Effect of rapid thermal annealing on electron emission and DX centers in strained InGaAs/GaAs single quantum well laser diodes

nThermal processing of strained ln(0.2)Ga(0.8)As/GaAs graded-index separate confinement heterostructure single quantum well laser diodes grown by molecular beam epitaxy is investigated. It was found that rapid thermal annealing can improve the 77 K photoluminescence efficiency and electron emission from the active layer, due to removal of nonradiative centers from the InGaAs/GaAs interface. Because of the interdiffusion of Al and Ga atoms, rapid thermal annealing increases simultaneously the density of DX centers in the AlGaAs graded layer. The current stressing experiments of post-growth and annealed laser diodes are indicative of a corresponding increase in the concentration of DX centers, suggesting that DX centers may be responsible for the degradation of laser diode performance.

Effects of annealing time and Si cap layer thickness on the Si/SiGe/Si heterostructures thermal stability

The effects of annealing time and Si cap layer thickness: on the thermal stability of the Si/SiGe/Si heterostructures deposited by disilane and solid-Ge molecule beam epitaxy were investigated. It is found that in the same strain state of the SiGe layers the annealing time decreases with increasing Si cap layer thickness. This effect is analyzed by a force-balance theory and an equation has been obtained to characterize the relation between the annealing time and the Si cap layer thickness. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

In situ annealing treatment and In-doping of GaN epilayers grown by MOVPE

The effects of in situ annealing treatment in the initial growth stage and In-doping during growth of the GaN on the material properties were investigated. GaN was grown by LP-MOVPE. In situ annealing reduced the full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of X-ray rocking curves and reduced etch pit density of GaN films. It improved the optical properties of the epilayer. Undoped and In-doped GaN films of initial growth stage were investigated. It was found that morphology and optical properties were improved in In-doped samples. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Strain-induced morphological evolution and preferential interdiffusion in SiGe epitaxial film on Si(100) during high-temperature annealing

Strain relaxation in initially flat SiGe film on Si(1 0 0) during rapid thermal annealing is studied. The surface roughens after high-temperature annealing, which has been attributed to the intrinsic strain in the epilayers. It is interesting to find that high-temperature annealing also results in roughened interface, indicating the occurrence of preferential interdiffusion. It is suggested that the roughening at the surface makes the intrinsic strain in the epilayer as well as the substrate unequally distributed, causing preferential interdiffusion at the SiGe/Si interface during high-temperature annealing. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Charge-sensitive deep level transient spectroscopy of helium-ion-irradiated silicon, as-irradiated and after thermal annealing

Electrically active defects in the phosphor-doped single-crystal silicon, induced by helium-ion irradiation under thermal annealing, have been investigated. Isothermal charge-sensitive deep-level transient spectroscopy was employed to study the activation energy and capture cross-section of helium-induced defects in silicon samples. It was shown that the activation energy levels produced by helium-ion irradiation first increased with increasing annealing temperature, with the maximum value of the activation energy occurring at 873K, and reduced with further increase of the annealing temperature. The energy levels of defects in the samples annealed at 873 and 1073K are found to be located near the mid-forbidden energy gap level so that they can act as thermally stable carrier recombination centres.

Formation of Au nanoparticles in sapphire by using Ar ion implantation and thermal annealing

In this paper, we present results of the synthesis of gold nanoclusters in sapphire, using Ar ion implantation and annealing in air. Unlike the conventional method of Au implantation followed by thermal annealing, Au was deposited on the surface of m- and a- cut sapphire single crystal samples including those pre-implanted with Ar ions. Au atoms were brought into the substrate by subsequent implantation of Ar ions to form Au nanoparticles. Samples were finally annealed stepwisely in air at temperatures ranging from 400 to 800 C and then studied using UV–vis absorption spectrometry, transmission electron microscopy and Rutherford backscattered spectrometry. Evidence of the formation Au nanoparticles...

The influence of the microstructure evolution on the surface morphology in the annealing process of helium-implanted spinel

Single-crystalline spinel (MgAl2O4) specimens were implanted with helium ions of 100 keV at three successively increasing fluences of (0.5, 2.0 and 8.0) x 10(16) ions/cm(2) at room temperature. The specimens were subsequently annealed in vacuum at different temperatures ranging from 500 to 1100 degrees C. Different techniques, including Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermal desorption spectrometry (TDS), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to investigate the specimens, It was found that the absorbance peak in the FTIR due to the stretching vibration of the Al-O bond shifts to smaller wave numbers with increasing fluence, shifting back to larger wave numbers with an increase of annealing temperature. The absorbance peak shift has a linear relationship with the fluence increase in the as-implanted state, while it does not have a linear relationship with the fluence increase after the annealing process. Surface deformation occurred in the specimens implanted with fluences of 2.0 and 8.0 x 10(16) ions/cm(2) in the annealing process. The phenomena described above can be attributed to differences in defect formation in the specimens. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.