Spin-polarized current produced by a double barrier resonant tunneling diode

The spin-polarized tunneling current through a double barrier resonant tunneling diode (RTD) made with a semimagnetic semiconductor is studied theoretically. The calculated spin-polarized current and polarization degree are in agreement with recent experimental results. It is predicted that the polarization degree can be modulated continuously from + 1 to - 1 by changing the external voltage such that the quasi-confined spin-up and spin-down energy levels shift downwards from the Fermi level to the bottom of the conduction band. The RTD with low potential barrier or the tunneling through the second quasi-confined state produces larger spin-polarized current. Furthermore a higher magnetic field enhances the polarization degree of the tunneling current. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Photoluminescence of Mg-doped GaN grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

Two Mg-doped GaN films with different doping concentrations were grown by a metalorganic chemical vapor deposition technique. Photoluminescence (PL) experiments were carried out to investigate the optical properties of these films. For highly Mg-doped GaN, the PL spectra at 10 K are composed of a blue luminescence (BL) band at 2.857 eV and two excitonic luminescence lines at 3.342 eV and 3.282 eV, in addition to a L2 phonon replica at 3.212 eV. The intensity of the L1 line decreases monotonously with an increase,in temperature. However, the intensity of the L2 line first slowly increases at first, and then decreases quickly with an increase in temperature. The two lines are attributed to bound excitonic emissions at extended defects. The BL band is most likely due to the transition from deep donor Mg-V-N complex to Mg shallow acceptor. From the temperature dependence of the luminescence peak intensity of the BL band, the activation energy of acceptor Mg was found to be 290 meV. (C) 2003 American Vacuum Society.

Violet/blue photoluminescence from CeO2 thin film

CeO2 thin film was fabricated by dual ion beam epitaxial technique. The violet/blue PL at room temperature and lower temperature was observed from the CeO2 thin film. After the analysis of crystal structure and valence in the compound was carried out by the XRD and XPS technique, it was inferred that the origin of CeO2 PL was due to the electrons transition from Ce4f band to O2p band and the defect level to O2p band. And these defects levels were located in the range of 1 eV around Ce4f band.

Time-resolved photoluminescence studies of AlInGaN alloys

We study the two samples of AIInGaN, i.e., 1-mum GaN grown at 1030degreesC on the buffer and followed by a 0.6-mum-thick epilayer of AIInGaN under the low pressure of 76 Torr and the AIInGaN layer deposited directly on the buffer layer without the high-temperature GaN layer, by temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and picosecond time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) spectroscopy. The TRPL signals of both the samples were fitted well as a stretched exponential decay at all temperatures, indicating significant disorder in the material. We attribute the disorder to nanoscale quantum dots or discs of high indium concentration. Temperature dependence of dispersive exponent beta shows that the stretched exponential decay of the two samples comes from different mechanisms. The different depths of the localization potential account for the difference, which is illustrated by the results of temperature dependence of radiative recombination lifetime and PL peak energy.

Abnormal temperature dependence of photoluminescence from self-assembled InAs quantum dots covered by an InAlAs/InGaAs combination layer

In this report we have investigated the temperature dependence of photoluminescence (PL) from self-assembled InAs quantum dots (QDs) covered by an InAlAs/InGaAs combination layer. The ground state experiences an abnormal variation of PL linewidth from 15 K up to room temperature. Meanwhile, the PL integrated intensity ratio of the first excited state to the ground state for InAs QDs unexpectedly decreases with increasing temperature, which we attribute to the phonon bottleneck effect. We believe that these experimental results are closely related to the partially coupled quantum dots system and the large energy separation between the ground and the first excited states. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Structure and photoluminescence study of InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots grown via cycled (InAs)(n)/(GaAs)(n) monolayer deposition

We report the morphology of an InGaAs nanostructure grown by molecular beam epitaxy via cycled (InAs)(n)/(GaAs)(n) monolayer deposition. Atomic force microscopy images clearly show that varying monolayer deposition per cycle has significant influence on the size, density and shape of the InGaAs nanostructure. Low-temperature photoluminescence spectra show the effect of n on the optical quality, and 1.35mum photoluminescence with a linewidth of only 19.2meV at room temperature has been achieved in the (InAs)(1)/(GaAs)(1) structure.

Influence of coupling between Er3+, nc-Si and nonradiative centers on photoluminescence from Er3+-doped nc-Si/SiO2 films

Con-elation between nc-Si, Er3+ and nonradiative defects in Er-doped nc-Si/SiO2 films is studied. Upon the 514.5 run laser excitation, the samples exhibit a nanocrystal-related spectrum centered at around 750 nm and an Er3+ luminescence line at 1.54mum. With increasing Er3+ content in the films,the Er3+ emission becomes intense while the photoluminescence at 750 nm decreases. Hydrogen passivation of the samples is shown to result in increases of the two luminescence peaks. However, the effect of hydrogen treatment is different for the samples annealed at different temperatures. The experimental results show that the coupling between Er3+, nc-Si and noradiative centers has a great influence on photoluminescence from nc-Si/SiO2 < Er > films.

Mode splitting in photoluminescence spectra of a quantum-dot-embedded microcavity

A microcavity structure, containing self-assembled InGaAs quantum dots, is studied by angle-resolved photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. A doublet with the splitting energy of 0.5-1.5 nm appears when the detection angle is larger than 35degrees. This doublet is identified as mode splitting (not the Rabi splitting) by polarization measurements. We find that it is the considerable deviation of the cavity-mode frequency from the central frequency of the stop band that makes the TE and TM cavity modes split more discernibly. The inhomogeneous broadening of quantum dots gives the TE and TM cavity modes a chance to show up simultaneously in the PL spectra. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.

