Resonant tunnelling diodes and high electron mobility transistors integrated on GaAs substrates

A1GaAs/1nGaAs high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) and AlAs/GaAs resonant tunnelling diodes (RTDs) are integrated on GaAs substrates. Molecular beam epitaxy is used to grow the RTD on the HEMT structure. The current-voltage characteristics of the RTD and HEMT are obtained on a two-inch wafer. At room temperature, the peak-valley, current ratio and the peak voltage are about 4.8 and 0.44 V, respectivcly The HEMT is characterized by a, gate length of 1 mu m, a, maximum transconductance of 125 mS/mm, and a threshold voltage of -1.0 V. The current-voltage, characteristics of the series-connected RTDs are presented. Tire current-voltage curves of the parallel connection of one RTD and one HEMT are also presented.

Thermal annealing behaviour of Pt on n-GaN Schottky contacts

The structural evolution and temperature dependence of the Schottky barrier heights of Pt contacts on n-GaN epilayer at various annealing temperatures were investigated extensively by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, x-ray diffraction measurements, Auger electron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and current-voltage measurements. The temperature dependence of the Schottky barrier heights may be attributed to changes of surface morphology of Pt films on the surface and variation of nonstoichiometric defects at the interface vicinity. Experimental results indicated the degradation of Pt contacts on n-GaN above 600 degreesC.

Thermal annealing behaviour of Ni/Au on n-GaN Schottky contacts

The Schottky behaviour of Ni/Au contact on n-GaN was investigated under various annealing conditions by current-voltage (I-V) measurements. A non-linear fitting method was used to extract the contact parameters from the I-V characteristic curves. Experimental results indicate that high quality Schottky contact with a barrier height and ideality factor of 0.86 +/- 0.02 eV and 1.19 +/- 0.02 eV, respectively, can be obtained under 5 min annealing at 600degreesC in N-2 ambience.

Sequential resonant tunnelling through Landau levels in GaAs/AlAs superlattices

Electron transport in heavily-doped GaAs/AlAs superlattices in parallel electric and magnetic fields is reported. The current-voltage (I-V) characteristic exhibited the feature of negative differential velocity (NDV) and high electric field domain effect at different biases. Under strong magnetic fields, sequential resonant tunnelling through Landau levels in the negative differential velocity regime is observed, which are manifested as oscillations in the conductance-voltage characteristics. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

High energy ion implantation enhanced intermixed quantum well structures and their absorption characteristics in passive optical waveguides

We have shown that high energy ion implantation enhanced intermixing (HE-IIEI) technology for quantum well (QW) structures is a powerful technique which can be used to blue shift the band gap energy of a QW structure and therefore decrease its band gap absorption. Room temperature (RT) photoluminescence (PL) and guided-wave transmission measurements have been employed to investigate the amount of blue shift of the band gap energy of an intermixed QW structure and the reduction of band gap absorption, Record large blue shifts in PL peaks of 132 nm for a 4-QW InGaAs/InGaAsP/InP structure have been demonstrated in the intermixed regions of the QW wafers, on whose non-intermixed regions, a shift as small as 5 nm is observed. This feature makes this technology very attractive for selective intermixing in selected areas of an MQW structure. The dramatical reduction in band gap absorption for the InP based MQW structure has been investigated experimentally. It is found that the intensity attenuation for the blue shifted structure is decreased by 242.8 dB/cm for the TE mode and 119 dB/cm for the TM mode with respect to the control samples. Electro-absorption characteristics have also been clearly observed in the intermixed structure. Current-Voltage characteristics were employed to investigate the degradation of the p-n junction in the intermixed region. We have achieved a successful fabrication and operation of Y-junction optical switches (JOS) based on MQW semiconductor optical amplifiers using HE-IIEI technology to fabricate the low loss passive waveguide. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

The effect of interposing nanocrystalline Si(B) P plus layer on the photovoltaic properties of a-Si: H tandem solar cells

