High-indium-content InxGa1-xAs/GaAs quantum wells with emission wavelengths above 1.25 mu m at room temperature

High-indium-content InxGa1-xAs/GaAs single/multi-quantum well (SQW/MQW) structures have been systematically investigated. By optimizing the molecular-beam epitaxy growth conditions, the critical thickness of the strained In0.475Ga0.525As/GaAs QWs is raised to 7 nm, which is much higher than the value given by the Matthews and Blakeslee model. The good crystalline quality of the strained InGaAs/GaAs MQWs is proved by x-ray rocking curves. Photoluminescence measurements show that an emission wavelength of 1.25 mum at room temperatures with narrower full width at half maximum less than 30 meV can be obtained. The strain relaxation mechanism is discussed using the Matthews-Blakeslee model. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.

Luminescence emission originating from nitrogen doping of beta-Ga2O3 nanowires

Nitrogen-doped beta-Ga2O3 nanowires (GaO NWs) were prepared by annealing the as-grown nanowires in an ammonia atmosphere. The optical properties of the nitrogen-doped GaO NWs were studied by measurements of the photoluminescence and phosphorescence decay at the temperature range between 10 and 300 K. The experimental results revealed that nitrogen doping in GaO NWs induced a novel intensive red-light emission around 1.67 eV, with a characteristic decay time around 136 mus at 77 K, much shorter than that of the blue emission (a decay time of 457 mus). The time decay and temperature-dependent luminescence spectra were calculated theoretically based on a donor-acceptor pair model, which is in excellent agreement with the experimental data. This result suggests that the observed novel red-light emission originates from the recombination of an electron trapped on a donor due to oxygen vacancies and a hole trapped on an acceptor due to nitrogen doping.

Large-scale synthesis of single-phase, high-quality GaN nanocrystallites

Large-scale synthesis of high-quality GaN nano-crystallites has been achieved by direct reaction of a 4:1 molar Ga/Ga2O3 mixture with ammonia at 950degreesC. X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, selected-area electron diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy revealed that the produced GaN nanocrystallites were single hexagonal wurtzite structure with an average particle size around 45 nm. A sharp near band edge emission peak and a blue light emission peak were observed in photoluminescence spectroscopy. The synthesis approach is simple and easy to be commercialized.

Fourier series expansion method for gain measurement from amplified spontaneous emission spectra of Fabry-Perot semiconductor lasers

A gain measurement technique, based on Fourier series expansion of periodically extended single fringe of the amplified spontaneous emission spectrum, is proposed for Fabry-Perot semiconductor lasers. The underestimation of gain due to the limited resolution of the measurement system is corrected by a factor related to the system response function. The standard deviations of the gain-reflectivity product under low noise conditions are analyzed for the Fourier series expansion method and compared with those of the Hakki-Paoli method and Cassidy's method. The results show that the Fourier series expansion method is the least sensitive to noise among the three methods. The experiment results obtained by the three methods are also presented and compared.

Photon iterative numerical technique for steady-state simulation of gain-clamped semiconductor optical amplifiers

The photon iterative numerical technique, which chooses the outputs of the amplified spontaneous emission spectrum and lasing mode as iteration variables to solve the rate equations, is proposed and applied to analyse the steady behaviour of conventional semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) and gain-clamped semiconductor optical amplifiers (GCSOAs). Numerical results show that the photon iterative method is a much faster and more efficient algorithm than the conventional approach, which chooses the carrier density distribution of the SOAs as the iterative variable. It is also found that the photon iterative method has almost the same computing efficiency for conventional SOAs and GCSOAs.

GaAs-based room-temperature continuous-wave 1.59 mu m GaInNAsSb single-quantum-well laser diode grown by molecular-beam epitaxy

Starting from the growth of high-quality 1.3 mu m GaInNAs/GaAs quantum well (QW), the QW emission wavelength has been extended up to 1.55 mu m by a combination of lowering growth rate, using GaNAs barriers and incorporating some amount of Sb. The photoluminescence properties of 1.5 mu m range GaInNAsSb/GaNAs QWs are quite comparable to the 1.3 mu m QWs, revealing positive effect of Sb on improving the optical quality of the QWs. A 1.59 mu m lasing of a GaInNAsSb/GaNAs single-QW laser diode is obtained under continuous current injection at room temperature. The threshold current density is 2.6 kA/cm(2) with as-cleaved facet mirrors. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.

