High energy ion implantation enhanced intermixed quantum well structures and their absorption characteristics in passive optical waveguides

We have shown that high energy ion implantation enhanced intermixing (HE-IIEI) technology for quantum well (QW) structures is a powerful technique which can be used to blue shift the band gap energy of a QW structure and therefore decrease its band gap absorption. Room temperature (RT) photoluminescence (PL) and guided-wave transmission measurements have been employed to investigate the amount of blue shift of the band gap energy of an intermixed QW structure and the reduction of band gap absorption, Record large blue shifts in PL peaks of 132 nm for a 4-QW InGaAs/InGaAsP/InP structure have been demonstrated in the intermixed regions of the QW wafers, on whose non-intermixed regions, a shift as small as 5 nm is observed. This feature makes this technology very attractive for selective intermixing in selected areas of an MQW structure. The dramatical reduction in band gap absorption for the InP based MQW structure has been investigated experimentally. It is found that the intensity attenuation for the blue shifted structure is decreased by 242.8 dB/cm for the TE mode and 119 dB/cm for the TM mode with respect to the control samples. Electro-absorption characteristics have also been clearly observed in the intermixed structure. Current-Voltage characteristics were employed to investigate the degradation of the p-n junction in the intermixed region. We have achieved a successful fabrication and operation of Y-junction optical switches (JOS) based on MQW semiconductor optical amplifiers using HE-IIEI technology to fabricate the low loss passive waveguide. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

Low Temperature Deposited Nano-structured Vanadium Oxide Thin Films for Uncooled Infrared Detectors

A novel process of room temperature ion beam sputtering deposition of vanadium oxide films and low temperature post annealing for uncooled infrared detectors was proposed in this work. VOx thin films with relatively low square resistance (70 K Omega / square) and large temperature coefficient of resistance (more than 3%/K) at room temperature were fabricated using this low temperature process which was very compatible with the process of uncooled infrared detectors based on micromachined technology. Furthermore, chemical composition and film surface have been characterized using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) respectively. The results showed that the main composition of the processed thin films was V2O5 and the thin films were in the process of crystallization.

A novel DC-DC charge pump circuit for passive RFID transponder

This paper presents a low-voltage, high performance charge pump circuit suitable for implementation in standard CMOS technologies. The proposed charge pump has been used as a part of the power supply section of fully integrated passive radio frequency identification(RFID) transponder IC, which has been implemented in a 0.35-um CMOS technology with embedded EEPROM offered by Chartered Semiconductor. The proposed DC/DC charge pump can generate stable output for RFID applications with low power dissipation and high pumping efficiency. The analytical model of the voltage multiplier, the comparison with other charge pumps, the simulation results, and the chip testing results are presented.

Intense room temperature near infrared emission from Al (3+) and Yb3+ ions

Intense near infrared emission was observed from Al3+ and Yb3+ ions co-implanted SiO2 film on silicon. It was found that the addition of Al3+ ions could remarkably improve the photoluminescence efficiency of Yb3+-implanted SiO2 film. No excitation power saturation was observed and trivial temperature quenching factor of 2 was achieved.

An Ultra Low Power Non-volatile Memory in Standard CMOS Process for Passive RFID Tags

An ultra low power non-volatile memory is designed in a standard CMOS process for passive RFID tags. The memory can operate in a new low power operating scheme under a wide supply voltage and clock frequency range. In the charge pump circuit the threshold voltage effect of the switch transistor is almost eliminated and the pumping efficiency of the circuit is improved. An ultra low power 192-bit memory with a register array is implemented in a 0.18 mu M standard CMOS process. The measured results indicate that, for the supply voltage of 1.2 volts and the clock frequency of 780KHz, the current consumption of the memory is 1.8 mu A (3.6 mu A) at the read (write) rate of 1.3Mb/s (0.8Kb/s).

