Femtosecond laser induced breakdown spectroscopy of air-methane mixtures

Femtosecond laser pulses are used in order to induce dielectric breakdown in gaseous mixtures, namely in some reactive air-methane mixtures. The light emitted from the laser induced plasma was analyzed while the main emission features are identified and assigned. From the analysis of the emission spectra, a linear relationship was found to hold between the intensity of some spectral features and methane content. Finally, the use of femtosecond laser induced breakdown as a tool for the in situ determination of the composition of gaseous mixtures (e.g., equivalence ratio) is also discussed. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Femtosecond laser induced breakdown for combustion diagnostics

The focused beam of a 100 fs, 800 nm laser is used to induce a spark in some laminar premixed air-methane flames operating with variable fuel content (equivalence ratio). The analysis of the light escaping from the plasma revealed that the Balmer hydrogen lines, H α and H β, and some molecular origin emissions were the most prominent spectral features, while the CN (B 2Σ +-X 2Σ +) band intensity was found to depend linearly with methane content, suggesting that femtosecond laser induced breakdown spectroscopy can be a useful tool for the in-situ determination and local mapping of fuel content in hydrocarbon-air combustible mixtures. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.

Growth of Potamageton maackianus under low-light stress in eutrophic water

Decline of submersed macrophytes in Lake Donghu of China with the progress of eutrophication is assumedly due to low light stress by algae blooming. I conducted a laboratory experiment to study the impact of low-light stress on the growth of Potamogeton maackianus A. Been, a dominant submersed macrophyte of the lake before the 1970s. Plants were grown for six weeks in aquaria with Lake Donghu sediment and enriched water. Light delivered to aquaria was adjusted to simulate the typical Lake Donghu light intensities that exist at several water depths from 0.6m to 1.7m. Biomass growth of the plant was inversely related to light intensity at the simulated depths of greater than or equal to 1.0m (r = 0.96, p < 0.05, n=6) and was negative at the depths of greater than or equal to 1.4m. These results indicate that photosynthetic light saturation and compensation points of the plant in Lake Donghu should be ca. 0,9m and ca. 1.5m depths, respectively. Chlorophyll content, growth of main shoot, total shoot lengths and density of the plant all peaked at 1.2-1.3m simulated depths. These results indicate that P. maackianus responds to low light stress primarily by elongation of shoots, and increase of density. Its biomass growth and nutrient uptake rate did not correlate with the accelerated shoot growth. Below the light intensities of water deeper than 1.2-1.3m, shoot growth rate decreased. The flexible tolerant strategy of P. maackianus to low-light stress suggests that the disappearance of this plant from the lake was not mainly due to eutrophication-induced low-light stress.

Effect of surface treatment of GaN based light emitting diode wafers on the leakage current of light emitting diode devices

To form low-resistance Ohmic contact to p-type GaN, InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well light emitting diode wafers are treated with boiled aqua regia prior to Ni/Au (5 nm/5 nm) film deposition. The surface morphology of wafers and the current-voltage characteristics of fabricated light emitting diode devices are investigated. It is shown that surface treatment with boiled aqua regia could effectively remove oxide from the surface of the p-GaN layer, and reveal defect-pits whose density is almost the same as the screw dislocation density estimated by x-ray rocking curve measurement. It suggests that the metal atoms of the Ni/Au transparent electrode of light emitting diode devices may diffuse into the p-GaN layer along threading dislocation lines and form additional leakage current channels. Therefore, the surface treatment time with boiled aqua regia should not be too long so as to avoid the increase of threading dislocation-induced leakage current and the degradation of electrical properties of light emitting diodes

Fabrication and optical characterization of GaN-based nanopillar light emitting diodes

InGaN/GaN-multiple-quantum-well-based light emitting diode ( LED) nanopillar arrays with a diameter of approximately 200nm and a height of 700nm are fabricated by inductively coupled plasma etching using Ni self-assembled nanodots as etching mask. In comparison to the as-grown LED sample an enhancement by a factor of four of photoluminescence ( PL) intensity is achieved after the fabrication of nanopillars, and a blue shift and a decrease of full width at half maximum of the PL peak are observed. The method of additional wet etching with different chemical solutions is used to remove the etch-induced damage. The result shows that the dilute HCl ( HCl:H2O=1:1) treatment is the most effective. The PL intensity of nanopillar LEDs after such a treatment is about 3.5 times stronger than that before treatment.

