Rapid photoluminescence quenching in GaInNAs quantum wells at low temperature

Temperature dependence of optical properties of GaInNAs/GaAs quantum wells (QWs) has been studied by photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved PL. A rapid PL quenching is observed even at very low temperature and is of the excitation power dependence. These results strongly suggest that the non-radiative recombination process plays a very important role at low temperature. In the TRPL measurement the shape of the PL decay curve shows significant difference under different excitation powers. It is attributed to the different involvement of non-radiative recombination in the overall recombination process. The TRPL data are well fitted with the rate equation involving both the radiative and non-radiative recombination. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Pressure dependence of the near-band-edge photoluminescence from ZnO microrods at low temperature

The temperature and pressure dependences of band-edge photo luminescence from ZnO microrods have been investigated. The energy separation between the free exciton (FX) and its first order phonon replica (FX-1LO) decreases at a rate of k(B)T with increasing temperature. The intensity ratio of the FX-1LO to the bound exciton (BX) emission is found to decrease slightly with increasing pressure. All of the exciton emission peaks show a blue shift with increasing pressure. The pressure coefficient of the FX transition, longitudinal optical (LO) phonon energy, and binding energy of BX are estimated to be 21.4, 0.5, and 0.9 meV/GPa, respectively. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

High-performance 1.55 mu m low-temperature-grown GaAs resonant-cavity-enhanced photodetector

A 1.55 mu m low-temperature-grown GaAs (LT-GaAs) photodetector with a resonant-cavityenhanced structure was designed and fabricated. A LT-GaAs layer grown at 200 degrees C was used as the absorption layer. Twenty- and fifteen-pair GaAs/AlAs-distributed Bragg reflectors were grown as the bottom and top mirrors. A responsivity of 7.1 mA/W with a full width at half maximum of 4 nm was obtained at 1.61 mu m. The dark current densities are 1.28x10(-7) A/cm(2) at the bias of 0 V and 3.5x10(-5) A/cm(2) at the reverse bias of 4.0 V. The transient response measurement showed that the photocarrier lifetime in LT-GaAs is 220 fs. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.

Experimental investigation of intracavity absorber low temperature GaAs in diode-pumped Nd : GdVO4 laser

A passively Q-switched and mode-locked diode-pumped Nd:GdVO4 laser was demonstrated using a low-temperature-grown GaAs wafer (LT-GaAs) as an intracavity saturable absorber. The maximal Q-switched mode-locked average output power was 750 mW with the Q-switched envelop having a repetition rate of 167 kHz. The mode-locked pulse trains inside the Q-switched pulse envelope had a repetition rate of similar to 790 MHz.

GaAs absorber grown at low temperature used in passively Q-switched diode pumped solid state laser

We report, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, on a passively Q-switched Nd:YVO4 laser with a GaAs absorber grown at low temperature (LT) by metal organic vapor phase expitaxy. Using the LT GaAs absorber as well as an output coupler, a passively Q-switched laser whose pulse duration is as short as 90 ns, was obtained.

Crack control in GaN grown on silicon (111) using In doped low-temperature AlGaN interlayer by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

The effects of In doped low-temperature (LT) AlGaN interlayer on the properties of GaN/Si(111) by MOCVD have been investigated. Using In doping LT-interlayer can decrease the stress sufficiently for avoiding crack formation in a thick (2.0 mu m) GaN layer. Significant improvement in the crystal and optical properties of GaN layer is also achieved. In doping is observed to reduce the stress in AlGaN interlayer measured by high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD). It can provide more compressive stress to counteract tensile stress and reduce crack density in subsequent GaN layer. Moreover, as a surfactant, indium is observed to cause an enhanced PL intensity and the narrowed linewidths of PL and XRD spectra for the LT-interlayer. Additionally, the crystal quality of GaN layer is found to be dependent on the growth parameters of underneath In-doped LT-AlGaN interlayer. The optimal parameters, such as TMIn flow rate, TMAl flow rates and thickness, are achieved to obtain nearly 2.0 mu m thick crack free GaN film with advanced optical and crystal properties. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Q-switched and mode-locked diode-pumped Nd : GdVO4 laser with low temperature GaAs saturable absorber

Low temperature GaAs (LT-GaAs) was successfully grown at the temperature of 550 degrees C by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy on a semi-insular GaAs substrate. With such an absorber as well as an output coupler we obtain Q-switched mode-locked (QML) 1064 nm Nd:GdVO4 laser pumped by diode laser with high repetition rate, formed with a simple flat-flat cavity. The repetition rate of the Q-switched envelope increased from 100 to 660 kHz as the pump power increased from 2.28 to 7.29 W. The mode-locked pulses inside the Q-switched pulse envelope had a repetition rate of similar to 1.36 GHz. A maximum average output power of 953 mW was obtained. The dependence of the operational parameters on the pump power was also investigated experimentally. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Influence of the cavity on the low-temperature photoluminescence of SiGe/Si multiquantum wells grown on a silicon-on-insulator substrate

The influences of the cavity on the low-temperature photoluminescence of Si0.59Ge0.41/Si multiquantum wells grown on silicon-on-insulator substrates are discussed. The positions of the modulated photoluminescence (PL) peaks not only relate to the nature of SiGe/Si multiquantum wells, but also relate to the characteristic of the cavity. With increasing temperature, a redshift of the modulated PL peak originating from the thermo-optical effect of the cavity is observed.

