Effects of In surfactant on the crystalline and photoluminescence properties of GaN nanowiires

GaN nanowires have been grown with and without In as an additional source. The effects of In surfactant on the crystal quality and photoluminescence property of GaN nanowires are reported for the first time. X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, and photoluminescence measurements are employed to analyse the products. The results show that introducing a certain amount of In surfactant during the growth process can improve the crystal quality of the GaN nanowires, and enhance the photolurainescence of them. In addition, the as-prepared GaN nanowires have the advantage of being easy to be separated, which will benefit the subsequent nanodevice fabrication.

Time-resolved photoluminescence of sub-monolayer InGaAs/GaAs quantum-dot-quantum-well heterostructures

Time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) of sub-monolayer (SML) InGaAs/GaAs quantum-dot-quantum-well heterostructures was measured at 5 K for the first time. The radiative lifetime of SML quantum dots (QDs) increases from 500 ps to 800 ps with the increase of the size of QDs, which is related to the small confinement energy of the excitons inside SML QDs and the exciton transfer from smaller QDs to larger ones through tunneling. The rise time of quantum-dot state PL signal strongly depends on the excitation power density. At low excitation power density, the rise time is about 35 ps, the mechanism of carrier capture is dominated by the emission of longitudinal-optical phonons. At high excitation power density, the rise time decreases as the excitation density increases, and Auger process plays an important role in the carrier capture. These results are very useful for understanding the working properties of sub-monolayer quantum-dot devices.

High-quality GaNAs/GaAs quantum wells with light emission up to 1.44 mu m grown by molecular-beam epitaxy

High-quality GaNAs/GaAs quantum wells with high substitutional N concentrations, grown by molecular-beam epitaxy, are demonstrated using a reduced growth rate in a range of 0.125-1 mu m/h. No phase separation is observed and the GaNAs well thickness is limited by the critical thickness. Strong room-temperature photoluminescence with a record long wavelength of 1.44 mu m is obtained from an 18-nm-thick GaN0.06As0.94/GaAs quantum well. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.

Photoluminescence investigation of two-dimensional electron gas in an undoped AlxGa1-xN/GaN heterostructure

Low-temperature photoluminescence measurement is performed on an undoped AlxGa1-xN/GaN heterostructure. Temperature-dependent Hall mobility confirms the formation of two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) near the heterointerface. A weak photoluminescence (PL) peak with the energy of similar to 79meV lower than the free exciton (FE) emission of bulk GaN is related to the radiative recombination between electrons confined in the triangular well and the holes near the flat-band region of GaN. Its identification is supported by the solution of coupled one-dimensional Poisson and Schrodinger equations. When the temperature increases, the red shift of the 2DEG related emission peak is slower than that of the FE peak. The enhanced screening effect coming from the increasing 2DEG concentration and the varying electron distribution at two lowest subbands as a function of temperature account for such behaviour.

Photoluminescence of low-dimensional semiconductor structures under pressure

Photoluminescence of some low-dimensional semiconductor structures has been investigated under pressure. The measured pressure coefficients of In0.55Al0.45 As/Al0.5Ga0.5As quantum dots with average diameter of 26, 52 and 62 nm are 82, 94 and 98 meV/GPa, respectively. It indicates that these quantum dots are type-I dots. On the other hand, the measured pressure coefficient for quantum dots with 7 nm in size is -17meV/GPa, indicating the type-II character. The measured pressure coefficient for Mn emission in ZnS:Mn nanoparticles is -34.6meV/GPa, in agreement with the predication of the crystal field theory. However, the DA emission is nearly independent on pressure, indicating that this emission is related to the surface defects in ZnS host. The measured pressure coefficient of Cu emission in ZnS: Cu nanoparticles is 63.2 meV/GPa. It implies that the acceptor level introduced by Cu ions has some character of shallow level. The measured pressure coefficient of Eu emission in ZnS:Eu nanoparticles is 24.1 mev/GPa, in contrast to the predication of the crystal field theory. It may be due to the strong interaction between the excited state of Eu ions and the conduction band of ZnS host.

