The influence of V/III ratio in the initial growth stage on the properties of GaN epilayer deposited on low temperature AlN buffer layer

The V/III ratio in the initial growth stage of metalorganic chemical vapor deposition has an important influence on the quality of a GaN epilayer grown on a low-temperature AIN buffer layer and c-plane sapphire substrate. A weaker yellow luminescence, a narrower half-width of the X-ray diffraction peak, and a higher electron mobility result when a lower V/III ratio is taken. The intensity of in situ optical reflectivity measurements indicates that the film surface is rougher at the beginning of GaN growth, and a longer time is needed for the islands to coalesce and for a quasi-two dimensional mode growth to start. A comparison of front- and back-illuminated photoluminescence spectra confirms that many threading dislocations are bent during the initial stage, leading to a better structural quality of the GaN layer. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Influence of defects in n(-)-GaN layer on the responsivity of Schottky barrier ultraviolet photodetectors

The influence of defects on the responsivity of GaN Schottky barrier ultraviolet photodetectors with n(-)-GaN/n(+)-GaN layer structures is investigated. It is found that employing undoped GaN instead of Si-doped GaN as the n(-)-GaN layer brings about a higher responsivity due to a lower Ga vacancy concentration. On the other hand, the dislocations may increase the recombination of electron-hole pairs and enhance the surface recombination in the photodetectors. Employing undoped GaN and reducing the dislocation density in the n(-)-GaN layer are necessary to improve the responsivity of Schottky barrier photodetectors. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.

Correlation between optical and structural properties of (Al,Ga)N layers grown by MOCVD

For both, (Al,Ga)N with low Al content grown on a GaN nucleation layer and (AI,Ga)N with high Al content gown on an AlN nucleation layer, the inhomogeneous distribution of the luminescence is linked to the distribution of defects, which may be due to inversion domains. In the former system, defect regions exhibit a much lower Al content than the nominal one leading to a splitting of the respective luminescence spectra. In the latter system, a domain-like growth is observed with a pyramidal surface morphology and non-radiative recombination within the domain boundaries. (c) 2007 WILEYNCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Effect of Al incorporation on the AlGaN growth by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

The effect of Al incorporation on the AlGaN growth by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition is investigated. With the increase of trimethylalluminum (TMAl) flux, the crystal quality becomes worse, and the epilayer surface becomes rougher. An interesting phenomenon is that the growth rate of AlGaN decrease with increasing TMAl flux, which is opposite to the AlN growth rate dependence on the TMAl flux. All these effects are attributed to the different properties of At atoms due to the higher bond strength of Al-N compared with Ga-N, which lead to lower surface mobility and stronger competitive ability of Al atoms during the growth. The enhancement of the surface mobility of Al is especially important for improving the quality of AlGaN. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Giant Zeeman splitting in manganese-doped ZnSe quantum spheres: Eight-band effective-mass calculations

We deduce the eight-band effective-mass Hamiltonian model for a manganese-doped ZnSe quantum sphere in the presence of the magnetic field, including the interaction between the conduction and valence bands, the spin-orbit coupling within the valence bands, the intrinsic spin Zeeman splitting, and the sp-d exchange interaction between the carriers and magnetic ion in the mean-field approximation. The size dependence of the electron and hole energy levels as well as the giant Zeeman splitting energies are studied theoretically. We find that the hole giant Zeeman splitting energies decrease with the increasing radius, smaller than that in the bulk material, and are different for different J(z) states, which are caused by the quantum confinement effect. Because the quantum sphere restrains the excited Landau states and exciton states, in the experiments we can observe directly the Zeeman splitting of basic states. At low magnetic field, the total Zeeman splitting energy increases linearly with the increasing magnetic field and saturates at modest field which is in agreement with recent experimental results. Comparing to the undoped case, the Zeeman splitting energy is 445 times larger which provides us with wide freedom to tailor the electronic structure of DMS nanocrystals for technological applications.

Effects of edge dislocations and intentional Si doping on the electron mobility of n-type GaN films

The effects of dislocations and Si doping on the electrical properties of n-type GaN grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) are investigated. It is found that both electron mobility and carrier concentration are strongly influenced by edge dislocations. A moderate Si doping during the GaN growth improves the electron mobility, but the best doping effect depends on the dislocation density of the sample. High quality about 4-mu m-thick MOCVD-grown GaN film with a room temperature electron mobility as high as 1005 cm(2)/V s is obtained by optimizing growth conditions. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.

Reduction of dislocations in GaN epilayer grown on Si (111) substrates using a GaN intermedial layer

GaN intermedial layers grown under different pressures are inserted between GaN epilayers and AlN/Si(111) substrates. In situ optical reflectivity measurements show that a transition from the three-dimensional (3D) mode to the 2D one occurs during the GaN epilayer growth when a higher growth pressure is used during the preceding GaN intermedial layer growth, and an improvement of the crystalline quality of GaN epilayer will be made. Combining the in situ reflectivity and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements, it is suggested that the lateral growth at the transition of growth mode is favourable for bending of dislocation lines, thus reducing the density of threading dislocations in the epilayer.