Tandem amorphous silicon solar cells have attracted extensive interest because of better performance than single junction counterpart. As n/p junctions play an important role in the current transportation of tandem solar cells, it is important to design and fabricate good n/p junctions.The properties of the n/p junction of amorphous silicon (a-Si) were studied. We investigate the effect of interposing a nanocrystalline p(+) layer between n (top cell) and p (bottom cell) layers of a tandem solar cell. The crystalline volume fraction, the band gap, the conductivity and the grain size of the nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) p(+) layer could be modulated by changing the deposition parameters.Current transport in a-Si based n/p ("tunnel") junctions was investigated by current-voltage measurements. The voltage dependence on the resistance (V/J) of the tandem cells was examined to see if n/p junction was ohmic contact. To study the affection of different doping concentration to the properties of the nc-Si p(+) layers which varied the properties of the tunnel junctions, three nc-Si p(+) film samples were grown, measured and analyzed.

Optical and electrical investigation of low dimensional self-assembled InAs quantum dot field effect transistors

Self-assembled InAs QD dot-in-a-well (DWELL) structures were grown on GaAs substrate by MBE system, and heterojunction modulation-doped field effect transistor (MODFET) was fabricated. The optical properties of the samples show that the photoluminescence of InAs/GaAs self-assembled quantum dot (SAQD) is at 1.265 mu m at 300 K. The temperature-dependence of the abnormal redshift of InAs SAQD wavelength with the increasing temperature was observed, which is closely related with the inhomogeneous size distribution of the InAs quantum dot. According to the electrical measurement, high electric field current-voltage characteristic of the MODFET device were obtained. The embedded InAs QD of the samples can be regard as scattering centers to the vicinity of the channel electrons. The transport property of the electrons in GaAs channel will be modulated by the QD due to the Coulomb interaction. It has been proposed that a MODFET embedded with InAs QDs presents a novel type of field effect photon detector.

The fabrication of GaN-based nanopillar light-emitting diodes

InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well-based light-emitting diode (LED) nanopillar arrays were fabricated using Ni self-assembled nanodots as etching mask. The Ni nanodots were fabricated with a density of 6 x 10(8)-1.5 x 10(9) cm(-2) and a dimension of 100-250 nm with varying Ni thickness and annealing duration time. Then LED nanopillar arrays with diameter of approximately 250 nm and height of 700 nm were fabricated by inductively coupled plasma etching. In comparison to the as-grown LED sample an enhancement by a factor of four of photoluminescence (PL) intensity is achieved for the nanopillars and a blueshift as well as a decrease in full width at half maximum of the PL peak are also observed. The method of additional chemical etching was used to remove the etching-induced damage. Then nano-LED devices were further completed using a planarization approach to deposit p-type electrode on the tips of nanopillars. The current-voltage curves of both nanopillars and planar LED devices are measured for comparison.

Fabrication of Silicon-Based Template-Assisted Nanoelectrode Arrays and Ohmic Contact Properties Investigation

A convenient fabrication technology for large-area, highly-ordered nanoelectrode arrays on silicon substrate has been described here, using porous anodic alumina (PAA) as a template. The ultrathin PAA membranes were anodic oxidized utilizing a two-step anodization method, from Al film evaporated on substrate. The purposes for the use of two-step anodization were, first, improving the regularity of the porous structures, and second reducing the thickness of the membranes to 100 similar to 200 nm we desired. Then the nanoelectrode arrays were obtained by electroless depositing Ni-W alloy into the through pores of PAA membranes, making the alloy isolated by the insulating pore walls and contacting with the silicon substrates at the bottoms of pores. The Ni-W alloy was also electroless deposited at the back surface of silicon to form back electrode. Then ohmic contact properties between silicon and Ni-W alloy were investigated after rapid thermal annealing. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations showed the structure characteristics, and the influence factors of fabrication effect were discussed. The current voltage (I-V) curves revealed the contact properties. After annealing in N-2 at 700 degrees C, good linear property was shown with contact resistance of 33 Omega, which confirmed ohmic contacts between silicon and electrodes. These results presented significant application potential of this technology in nanosize current-injection devices in optoelectronics, microelectronics and bio-medical fields.

BAND-OFFSET OF GAAS-GAINP HETEROJUNCTIONS

N+ GaAs-n GaInP lattice-matched heterostructures, grown by metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy, have been studied by capacitance-voltage, current-voltage and current-temperature techniques. This allowed the determination of the conduction band offset in three different and independent ways. The value obtained (0.24-0.25 eV) has been verified by photoluminescence and photoluminescence excitation on a 90 angstrom thick GaAs well in GaInP grown under the same conditions.