Concentration effect of Mn2+ on the photoluminescence of ZnS : Mn nanocrystals

Mn-doped ZnS nanocrystals of about 3 nm diameter were synthesized by a wet chemical method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements showed that the nanocrystals have the structure of cubic zinc blende. The broadening of the XRD lines is indicative of nanomaterials. Room temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectrum of the undoped sample only exhibited a defected-related blue emission band. But for the doped samples, an orange emission from the Mn2+ T-4(1)-(6)A(1) transition was also observed, apart from the blue emission. The peak position (600 nm) of the Mn2+ emission was shifted to longer wavelength compared to that (584 nm) of bulk ZnS:Mn. With the increase of the Mn2+ concentration, the PL of ZnS:Mn was significantly enhanced. The concentration quenching effect was not observed in our experiments. Such PL phenomena were attributed to the absence of Mn2+ pairs in a single ZnS:Mn nanocrystal, considering the nonradiative energy transfer between Mn2+ ions based on the Poisson approximation. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Photoluminescence study of (GaAs1-xSbx/InyGa1-yAs)/GaAs bilayer quantum well grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Photoluminescence study of (GaAs1-xSbx/InyGa1-yAs)/GaAs bilayer quantum wells (BQWs) grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) were carried out. Temperature and excitation power dependent photoluminescence (PL) study indicated that the band alignment of the BQWs is type - II. The origin of the double-peak luminescence was discussed. Under optimized growth conditions, the PL emission wavelength from the BQWs has been extend up to 1.31 mu m with a single peak at room temperature.

Molecular beam epitaxy growth and photoluminescence study of room temperature 1.31 mu m (InyGa1-yAs/GaAs1-x Sb-x)/ GaAs bilayer quantum wells

Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth of (InyGa1-yAs/GaAs1-xSbx)/GaAs bilayer quantum well (BQW) structures has been investigated. It is evidenced by photo luminescence (PL) that a strong blue shift of the PL peak energy of 47 meV with increasing PL excitation power from 0.63 to 20 mW was observed, indicating type II band alignment of the BQW. The emission wavelength at room temperature from (InyGa1-yAs/GaAs1-xSbx)/GaAs BQW is longer (above 1.2 μ m) than that from InGaAs/GaAs and GaAsSb/GaAs SQW structures (1.1 μ m range), while the emission efficiency from the BQW structures is comparable to that of the SQW. Through optimizing growth conditions, we have obtained room temperature 1.31 μ m wavelength emission from the (InyGa1-yAs/GaAs1-xSbx)/GaAs BQW. Our results have proved experimentally that the GaAs-based bilayer (InyGa1-yAs/GaAs1-xSbx)/GaAs quantum well is a useful structure for the fabrication of near-infrared wavelength optoelectronic devices. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Room temperature 1.25 mu m emission from high indium content InxGa1-xAs/GaAs quantum wells grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Long-wavelength high indium content InxGa1-xAs/GaAs single/multi quantum wells (QWs) structures have been successfully grown by molecular beam epitaxy. It is evidenced by X-ray measurements that the critical thickness of the well width of InxGa1-xAs/GaAs QWs with an indium content x of 47.5% can be raised up to 7nm without strain relation. 1.25μ m photoluminescence (PL) emission is obtained from the QWs with narrower full-width at half maximum (FWHM) less than 30meV. Our results are important basements which are useful for further fabricating GaAs-based long-wavelength devices. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Raman scattering and photoluminescence studies of Zn1-xMnxO nanowires via vapor phase growth

In this paper, we investigated the Raman scattering and photoluminescence of Zn1-xMnxO nanowires synthesized by the vapor phase growth. The changes of E-2(High) and A(1(LO)) phonon frequency in Raman spectra indicate that the tensile stress increases while the free carrier concentration decreases with the increase of manganese. The Raman spectra exited by the different lasers exhibit the quantum confinement effect of Zn1-xMnxO nanowires. The photoluminescence spectra reveal that the near band emission is affected by the content of manganese obviously. The values Of I-UV/G decrease distinctly with the manganese increase also demonstrate that more stress introduced with the more substitution of Mn for Zn.