Temperature dependence of photoluminescence of flat and undulated SiGe/Si multiple quantum wells

Photoluminescence (PL) of strained SiGe/Si multiple quantum wells (MQW) with flat and undulated SiGe well layers was studied at different temperature. With elevated temperature from 10K, the no-phonon (NP) peak of the SiGe layers in the flat sample has firstly a blue shift due to the dominant transition converting from bound excitons (BE) to free excitons (FE), and then has a red shift when the temperature is higher than 30K because of the narrowing of the band gap. In the undulated sample, however, monotonous blue shift was observed as the temperature was elevated from 10 K to 287 K. The thermally activated electrons, confined in Si due to type-II band alignment, leak into the SiGe crest regions, and the leakage is enhanced with the elevated temperature. It results in a blue shift of the SiGe luminescence spectra.

Getting high-efficiency photoluminescence from Si nanocrystals in SiO2 matrix

Silicon nanocrystals in SiO2 matrix are fabricated by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition followed by thermal annealing. The structure and photoluminescence (PL) of the resulting films is investigated as a function of deposition temperature. Drastic improvement of PL efficiency up to 12% is achieved when the deposition temperature is reduced from 250 degreesC to room temperature. Low-temperature deposition is found to result in a high quality final structure of the films in which the silicon nanocrystals are nearly strain-free, and the Si/SiO2 interface sharp. The demonstration of the superior structural and optical properties of the films represents an important step towards the development of silicon-based light emitters. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.

Selectively excited photoluminescence of GaAs1-xSbx/GaAs single quantum wells

GaAsSb/GaAs single quantum wells grown by molecular-beam epitaxy are studied by selectively excited photoluminescence measurements. We have simultaneously observed the photoluminescence (PL) from both type-I and type-II transitions in the samples. The two transitions exhibit different PL behavior under different excitation energies. As expected, the peak energy of the type-I emission remains constant in the entire excitation energy range we used, while the type-II transition shows a significant blueshift with increasing excitation energy. The observed blueshift can be well explained by an electron-hole charge separation model at interface. This result, along with the excitation-power-dependent PL and the measured longer carrier decay time, provides more direct information on the type-II nature of the band alignment in GaAsSb/GaAs quantum well structures. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.

Excitonic photoluminescence properties of nanocrystalline GaSb and Ga0.62In0.38Sb embedded in silica films

The GaSb and Ga0.62In0.38Sb nanocrystals were embedded in the SiO2 films by radio-frequency magnetron co-sputtering and were grown on GaSb and Si substrates at different temperatures. We present results on the 10K excitonic photoluminescence (PL) properties of nanocrystalline GaSb and Ga0.62In0.38Sb as a function of their size. The measurements show that the PL of the GaSb and Ga0.62In0.38Sb nanocrystallites follows the quantum confinement model very closely. By using deconvolution of PL spectra, origins of structures in PL were identified. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Photoluminescence from ZnS1-xTex alloys under hydrostatic pressure

ZnS1-xTex (0.02less than or equal toxless than or equal to0.3) alloys are studied by photoluminescence under hydrostatic pressure at room temperature. Only a wide emission band is observed for each sample. Its peak energy is much lower than the corresponding band gap of alloys. These bands are ascribed to the radiative annihilation of excitons bound at Te-n(ngreater than or equal to2) isoelectronic centers. The pressure coefficients of the emission bands are smaller than those of alloy band gaps from 48% to 7%. The difference of the pressure coefficient of the emission band and the band gap increases when the binding energy of Te-n centers decreases. It seems contrary to our expectation and needs further analysis. The integrated intensities of emission bands decrease with increasing pressure due to the decreasing of the absorption coefficient associated with the Te-n centers under pressure. According to this model the Stokes shifts between the emission and absorption bands of the Te-n centers are calculated, which decrease with the increasing Te composition in alloys.

The effects of concomitant In and N incorporation on the photoluminescence of GaInNAs

We investigated the effects of concomitant In- and N-incorporation on the photoluminescence (PL) of GaInNAs grown by molecular beam epitaxy. In comparison with the N-free GaInAs epilayer, the PL spectra of the GaInNAs epilayer exhibit an anomalous S-shape temperature dependence of dominant luminescence peak. Through further careful inspection, two PL peaks are clearly discerned and are associated with the interband excitonic recombinations and excitons bound to N-induced isoelectronic impurity states, respectively. By comparing the PL spectra of GaInNAs/ GaAs quantum wells (QWs) with those of In-free GaNAs/GaAs QWs grown under similar conditions, it is found that the concomitant In- and N-incorporation reduces the density of impurities and has an effect to improve the intrinsic optical transition of GaInNAs, but also enhance the N-induced clustering effects. At last, we found that rapid thermal annealing can significantly reduce the density of N-induced impurities. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Anomalous temperature dependence of photoluminescence in GaInNAs/GaAs multiple quantum wells

Photoluminescence (PL) spectra of GaInNAs/GaAs multiple quantum wells grown on a GaAs substrate by molecular beam epitaxy are measured in a range of temperatures and excitation power densities. The energy position of the dominant PL peak shows an anomalous S-shape temperature dependence instead of the Varshni relation. By careful inspection, especially for the PL under lower excitation power density, two near bandedge peaks are well identified. These are assigned to carriers localized in nitrogen-induced bound states and interband excitonic recombinations, respectively. It is suggested that the temperature-induced switch of such two luminescence peaks in relative intensity causes a significant mechanism responsible for the S-shape shift observed in GaInNAs. A quantitative model based on the thermal depopulation of carriers is used to explain the temperature dependence of the PL peak related to N-induced bound states.