Noise in gallium nitride-based quantum well structures used for nanometer devices in the frequency range 1 Hz--3 Mhz and temperature range 77K--324K

Electronic noise has been investigated in AlxGa1−x N/GaN Modulation-Doped Field Effect Transistors (MODFETs) of submicron dimensions, grown for us by MBE (Molecular Beam Epitaxy) techniques at Virginia Commonwealth University by Dr. H. Morkoç and coworkers. Some 20 devices were grown on a GaN substrate, four of which have leads bonded to source (S), drain (D), and gate (G) pads, respectively. Conduction takes place in the quasi-2D layer of the junction (xy plane) which is perpendicular to the quantum well (z-direction) of average triangular width ∼3 nm. A non-doped intrinsic buffer layer of ∼5 nm separates the Si-doped donors in the AlxGa1−xN layer from the 2D-transistor plane, which affords a very high electron mobility, thus enabling high-speed devices. Since all contacts (S, D, and G) must reach through the AlxGa1−xN layer to connect internally to the 2D plane, parallel conduction through this layer is a feature of all modulation-doped devices. While the shunting effect may account for no more than a few percent of the current IDS, it is responsible for most excess noise, over and above thermal noise of the device. ^ The excess noise has been analyzed as a sum of Lorentzian spectra and 1/f noise. The Lorentzian noise has been ascribed to trapping of the carriers in the AlxGa1−xN layer. A detailed, multitrapping generation-recombination noise theory is presented, which shows that an exponential relationship exists for the time constants obtained from the spectral components as a function of 1/kT. The trap depths have been obtained from Arrhenius plots of log (τT2) vs. 1000/T. Comparison with previous noise results for GaAs devices shows that: (a) many more trapping levels are present in these nitride-based devices; (b) the traps are deeper (farther below the conduction band) than for GaAs. Furthermore, the magnitude of the noise is strongly dependent on the level of depletion of the AlxGa1−xN donor layer, which can be altered by a negative or positive gate bias VGS. ^ Altogether, these frontier nitride-based devices are promising for bluish light optoelectronic devices and lasers; however, the noise, though well understood, indicates that the purity of the constituent layers should be greatly improved for future technological applications. ^

Focused ion beam manufacturing of magnetic nanostructures

A number of patterning methods including conventional photo-lithography and E-beam lithography have been employed to pattern devices with critical dimensions of submicrometer levels. The methods of device fabrication by lithography and multilevel processing are usually specific to the chemical and physical properties of the etchants and materials used, and require a number of processing steps. As an alternative, focused ion beam (FIB) lithography is a unique and straightforward tool to rapidly develop nanomagnetic prototyping devices. This feature of FIB is critical to conduct the basic study necessary to advance the state-of-the-art in magnetic recording. ^ The dissertation develops a specific design of nanodevices and demonstrates FIB-fabricated stable and reproducible magnetic nanostructures with a critical dimension of about 10 nm. The project included the fabrication of a patterned single and multilayer magnetic media with areal densities beyond 10 Terabit/in 2. Each block had perpendicular or longitudinal magnetic anisotropy and a single domain structure. The purpose was to demonstrate how the ability of FIB to directly etch nanoscale patterns allowed exploring (even in the academic environment) the true physics of various types of nanostructures. ^ Another goal of this study was the investigation of FIB patterned magnetic media with a set of characterization tools: e.g. Spinstand Guzik V2002, magnetic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive system and wavelength dispersive system. ^ In the course of this work, a unique prototype of a record high density patterned magnetic media device capable of 10 terabit/in 2 was built. The read/write testing was performed by a Guzik spinstand. The readback signals were recorded and analyzed by a digital oscilloscope. A number of different configurations for writing and reading information from a magnetic medium were explored. The prototype transducers for this work were fabricated via FIB trimming of different magnetic recording heads. ^