Room temperature 1.25 mu m emission from high indium content InxGa1-xAs/GaAs quantum wells grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Long-wavelength high indium content InxGa1-xAs/GaAs single/multi quantum wells (QWs) structures have been successfully grown by molecular beam epitaxy. It is evidenced by X-ray measurements that the critical thickness of the well width of InxGa1-xAs/GaAs QWs with an indium content x of 47.5% can be raised up to 7nm without strain relation. 1.25μ m photoluminescence (PL) emission is obtained from the QWs with narrower full-width at half maximum (FWHM) less than 30meV. Our results are important basements which are useful for further fabricating GaAs-based long-wavelength devices. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Stochastic resonance in single-mode semiconductor lasers

Owing to the considerable virtues of semiconductor lasers for applications, they have become the main optical source for fiber communication systems recently. The behavior of stochastic resonance (SR) in direct-modulated semiconductor laser systems is investigated in this article. Considering the carrier and photon noises and the cross-correlation between the two noises, the power spectrum of the photon density and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the modulated laser system were calculated using the linear approximation method. We found that the SR always appears in the dependence of the SNR upon the bias current density, and is strongly affected by the cross-correlation coefficient of the carrier and photon noises, the frequency of modulation signal and the photon lifetime in the laser cavity. Hence, it is promising to use the SR mechanism to enhance the SNR of direct-modulated semiconductor laser systems and improve the quality of optical communication. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Photon localization and lasing in disordered GaNxAs1-x optical superlattices

We propose an approach to fabricate a disordered optical superlattice using microcracking faces in GaNxAs1-x epilayers. Laser action is observed and the emission exhibits random laser behaviors. A transfer-matrix simulation suggests photon localization occurs at the lasing modes.

Study of optical properties in GaAs1-xSbx/GaAs single quantum wells

GaAsSb/GaAs single quantum wells (SQWs) grown by molecular beam epitaxy are studied by selectively-excited photoluminescence (SEPL) measurement. For the first time, we have simultaneously observed the PL, from both type I and type II transitions in GaAsSb/GaAs heterostructure in the SEPL. The two transitions exhibit different PL, behaviours under different excitation energy. As expected, the peak energy of type I emission remains constant in the whole excitation energy range we used, while type U transition shows a significant blue shift with increasing excitation energy. The observed blue shift is well explained in terms of electron-hole charge separation model at the interface. Time-resolved(TR) PL exhibits more type 11 characteristic of GaAsSb/GaAs QW. Moreover, the results of the excitation-power-dependent PL and TRPL provide more direct information on the type-II nature of the band alignment in GaAsSb/GaAs quantum-well structures. By combining the experimental results with some simple calculations, we have obtained the strained and unstrained valence band offsets of Q(v) = 1.145 and Q(v)(0) = 0. 76 in our samples, respectively.

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.

Operation of the qubit based on photon-assisted tunneling in a coupled quantum-dot system and the influence of dephasing

We derive the generalized rate equation for the coupled quantum-dot (QD) system irradiated by a microwave field in the presence of a quantum point contact. It is shown that when a microwave field is tuned in resonance with the energy difference between the ground states of two QD's, the photon-assisted tunneling occurs and, as a result, the coupled QD system may be used as the single qubit. Furthermore, we show that the oscillating current through the detector decays drastically as the dephasing rate increases, indicating clearly the influence of the dephasing effect induced by the quantum point contact used as a detecting device.

Violet/blue emission from hydrogenated amorphous carbon films deposited from energetic CH3+ ions and ion bombardment

Considering the complexity of the general plasma techniques, pure single CH3+ ion beams were selected for the deposition of hydrogenated amorphous (a) carbon films with various ion energies and temperatures. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements have been performed on the films and violet/blue emission has been observed. The violet/blue emission is attributed to the small size distribution of sp(2) clusters and is related to the intrinsic properties of CH3 terminals, which lead to a very high barrier for the photoexcited electrons. Ion bombardment plays an important role in the PL behavior. This would provide further insight into the growth dynamics of a-C:H films. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.

Photoluminescence properties of a GaN0.015As0.985/GaAs single quantum well under short pulse excitation

Under short pulse laser excitation, we have observed an extra high-energy photoluminescence (PL) emission from GaNAs/GaAs single quantum wells (QWs). It dominates the PL spectra under high excitation and/or at high temperature. By measuring the PL dependence on both temperature and excitation power and by analyzing the time-resolved PL results, we have attributed the PL peak to the recombination of delocalized excitons in QWs. Furthermore, a competition process between localized and delocalized excitons is observed in the temperature-dependent PL spectra under the short pulse excitation. This competition is believed to be responsible for the temperature-induced S-shaped PL shift often observed in the disordered alloy semiconductor system under continuous-wave excitation. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.

Optical properties and band lineup in GaNxAs1-x/GaAs single quantum wells

The optical properties and the band lineup in GaNAs/GaAs single quantum wells (SQWs) grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) using photoluminescence (PL) technique were investigated. It was found that the low-temperature PL is dominated by the intrinsic localized exciton emission. By fitting the experimental datawith a simple calculation, band offset of the GaN0.015As0.985/GaAs heterostructure was estimated. Moreover, DeltaE(c), the discontinuity of the conduction band was found to be a nonlinear function of the nitrogen composition (chi) and the average variation of DeltaE(c) is about 0. 110eV per % N, such smaller than that reported on the literature to (0.156 similar to 0.175 eV/N %). In addition, Qc has little change whtn N composition increares, with an experimential relation of QC approximate tox(0.25). The band bowing coefficient (b) was also studied in this paper. The measured band bowing coefficient shows a strong function of chi, giving an experimental support to the theoretic calculation of Wei Su-Huai and Zunger Alex (1996).