Atomic-force-microscopy investigation of the formation and evolution of Ge islands on GexSi1-x strained layers

A constant amount of Ge was deposited on strained GexSi1-x layers of approximately the same thickness but with different alloy compositions, ranging from x = 0.06 to x = 0.19. From their atomic-force-microscopy images, we found that both the size and density of Ge islands increased with the Ge composition of the strained layer. By conservation of mass, this implies that these islands must incorporate material from the underlying strained layer. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)03529-4].

The improvement characteristics of homoepitaxial GaAs grown by atomic hydrogen-assisted molecular beam epitaxy

The electrical activity of defects in GaAs grown on GaAs substrates doped with Si and Be by both conventional molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and atomic hydrogen-assisted MBE (H-MBE) were characterized by deep level transient spectroscopy. The trap densities are significantly reduced in the homoepitaxial GaAs grown by H-MBE compared to that grown by MBE. The reduction of trap densities is attributed to in situ passivation of these defects by atomic H during the growth. The improvement characteristics of GaAs materials will be significance for fabrication of semiconductor devices.

Substrate surface atomic structure influence on the growth of InAlAs quantum dots

We have examined the influence of substrate surface orientation on self-assembled InAlAs/AlGaAs quantum dots grown on (0 0 1) and (n 1 1) A/B (n = 3, 5) GaAs substrates by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Preliminary characterizations have been performed using photoluminescence (PL) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The PL emission energies of quantum dots on high Miller index surface are found to be strongly dependent on the atomic-terminated surface (A or B surface) of the substrate. We observed that there were planar ordering larger islands on (3 1 1)B surface compared to (0 0 1) surface, in contrast, a rough interface and smaller "grains" on (3 1 1)A surface, this result is identical with PL emission energy from these islands. We propose that the rapid strain-induced surface "roughening" impedes the formation of 3D islands on A surface, and indicating that this is a promising approach of the realization of ordering distribution on (3 1 1)B plane for devices such as red-emitting semiconductor quantum dots lasers. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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.

Characterization of self-organized InAs/GaAs quantum dots under strain-induced and temperature-controlled nucleation mechanisms by atomic force microscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy

Atomic force microscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) has been used to study asymmetric bilayer InAs quantum dot (QD) structures grow by molecular-beam epitaxy on GaAs (001) substrates. The two InAs layers were separated by a 7-nm-thick GaAs spacer layer and were grown at different substrate temperature. We took advantage of the intrinsic nonuniformity of the molecular beams to grow the seed layer with an average InAs coverage of 2.0 ML. Then the seed layer thickness could be divided into three areas: below, around and above the critical thickness of the 2D-3D transition along the 11101 direction of the substrate. Correspondingly, the nucleation mechanisms of the upper InAs layer (UIL) could be also divided into three areas: temperature-controlled, competition between temperature-controlled and strain-induced, and strain-induced (template-controlled) nucleation. Small quantum dots (QDs) with a large density around 5 x 10(10) cm(-2) are found in the temperature-controlled nucleation area. The QD size distributions undergo a bimodal to a unimodal transition with decreasing QD densities in the strain-induced nucleation area, where the QD densities vary following that of the seed layer (templating effect). The optimum QD density with the UIL thickness fixed at 2.4 ML is shown to be around 1.5 x 10(10) cm(-2), for which the QD size distribution is unimodal and PL emission peaks at the longest wavelength. The QDs in the in-between area exhibit a broad size distribution with small QDs and strain-induced large QDs coexisting.

Interactions of three dual-dressing effects of four-wave mixing in a five-level atomic system

We study the four-wave mixing (FWM) in an opening five-level system with two dressing fields. There are three kinds of doubly dressing mechanisms (parallel cascade, sequential cascade, and nested cascade) in the system for doubly dressed four-wave mixing. These mechanisms reflect different correlations between two dressing fields and different effects of two dressing fields to the FWM. Investigation of these mechanisms is helpful to understand the generated high-order nonlinear optical signal dressed by multi-fields.

Dressed multi-wave mixing in a V-type four-level atomic system

The dressed four- and six-wave mixings in a V-type four-level system are considered. Under two different dressed conditions, two- and three-photon resonant Autler-Townes splittings, accompanied by enhancement and suppression of wave mixing signal, are obtained analytically. Meanwhile, an electromagnetic induced transparency of multi-wave mixing is presented, which shows multiple peaks and asymmetric effects caused by one-photon, two-photon and three-photon resonances, separately. The slow light propagation multiple region of multi-wave mixing signal is also obtained.

INVESTIGATION OF POROUS SILICON BY SCANNING-TUNNELING-MICROSCOPY AND ATOMIC-FORCE MICROSCOPY

The size and distribution of surface features of porous silicon layers have been investigated by scanning tunneling and atomic force microscopy. Pores and hillocks down to 1-2 nm size were observed, with their shape and distribution on the sample surface being influenced by crystallographic effects. The local density of electronic states show a strong increase above 2 eV, in agreement with recent theoretical predictions.

A Compact Direct Digital Frequency Synthesizer for the Rubidium Atomic Frequency Standard

A compact direct digital frequency synthesizer （DDFS） for system-on-chip implementation of the high precision rubidium atomic frequency standard is developed. For small chip size and low power consumption, the phase to sine mapping data is compressed using sine symmetry technique, sine-phase difference technique, quad line approximation technique,and quantization and error read only memory （QE-ROM） technique. The ROM size is reduced by 98% using these techniques. A compact DDFS chip with 32bit phase storage depth and a 10bit on-chip digital to analog converter has been successfully implemented using a standard 0.35μm CMOS process. The core area of the DDFS is 1.6mm^2. It consumes 167mW at 3.3V,and its spurious free dynamic range is 61dB.