Carrier lifetime and mobility enhancement in nearly defect-free core-shell nanowires measured using time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy.

We have used transient terahertz photoconductivity measurements to assess the efficacy of two-temperature growth and core-shell encapsulation techniques on the electronic properties of GaAs nanowires. We demonstrate that two-temperature growth of the GaAs core leads to an almost doubling in charge-carrier mobility and a tripling of carrier lifetime. In addition, overcoating the GaAs core with a larger-bandgap material is shown to reduce the density of surface traps by 82%, thereby enhancing the charge conductivity.

Defect-free GaAs/AlGaAs Core-shell nanowires on Si substrates

We report straight and vertically aligned defect-free GaAs nanowires grown on Si(111) substrates by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. By deposition of thin GaAs buffer layers on Si substrates, these nanowires could be grown on the buffer layers with much less stringent conditions as otherwise imposed by epitaxy of III-V compounds on Si. Also, crystal-defect-free GaAs nanowires were grown by using either a two-temperature growth mode consisting of a short initial nucleation step under higher temperature followed by subsequent growth under lower temperature or a rapid growth rate mode with high source flow rate. These two growth modes not only eliminated planar crystallographic defects but also significantly reduced tapering. Core-shell GaAs-AlGaAs nanowires grown by the two-temperature growth mode showed improved optical properties with strong photoluminescence and long carrier life times. © 2011 American Chemical Society.

Defect-assisted sub-bandgap avalanche photodetection in interleaved carrier-depletion silicon waveguide for telecom band

This paper demonstrates on chip sub bandgap detection of light at 1550 nm wavelength using the configuration of interleaved PN junctions along a silicon waveguide. The device operates under reverse bias in a nearly fully depleted mode, thus minimizing the free carrier plasma losses and significantly increases the detection volume at the same time. Furthermore, substantial enhancement in responsivity is observed by the transition from reverse bias to avalanche breakdown regime. The observed high responsivity of up to 7.2 mA/W at 3 V is attributed to defect assisted photogeneration, where the defects are related to the surface and the bulk of the waveguide. © 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.

High efficiency operation of butt joint line-defect-waveguide microlaser in two-dimensional photonic crystal slab

Butt joint line-defect-waveguide microlasers are demonstrated on photonic crystal slabs with airholes in a triangular lattice. Such microlaser is designed to increase the output power from the waveguide edge directly. The output power is remarkably enhanced to 214 times higher by introducing chirped structure in the output waveguide. The lasing mode operates in the linear dispersion region of the output waveguide so that the absorption loss due to the band-edge effect is reduced. The laser resonance is illustrated theoretically using the finite difference time domain method. A practical high power efficiency of 20% is obtained in this microlaser. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.

An evidence of defect gettering in GaN

The effect of Neon ion implantation on the structural and optical properties of MOCVD grown GaN was studied. X-ray diffraction and low temperature photoluminescence measurements were carried out on the implanted samples annealed at 900 degrees C. The peak at 3.41 eV exhibited an interesting behavior in as-grown and the implanted samples. Annealing has enhanced the intensity of this peak in as-grown samples, but suppressed in all the implanted samples. Capturing of defects by cavities during gettering process is interpreted as the reason for the observed behavior of this luminescence peak. Implantation dose of 5 x 10(15) ions/cm(2) caused the complete quenching of yellow band luminescence. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A ministop band in a single-defect photonic crystal waveguide based on silicon on insulator

This paper reports that a two-dimensional single-defect photonic crystal waveguide in the F-K direction with triangular lattice on a silicon-on-insulator substrate is fabricated by the combination of electron beam lithography and inductively coupled plasma etching. A ministop band (MSB) is observed by the measurement of transmission characteristics. It results from the coupling between the two modes with the same symmetry, which is analysed from the stimulated band diagram by the effective index and the two-dimensional plane wave expansion methods. The parameter working on the MSB is the ratio of the radius of air holes to the lattice constant, r/a. It is obtained that the critical r/a value determining the occurrence or disappearance of MSB is 0.36. When r/a is larger than or equal to 0.36, the MSB occurs. However, when r/a is smaller than 0.36, the MSB disappears.

Controlling electronic structures by irradiation in single-walled SiC nanotubes: a first-principles molecular dynamics study

Using first-principles molecular dynamics simulations, the displacement threshold energy and defect configurations are determined in SiC nanotubes. The simulation results reveal that a rich variety of defect structures (vacancies, Stone-Wales defects and antisite defects) are formed with threshold energies from 11 to 64 eV. The threshold energy shows an anisotropic behavior and exhibits a dramatic decrease with decreasing tube diameter. The electronic structure can be altered by the defects formed by irradiation, which suggests that the electron irradiation may be a way to use defect engineering to tailor electronic properties of SiC nanotubes.

Defect evolution and accompanied change of electrical properties during the GaN growth by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

The defect evolution and its correlation with electrical properties of GaN films grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition are investigated. It is found that the dislocation density decreases gradually during the growth process, and the dislocation reduction rate in the island coalescence process is especially rapid. The changes in electron mobility of GaN with the increase of growth time are mainly dependent on the dislocations acting as scattering centers. Furthermore, the variation of carrier concentration in GaN may be related with the point defects and their clusters. The quality of GaN could be improved by suitably increasing the film thickness. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Annealing ambient controlled deep defect formation in InP

Deep defects in annealed InP have been investigated by deep level transient capacitance spectroscopy (DLTS), photo induced current transient spectroscopy (PICTS) and thermally stimulated current spectroscopy (TSC). Both DLTS results of annealed semiconducting InP and PICTS and TSC results of annealed semi-insulating InP indicate that InP annealed in phosphorus ambient has five defects, while lid? annealed in iron phospbide ambient has two defects. Such a defect formation phenomenon is explained in terms of defect suppression by the iron atom diffusion process. The correlation of the defects and the nature of the defects in annealed InP are discussed based on the results.

Two-dimensional photonic band-gap defect modes with deformed lattice

A numerical study of the defect modes in two-dimensional photonic crystals with deformed triangular lattice is presented by using the supercell method and the finite-difference time-domain method. We find the stretch or shrink of the lattice can bring the change not only on the frequencies of the defect modes but also on their magnetic field distributions. We obtain the separation of the doubly degenerate dipole modes with the change of the lattice and find that both the stretch and the shrink of the lattice can make the dipole modes separate large enough to realize the single-mode emission. These results may be advantageous to the manufacture of photonic crystal lasers and provide a new way to realize the single-mode operation in photonic crystal lasers.

Chemical trends of defect formation in Si quantum dots: The case of group-III and group-V dopants

Using first-principles methods, we have systematically calculated the defect formation energies and transition energy levels of group-III and group-V impurities doped in H passivated Si quantum dots (QDs) as functions of the QD size. The general chemical trends found in the QDs are similar to that found in bulk Si. We show that defect formation energy and transition energy level increase when the size of the QD decreases; thus, doping in small Si QDs becomes more difficult. B-Si has the lowest acceptor transition energy level, and it is more stable near the surface than at the center of the H passivated Si QD. On the other hand, P-Si has the smallest donor ionization energy, and it prefers to stay at the interior of the H passivated Si QD. We explained the general chemical trends and the dependence on the QD size in terms of the atomic chemical potentials and quantum confinement effects.