Well-width dependence of in-plane optical anisotropy in (001) GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells induced by in-plane uniaxial strain and interface asymmetry

The well-width dependence of in-plane optical anisotropy (IPOA) in (001) GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs quantum wells induced by in-plane uniaxial strain and interface asymmetry has been studied comprehensively. Theoretical calculations show that the IPOA induced by in-plane uniaxial strain and interface asymmetry exhibits much different well-width dependence. The strain-induced IPOA is inversely proportional to the energy spacing between heavy- and light-hole subbands, so it increases with the well width. However, the interface-related IPOA is mainly determined by the probability that the heavy- and light-holes appear at the interfaces, so it decreases with the well width. Reflectance difference spectroscopy has been carried out to measure the IPOA of (001) GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs quantum wells with different well widths. Strain- and interface-induced IPOA have been distinguished by using a stress apparatus, and good agreement with the theoretical prediction is obtained. The anisotropic interface potential parameters are also determined. In addition, the energy shift between the interface- and strain-induced 1H1E reflectance difference (RD) structures, and the deviation of the 1L1E RD signal away from the prediction of the calculation model have been discussed.

Study on Frequency Coherence Properties of Light Beams

This paper presents a new concept of frequency coherence in the frequency-time domain to describe the field correlations between two lightwaves with different frequencies. The coherence properties of the modulated beams from lightwave sources with different spectral widths and the modes of Fabry-Wrot (FP) laser are investigated. It is shown that the lightwave and its corresponding sidebands produced by the optical intensity modulation are perfectly coherent. The measured linewidth of the beat signal is narrow and almost identical no matter how wide the spectral width of the beam is. The frequency spacing of the adjacent FP modes is beyond the operation frequency range of the measurement instruments. In our experiment, optical heterodyne technique is used to investigate the frequency coherence of the modes of FP laser by means of the frequency shift induced by the optical intensity modulation. Experiments show that the FP modes are partially coherent and the mode spacing is relatively fixed even when the wavelength changes with ambient temperature, bias current and other factors. Therefore, it is possible to generate stable and narrow-linewidth signals at frequencies corresponding to several mode intervals of the laser.

A wide-narrow well design for understanding the efficiency droop in InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes

The electroluminescence efficiency at room temperature and low temperature (15 K) in a wide-narrow-well InGaN/GaN light-emitting diode with a narrow last well (1.5 nm) and a narrow next-to-last barrier (5 nm) is investigated to study the efficiency droop phenomenon. A reduced droop in the wide wells and a reduced droop at low temperatures reveals that inferior hole transportation ability induced Auger recombination is the root for the droop at high excitation levels.

Improved performance in organic light emitting diodes with a mixed electron donor-acceptor film involved in hole injection

Organic light emitting diodes using a mixed layer of electron acceptor 3, 4, 9, 10 perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride and electron donor copper phthalocyanine (PTCDA:CuPc) on indium tin oxide (ITO) anodes were fabricated. The device properties were found to be strongly dependent on the thickness of the PTCDA:CuPc film: both the power efficiency and the driving voltage of the device were optimized with a thickness of PTCDA:CuPc ranging from 10 to 20 nm. As compared to the conventional ITO/CuPc hole injection structure, the ITO/PTCDA:CuPc hole injection structure could remarkably enhance both the luminance and the power efficiencies of devices. A mechanism of static-induced, very efficient hole-electron pairs generation in mixed PTCDA:CuPc films was proposed to explain the experimental phenomena. The structural and optical properties of PTCDA:CuPc film were examined as well. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.

