Electronic structure and optical property of semiconductor nanocrystallites

Semiconductor nanostructures show many special physical properties associated with quantum confinement effects, and have many applications in the opto-electronic and microelectronic fields. However, it is difficult to calculate their electronic states by the ordinary plane wave or linear combination of atomic orbital methods. In this paper, we review some of our works in this field, including semiconductor clusters, self-assembled quantum dots, and diluted magnetic semiconductor quantum dots. In semiconductor clusters we introduce energy bands and effective-mass Hamiltonian of wurtzite structure semiconductors, electronic structures and optical properties of spherical clusters, ellipsoidal clusters, and nanowires. In self-assembled quantum dots we introduce electronic structures and transport properties of quantum rings and quantum dots, and resonant tunneling of 3-dimensional quantum dots. In diluted magnetic semiconductor quantum dots we introduce magnetic-optical properties, and magnetic field tuning of the effective g factor in a diluted magnetic semiconductor quantum dot. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Electronic characteristics of InAs self-assembled quantum dots

Deep-level transient spectroscopy and photoluminescence studies have been carried out on structures containing self-assembled InAs quantum dots formed in GaAs matrices. The use of n- and p-type GaAs matrices allows us to study separately electron and hole levels in the quantum dots by the deep-level transient spectroscopy technique. From analysis of deep-level transient spectroscopy measurements it follows that the quantum dots have electron levels 130 meV below the bottom of the GaAs conduction band and heavy-hole levels at 90 meV above the top of the GaAs valence band. Combining with the photoluminescence results, the band structures of InAs and GaAs have been determined. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Methods to tune the electronic states of self-organized InAs/GaAs quantum dots

After capping InAs islands with a thin enough GaAs layer, growth interruption has been introduced. Ejected energy of self-organized InAs/GaAs quantum dots has been successfully tuned in a controlled manner by changing the thickness of GaAs capping layer and the time of growth interruption and InAs layer thickness. The photoluminescence (PL) spectra showing the shift of the peak position reveals the tuning of the electronic states of the QD system. Enhanced uniformity of Quantum dots is observed judging from the decrease of full width at half maximum of FL. Injection InAs/GaAs quantum dot lasers have been fabricated and performed on various frequencies. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Electronic and vibrational Raman scattering in resonance with yellow luminescence transitions in GaN on sapphire substrate

We analyze low-temperature Raman and photoluminescence spectra of MBE-grown GaN layers on sapphire. Strong and sharp Raman peaks are observed in the low frequency region. These peaks, which are enhanced by excitation in resonance with yellow luminescence transitions, are attributed to electronic transitions related to shallow donor levels in hexagonal GaN. It is proposed that a low frequency Raman peak at 11.7 meV is caused by a pseudo-local vibration mode related to defects involved in yellow luminescence transitions. The dependence of the photoluminescence spectra on temperature gives additional information about the residual impurities in these GaN layers.

Electronic investigation of self-organized InAs quantum dots

Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) has been applied to investigate the electronic properties of self-organized InAs quantum dots. The energies of electronic ground states of 2.5ML and 1.7ML InAs quantum dots (QDs) with respect to the conduction band of bulk GaAs are about 0.21 eV and 0.09 eV, respectively. We have found that QDs capture electrons by lattice relaxation through a multi-phonon emission process. The samples are QDs embedded in superlattices with or without a 500 Angstrom GaAs spacing layer between every ten periods of a couple of GaAs and InAs layers. The result shows that the density of dislocations in the samples with spacer layers is much lower than in the samples without the spacer layers.

Influence of interdot electronic coupling on photoluminescence spectra of self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dots

The influence of interdot electronic coupling on photoluminescence (PL) spectra of self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dots (QDs) has been systematically investigated combining with the measurement of transmission electron microscopy. The experimentally observed fast red-shift of PL energy and an anomalous reduction of the linewidth with increasing temperature indicate that the QD ensemble can be regarded as a coupled system. The study of multilayer vertically coupled QD structures shows that a red-shift of PL peak energy and a reduction of PL linewidth are expected as the number of QD layers is increased. On the other hand, two layer QDs with different sizes have been grown according to the mechanism of a vertically correlated arrangement. However, only one PL peak related to the large QD ensemble has been observed due to the strong coupling in InAs pairs. A new possible mechanism to reduce the PL linewidth of QD ensemble is also discussed.

Behavior of crystalline silicon under huge electronic excitations: A transient thermal spike description

Recent experimental works devoted to the phenomena of mixing observed at metallic multilayers Ni/Si irradiated by swift heavy ions irradiations make it necessary to revisit the insensibility of crystalline Si under huge electronic excitations. Knowing that Ni is an insensitive material, such observed mixing would exist only if Si is a sensitive material. In order to extend the study of swift heavy ion effects to semiconductor materials, the experimental results obtained in bulk silicon have been analyzed within the framework of the inelastic thermal spike model. Provided the quenching of a boiling ( or vapor) phase is taken as the criterion of amorphization, the calculations with an electron-phonon coupling constant g(300 K) = 1.8 x 10(12) W/cm(3)/K and an electronic diffusivity D-e(300 K) = 80 cm(2)/s nicely reproduce the size of observed amorphous tracks as well as the electronic energy loss threshold value for their creation, assuming that they result from the quenching of the appearance of a boiling phase along the ion path. Using these parameters for Si in the case of a Ni/Si multilayer, the mixing observed experimentally can be well simulated by the inelastic thermal spike model extended to multilayers, assuming that this occurs in the molten phase created at the Ni interface by energy transfer from Si. (C) 2009 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.