联项,自治地计算了Si—nipi在室温时亚带结构随自由载流子浓度的变化规律.结果表明,超晶格的有效带隙随自由载流子浓度的增加而变宽.这个结论与绝对零度时是一致的.     

引入反比相关双曲余弦平方势描述超晶格量子阱的电子跃迁

 鉴于“方形”势阱过于简单和理想，引入了反比相关双曲余弦平方势描述超晶格量子阱中的电子运动行为。在量子力学框架内，把电子的Schrodinger方程化为了超几何方程, 并以Ga^1-xAl^xAs-GaAs- Ga^1-xAl^xAs量子阱为例计算了电子的带内跃迁和带间跃迁。结果表明，能级数目和跃迁能量与阱深、阱宽等系统参数有关，只需适当调节这些参数就可望实现对超晶格量子阱光电特征的调节与控制。