Observation of electric current induced by optically injected spin current

Linearly polarized light at normal incidence injects a spin current into a strip of two-dimensional electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. The authors report observation of an electric current when such light is shed on the vincinity of the junction in a crossbar-shaped InGaAs/InAlAs quantum well Rashba system. The polarization dependence of this electric current was experimentally observed to be the same as that of the spin current. The authors attribute the observed electric current to the scattering of the optically injected spin current at the crossing. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.

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.

Studies of high DC current induced degradation in III-V nitride based heterojunctions

We report experiments on high de current stressing in commercial III-V nitride based heterojunction light-emitting diodes. Stressing currents ranging from 100 mA to 200 mA were used. Degradations in the device properties were investigated through detailed studies of the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics, electroluminescence, deep-level transient Fourier spectroscopy and flicker noise. Our experimental data demonstrated significant distortions in the I-V characteristics subsequent to electrical stressing. The room temperature electro-luminescence of the devices exhibited a 25% decrement in the peak emission intensity. Concentration of the deep-levels was examined by deep-level transient Fourier spectroscopy, which indicated an increase in the density of deep-traps from 2.7 x 10(13) cm(-3) to 4.2 x 10(13) cm(-3) at E-1 = E-C - 1.1 eV. The result is consistent with our study of 1/f noise, which exhibited up to three orders of magnitude increase in the voltage noise power spectra. These traps are typically located at energy levels beyond the range that can be characterized by conventional techniques including DLTS. The two experiments, therefore, provide a more complete picture of trap generation due to high dc current stressing.

Quantum-well anisotropic forbidden transitions induced by a common-atom interface potential

A prominent effect of the interface potential (IP) [E. L. Ivchenko and A. Yu. Kaminski, Phys. Rev. B 54, 5852 (1996); O. Krebs and P. Voisin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 1829 (1996)], the optical anisotropy of the forbidden transitions in quantum wells has been observed by reflectance-difference spectroscopy. Predictions by the heavy-light-hole coupling IP models are qualitatively consistent with all the observed features of the forbidden and the allowed transitions. The fact that the predicted value of the relative, transition strength, which depends on neither the IP strength nor the electric field, disagrees with the observed one indicates that coupling involving X and/or L bands may also be important. [S0163-1829(99)04227-7].

Dependence of photoluminescence induced by carbon contamination on GeSi structure

We studied the dependence of photoluminescence induced by carbon contamination on the Ge/GeSi structure. It is found that a carbon and silicon defect complex may be formed in a special structure by opening the in situ high-energy electron diffraction test during growth. There is an important difference in the dependence of photoluminescence on the temperature between the defect complex in our samples and in bulk Si. where the impurity-active center is generated by high-energy electron (about several MeV) irradiation. The quenching temperature of the photoluminescence from the impurity-active center is higher in our Ge/GeSi structure than in bulk Si. The defect complex may serve as an impurity-active center for a possible application in making Si-based light-emitting diodes whose wavelength is around 1.3 mu m in the window of optical communication. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Tuning the Exciton Binding Energies in Single Self-Assembled InGaAs/GaAs Quantum Dots by Piezoelectric-Induced Biaxial Stress

We study the effect of an external biaxial stress on the light emission of single InGaAs/GaAs(001) quantum dots placed onto piezoelectric actuators. With increasing compression, the emission blueshifts and the binding energies of the positive trion (X+) and biexciton (XX) relative to the neutral exciton (X) show a monotonic increase. This phenomenon is mainly ascribed to changes in electron and hole localization and it provides a robust method to achieve color coincidence in the emission of X and XX, which is a prerequisite for the possible generation of entangled photon pairs via the recently proposed "time reordering'' scheme.