Effect of a low-temperature thin buffer layer on the strain accommodation of In0.25Ga0.75As grown on a GaAs(001) substrate

Various low-temperature (LT) ultra-thin buffer layers have been fabricated on the GaAs (001) substrate. The buffer layer is decoupled from the host substrate by introducing low-temperature defects. The 400 nm In0.25Ga0.75As films were grown on these substrates to test the 'compliant' effects of the buffer layers. Atomic force microscopy, photoluminescence, double crystal x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy were used to estimate the quality of the ln(0.25)Ga(0.75)As layer. The measurements indicated that the misfit strains in the epilayer can be accommodated by the LT ultra-thin buffer layer. The strain accommodation effects of the LT defects have been discussed in detail.

Structure characteristics of InGaN quantum dots fabricated by passivation and low temperature method

Passivation and low temperature method was carried out to grow InGaN/GaN quantum dots (QDs). Atomic force microscope observations were performed to investigate the evolution of the surface morphology of the InGaN QDs superlattices with increasing the superlattices layer number. The result shows that the size of the QDs increases with increasing superlattices layer number. The QDs height and diameter increase from 18 and 50 run for the monolayer InGaN QDs to 37 and 80 urn for the four-stacked InGaN QDs layers, respectively. This result is considered to be due to the stress field from the sub-layer dots. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Structural and optical properties of InAlGaN films grown directly on low-temperature buffer layer with (0001)sapphire substrate

Quaternary InAlGaN film has been grown directly on top of low-temperature-deposited GaN buffer layer by low-pressure metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. High-resolution X-ray diffraction and photoluminescence (PL) results show that the film has good crystal quality and optical property. Temperature-dependent PL and time-resolved PL (TRPL) have been employed to study the carriers recombination dynamics in the film. The TRPL signals can be well fitted as a stretched exponential function exp[-(t/tau)(beta)] from 14 to 250 K, indicating that the emission is attributed to the radiative recombination of excitons localized in disorder quantum nanostructures such as quantum disks originating from indium (In) clusters or In composition fluctuation. The cross-sectional high-resolution electron microscopy measurement further proves that there exist the disorder quantum nanostructures in the quaternary. By investigating the dependence of the exponential parameter beta on the temperature, it is shown that the multiple trapping-detrapping mechanism dominates the diffusion among the localized states. The localized states are considered to have two-dimensional density of states (DOS) at 250 K, since radiative recombination lifetime tau(r) increases linearly with increasing temperature. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

In0.25Ga0.75As growth on low-temperature thin buffer layers formed on GaAs (001) substrate

High-quality In0.25Ga0.75As films were grown on low-temperature (LT) ultra-thin GaAs buffer layers formed on GaAs (0 0 1) substrate by molecular beam epitaxy. The epilayers were studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM), photo luminescence (PL) and double crystal X-ray diffraction (DCXRD), All the measurements indicated that LT thin buffer layer technique is a simple but powerful growth technique for heteroepitaxy. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Raman study of low-temperature-grown Al0.29Ga0.71As/GaAs photorefractive materials

We report on the observation of resonant Raman scattering in low-temperature-grown AlGaAs/GaAs structure. Two kinds of excitation lights, 632.8 and 488 nm laser lines, were used to detect scattering signal from different regions based on different penetration depths. Under the outgoing resonant condition, up to fourth-order resonant Raman peaks were observed in the low-temperature-grown AlGaAs alloy, owing to a broad exciton luminescence in low-temperature-grown AlGaAs alloy induced by intrinsic defects and As cluster after post-annealing. These resonant peaks were assigned according to their fundamental modes. Among the resonant peaks, besides the overtones of the GaAs- or AlAs-like mode, there exist combination bands of these two kinds of modes. In addition, a weak scattering peak similar to the bulk GaAs longitudinal optical mode was observed in low-temperature Raman experiments. We consider the weak signal correlated with GaAs clusters appearing in AlGaAs alloys. The accumulation of GaAs in AlGaAs alloys was enhanced after annealing at high temperatures. A detailed study of the dependence of vibration modes on measuring temperature and post-annealing conditions is given also. In light of our experiments, it is suggested that a Raman scattering experiment is a sensitive microscopic probe of local disorder and, especially performed at low temperature, is a superior method in detecting and analyzing the weak interaction between phonons and electrons.

Annealing-induced evolution of defects in low-temperature-grown GaAs-related materials

Infrared absorption spectroscopy, optical transient current spectroscopy (OTCS), and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy are used to investigate the annealing induced evolution of defects in low-temperature (LT)-grown GaAs-related materials. Two LT samples of bulk GaAs (sample A) and GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs multiple-quantum-well. (MQW) structure (sample B) were grown at 220 and 320 degreesC on (001) GaAs substrates, respectively. A strong defect-related absorption band has been observed in both as-grown samples A and B. It becomes weaker in samples annealed at temperatures above 600 degreesC. In sample A, annealed in the range of 600-800 degreesC, a large negative decay signal of the optical transient current (OTC) is observed in a certain range of temperature, which distorts deep-level spectra measured by OTCS, making it difficult to identify any deep levels. At annealing temperatures of 600 and 700 degreesC, both As-Ga antisite and small As cluster-related deep levels are identified in sample B. It is found that compared to the As cluster, the As-Ga antisite has a larger activation energy and carrier capture rate. At an annealing temperature of 800 degreesC, the large negative decay signal of the OTC is also observed in sample B. It is argued that this negative decay signal of the OTC is related to large arsenic clusters. For sample B, transient PL spectra have also been measured to study the influence of the, defect evolution on optical properties of LT GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs MQW structures. Our results clearly identify a defect evolution from AS(Ga) antisites to arsenic clusters after annealing.