Photocurrent response in a double barrier structure with quantum dots-quantum well inserted in central well

We report the photocurrent response in a double barrier structure with quantum dots-quantum well inserted in central well. When this quantum dots-quantum well hybrid heterostructure is biased beyond + 1 or -I V, the photocurrent response manifests itself as a steplike enhancement, increasing linearly with the light intensity. Most probably, at proper bias condition, the pulling down of the X minimum of GaAs at the outgoing interface of the emitter barrier by the photovoltaic effect in GaAs QW will initiate the r,-X-X tunneling at much lower bias as compared with that in the dark. That gives rise to the observed photocurrent response. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Chiral symmetry analysis and rigid rotational invariance for the lattice dynamics of single-wall carbon nanotubes

We provide a detailed expression of the vibrational potential for the lattice dynamics of single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNT's) satisfying the requirements of the exact rigid translational as well as rotational symmetries, which is a nontrivial generalization of the valence force model for the planar graphene sheet. With the model, the low-frequency behavior of the dispersion of the acoustic modes as well as the flexure mode can be precisely calculated. Based upon a comprehensive chiral symmetry analysis, the calculated mode frequencies (including all the Raman- and infrared-active modes), velocities of acoustic modes, and the polarization vectors are systematically fitted in terms of the chiral angle and radius, where the restrictions of various symmetry operations of SWCNT's are fulfilled.

Effect of lightly Si doping on the minority carrier diffusion length in n-type GaN films

We investigate the effects of lightly Si doping on the minority carrier diffusion length in n-type GaN films by analyzing photovoltaic spectra and positron annihilation measurements. We find that the minority carrier diffusion length in undoped n-type GaN is much larger than in lightly Si-doped GaN. Positron annihilation analysis demonstrates that the concentration of Ga vacancies is much higher in lightly Si-doped GaN and suggests that the Ga vacancies instead of dislocations are responsible for the smaller minority carrier diffusion length in the investigated Si-doped GaN samples due to the effects of deep level defects. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.

Photocurrent derivative spectra of ZnCdSe-ZnSe double multi-quantum wells

Photocurrent (PC) spectra of ZnCdSe-ZnSe double multi-quantum wells are measured at different temperature. Its corresponding photocurrent derivative (PCD) spectra are obtained by computing, and the PCD spectra have greatly enhanced the sensitivity of the relative weak PC signals. The polarization dependence of the PC spectra shows that the transitions observed in the PC spectra are heavy-hole related, and the transition energy coincide well with the results obtained by envelope function approximation including strain. The temperature dependence of the photocurrent curves indicates that the thermal activation is the dominant transport mechanism of the carriers in our samples. The concept of saturation temperature region is introduced to explain why the PC spectra have different temperature dependence in the samples with different structure parameters. It is found to be very useful in designing photovoltaic devices.

Analysis of atomic force microscopic results of InAs islands formed by molecular beam epitaxy

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements of nanometer-sized islands formed by 2 monolayers of InAs by molecular beam epitaxy have been carried out and the scan line of individual islands was extracted from raw AFM data for investigation. It is found that the base widths of nanometer-sized islands obtained by AFM are not reliable due to the finite size and shape of the contacting probe. A simple model is proposed to analyze the deviation of the measured value From the real value of the base width of InAs islands. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Linear and nonlinear intersubband optical properties in a step quantum well with an applied electric field

Within the framework of the effective-mass envelope-function theory, the field-dependent intersubband optical properties of a Al0.4Ga0.6As/Al0.2Ga0.8As/GaAs step quantum well are investigated theoretically based on the periodic boundary condition. A very large Stark shift occurs when the lowest subband electron remains confined to the small well while the higher subband electron confined to the big well. The optical nonlinearity in a step well due to resonant intersubband transition (ISBT) is analyzed using a density-matrix approach. The second-harmonic generation coefficient chi(2 omega)((2)) and nonlinear optical rectification chi(0)((2)) have also been investigated theoretically. The results show that the ISBT in a step well can generate very large second order optical nonlinearities, chi(0)((2)) and chi(2 omega)((2)) can be tuned by the electric field over a wide range.

The photon scanning tunneling microscope and its applications

A simple photon scanning tunneling microscope (PSTM) is described. Its lateral resolution (similar to 10nm with a maximal scanning range of 10 mu m x 10 mu m ) is much better than that of a conventional optical microscope. Its principle, the fiber optic tip fabrication and PSTM images of different samples such as mica, HDPE and LiNbO3 are presented.

A Photovoltaic InAs Quantum-Dot Infrared Photodetector

A photovoltaic quantum dot infrared photodetector with InAs/GaAs/AlGaAs structures is reported. The detector is sensitive to normal incident light. At zero bias and 78 K, a clear spectral response in the range of 2 -7 mu m has been obtained with peaks at 3.1, 4.8 and 5.7 mu m. The bandgap energies of GaAs and Al0.2Ga0.8As at 78K are calculated and the energy diagram of the transitions in the Quantum-Dot Infrared Photodetector (QDIP) is given out. The photocurrent signals can be detected up to 110 K, which is state-of-the-art for photovoltaic QDIP. The photovoltaic effect in our detector is a result of the enhanced band asymmetry as we design in the structure.