ELECTRON-TRANSPORT THROUGH GAALAS BARRIERS IN GAAS

We have analyzed electronic transport through a single, 200-angstrom-thick, Ga0.74Al0.36As barrier embedded in GaAs. At low temperatures and high electric field, the Fowler-Nordheim regime is observed, indicating that the barrier acts as insulating layers. At higher temperatures the thermionic regime provides an apparent barrier height, decreasing with the field, which is equal to the expected band offset when extrapolated to zero field. However, for some samples, the current is dominated by the presence of electron traps located in the barrier. A careful analysis of the temperature and field behavior of this current allows to deduce that the mechanism involved is field-enhanced emission from electron traps. The defects responsible are tentatively identified as DX centers, resulting from the contamination of the barrier by donor impurities.

Temperature dependence of the low-field mobility of a very narrow miniband in the degenerate case

Perpendicular transport in a specially designed, doped and weakly coupled GaAs/AlAs superlattice is investigated. A linear current-voltage at a bias within +/-10 mV and a negative differential velocity effect at a bias of about +/-40 mV are observed at low temperatures. The miniband conductance near zero electric field is studied as a function of temperature. It is found that the measured conductance increases slightly as the temperature increases to about 30 K, decreases as the temperature rises from 30 K to 70 K, and then increases strongly above 70 K, indicating the existence of a mobility gap.

Influence of annealed ohmic contact metals on electron mobility of strained AlGaN/GaN heterostructures

The influence of annealed ohmic contact metals on the electron mobility of a two dimensional electron gas (2DEG) is investigated on ungated AlGaN/GaN heterostructures and AlGaN/GaN heterostructure field effect transistors (AlGaN/GaN HFETs). Current-voltage (I-V) characteristics for ungated AlGaN/GaN heterostructures and capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics for AlGaN/GaN HFETs are obtained, and the electron mobility for the ungated AlGaN/GaN heterostructure is calculated. It is found that the electron mobility of the 2DEG for the ungated AlGaN/GaN heterostructure is decreased by more than 50% compared with the electron mobility of Hall measurements. We propose that defects are introduced into the AlGaN barrier layer and the strain of the AlGaN barrier layer is changed during the annealing process of the source and drain, causing the decrease in the electron mobility.

Fabrication of an AlAs/In0.53Ga0.47As/InAs Resonant Tunneling Diode on InP Substrate for High-Speed Circuit Applications

A high performance AlAs/In0.53 Ga0.47 As/InAs resonant tunneling diode （RTD） on InP substrate is fabricated by inductively coupled plasma etching. This RTD has a peak-to-valley current ratio （PVCR） of 7. 57 and a peak current density Jp = 39.08kA/cm^2 under forward bias at room temperature. Under reverse bias, the corresponding values are 7.93 and 34.56kA/cm^2 . A resistive cutoff frequency of 18.75GHz is obtained with the effect of a parasitic probe pad and wire. The slightly asymmetrical current-voltage characteristics with a nominally symmetrical structure are also discussed.

Homoepitaxial Growth of 4H-SiC and Ti/4H-SiC SBDs

Homoepitaxial growth of4H-SiC on off-oriented Si-face （0001） 4H-SiC substrates was performed at 1500℃ by using the step controlled Epitaxy. Ti/4H-SiC Schottky barrier diodes （SBDs） with blocking voltage over lkV have been made on an undoped epilayer with 32μm in thick and 2-5 × 10^15 cm^-3 in carrier density. The diode rectification ratio of forward to reverse （defined at ± 1V） is over 107 at room temperature and over 10^2 at 538K. Their electrical characteristics were studied by the current-voltage measurements in the temperature range from 20 to 265 ℃. The ideality factor and Schottky barrier height obtained at room temperature are 1.33 and 0. 905eV, respectively. The SBDs have on-state current density of 150A/cm^2 at a forward voltage drop of about 2.0V. The specific on-resistance for the rectifier is found to be as 7.9mΩ · cm^2 and its variation with temperature is T^2.0.