Correlation between Er3+ emission and Si clusters in Erbium-doped a-SiOx : H films

Erbium-doped hydrogenated amorphous silicon suboxide films containing silicon clusters (a-SiOx:H) were prepared. The samples exhibited photoluminescence (PL) peaks at around 750nm and 1.54 mu m, which could be assigned to the electron-hole recombination in silicon clusters and the intra-4f transition in Er3+, respectively. We compared annealing behaviors of Si clusters and Er3+ emission and found that Si clusters emission depends strongly upon crystallinity of Si clusters, whereas Er3+ emission is not sensitive to whether it is Si nanocrystals (nc-Si) or amorphous Si (a-Si) clusters. The erbium-doped a-SiOx:H films containing either a-Si clusters or nc-Si have the same kind of Er3+ -emitting centers. Based on these results, it is concluded that a-Si clusters can play the same role on Er3+ excitation as nc-Si. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abnormal energy dependence of photoluminescence decay time in InGaN epilayer

We employ photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved PL to study exciton localization effect in InGaN epilayers. By measuring the exciton decay time as a, function of the monitored emission energy at different temperatures, we have found unusual behaviour of the energy dependence in the PL decay process. At low temperature, the measured PL decay time increases with the emission energy. It decreases with the emission energy at 200K, and remains nearly constant at the intermediate temperature of 120K. We have studied the dot size effect on the radiative recombination time by calculating the temperature dependence of the exciton recombination lifetime in quantum dots, and have found that the observed behaviour can be well correlated to the exciton localization in quantum dots. This suggestion is further supported by steady state PL results.

Photoluminescence of doped ZnS nanoparticles under hydrostatic pressure

The pressure dependence of the photoluminescence from ZnS : Mn2+, ZnS : Cu2+, and ZnS : Eu2+ nanoparticles were investigated under hydrostatic pressure up to 6 GPa at room temperature. Both the orange emission from the T-4(1) - (6)A(1) transition of Mn2+ ions and the blue emission from the DA pair transition in the ZnS host were observed in the Mn-doped samples. The measured pressure coefficients are -34.3(8) meV/GPa for the Mn-related emission and -3(3) meV/GPa for the DA band, respectively. The emission corresponding to the 4f(6)5d(1) - 4f(7) transition of Eu2+ ions and the emission related to the transition from the conduction band of ZnS to the t(2) level of Cu2+ ions were observed in the Eu- and Cu-doped samples, respectively. The pressure coefficient of the Eu-related emission was found to be 24.1(5) meV/GPa, while that of the Cu-related emission is 63.2(9) meV/GPa. The size dependence of the pressure coefficients for the Mn-related emission was also investigated. The Mn emission shifts to lower energies with increasing pressure and the shift rate (the absolute value of the pressure coefficient) is larger in the ZnS : Mn2+ nanoparticles than in bulk. Moreover, the absolute pressure coefficient increases with the decrease of the particle size. The pressure coefficients calculated based on the crystal field theory are in agreement with the experimental results. (C) 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Optical properties of the E-0+Delta(0) energy level higher than the bandgap of GaAs studied by micro-photoluminescence technique

Using micro-photoluminescence technique, we observed a new photoluminescence peak about 0.348 eV above the bandgap of GaAs (E-0). By analyzing its optical characteristics, we assigned this peak to the nonequilibrium luminescence emission from the E-0 + Delta(0) bandgap in semi-insulated GaAs, which was further verified by Raman results. The observed polarization, excitation power dependence and temperature dependence of the photoluminescence spectra from the E-0 + Delta(0) energy level were very similar to those from the E-0 of GaAs. This mainly resulted from the common conduction band around Gamma(6) that was involved in the two optical transition processes, and indicated that the optical properties of bulk GaAs were mainly determined by the intrinsic properties of the conduction band. Our results demonstrated that the micro-photoluminescence technique is a powerful tool to investigate the high energy states above the fundamental bandgap in semiconductor materials.

Fabrication of ultra-low density and long-wavelength emission InAs quantum dots

By optimizing the molecular beam epitaxy growth conditions of self-organized InAs/GaAs quantum dots (QDs), we obtained an ultra-low density system of InAs QDs (4 x 10(6)cm(-2)). Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy reveals the emission wavelength at room temperature to be longer than 1300 nm with a GaAs capping layer. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.