On detection wavelength and electron-hole wave function overlap of type II InAs/In-x Ga1-x Sb superlattice infrared photodetector

In this paper, the detection wavelength and the electron-hole wave function overlap of InAs/IrxGa1-xSb type II superlattice photodetectors are numerically calculated by using the envelope function and the transfer matrix methods. The band offset is dealt with by employing the model solid theory, which already takes into account the lattice mismatch between InAs and InxGa1-xSb layers. Firstly, the detection wavelength and the wave function overlap are investigated in dependence on the InAs and InxGa1-xSb layer thicknesses, the In mole fraction, and the periodic number. The results indicate that the detection wavelength increases with increasing In mole fraction, InAs and InxGa1-xSb layer thicknesses, respectively. When increasing the periodic number, the detection wavelength first increases distinctly for small periodic numbers then increases very slightly for large period numbers. Secondly, the wave function overlap diminishes with increasing InAs and InxGa1-xSb layer thicknesses, while it enhances with increasing In mole fraction. The dependence of the wave function overlap on the periodic number shows the same trend as that of the detection wavelength on the periodic number. Moreover, for a constant detection wavelength, the wave function overlap becomes greater when the thickness ratio of the InAs over InxGa1-xSb is larger.

Quantum well infrared photodetector simultaneously working in two atmospheric windows

We have demonstrated a two-contact quantum well infrared photodetector (QWIP) exhibiting simultaneous photoresponse in both the mid- and the long-wavelength atmospheric windows of 3-5 mu m and of 8-12 mu m. The structure of the device was achieved by sequentially growing a mid-wavelength QWIP part followed by a long-wavelength QWIP part separated by an n-doped layer. Compared with the conventional dual-band QWIP device utilizing three ohmic contacts, our QWIP is promising to greatly facilitate two-color focal plane array (FPA) fabrication by reducing the number of the indium bumps per pixel from three to one just like a monochromatic FPA fabrication and to increase the FPA fill factor by reducing one contact per pixel; another advantage may be that this QWIP FPA boasts broadband detection capability in the two atmospheric windows while using only a monochromatic readout integrated circuit. We attributed this simultaneous broadband detection to the different distributions of the total bias voltage between the mid- and long-wavelength QWIP parts.

Two-color quantum well infrared photodetector simultaneously working at 10-14 mu m

We have demonstrated a two-color quantum well infrared photodetector (QWIP) exhibiting simultaneous photoresponse with cutoff wavelengths at 11.8 and 14.5 mu m, respectively. Strong photocurrent signals are observed at temperature of 77 K. The simultaneous two-color photoresponse is achieved by utilizing a simple design by broadening the width of the quantum well and selecting an appropriate doping density. The two peaks are attributed to the intersubband transitions from the ground state to the first excited state (bound state) and to the fifth excited state (continuum state), respectively.

Period Continuous Tuning of an Efficient Mid-Infrared Optical Parametric Oscillator Based on a Fan-out Periodically Poled MgO-Doped Lithium Niobate

We report a period continuously tunable, efficient, mid-infrared optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on a fan-out periodically poled MgO-doped congruent lithium niobate (PPMgLN). The OPO is pumped by a Nd:YAG laser and a maximum idler output average power of 1.65 W at 3.93 mu m is obtained with a pump average power of 10.5 W, corresponding to the conversion efficiency of about 16% from the pump to the idler. The output spectral properties of the OPO with the fan-out crystal are analyzed. The OPO is continuously tuned over 3.78-4.58 mu m (idler) when fan-out periods are changed from 27.0 to 29.4 mu m. Compared with temperature tuning, fan-out period continuous tuning has faster tuning rate and wider tuning range.

Fast Discrimination of Commerical Corn Varieties Based on Near Infrared Spectra

The existing methods for the discrimination of varieties of commodity corn seed are unable to process batch data and speed up identification, and very time consuming and costly. The present paper developed a new approach to the fast discrimination of varieties of commodity corn by means of near infrared spectral data. Firstly, the experiment obtained spectral data of 37 varieties of commodity corn seed with the Fourier transform near infrared spectrometer in the wavenurnber range from 4 000 to 12 000 cm (1). Secondly, the original data were pretreated using statistics method of normalization in order to eliminate noise and improve the efficiency of models. Thirdly, a new way based on sample standard deviation was used to select the characteristic spectral regions, and it can search very different wavenumbers among all wavenumbers and reduce the amount of data in part. Fourthly, principal component analysis (PCA) was used to compress spectral data into several variables, and the cumulate reliabilities of the first ten components were more than 99.98%. Finally, according to the first ten components, recognition models were established based on BPR. For every 25 samples in each variety, 15 samples were randomly selected as the training set. The remaining 10 samples of the same variety were used as the first testing set, and all the 900 samples of the other varieties were used as the second testing set. Calculation results showed that the average correctness recognition rate of the 37 varieties of corn seed was 94.3%. Testing results indicate that the discrimination method had higher precision than the discrimination of various kinds of commodity corn seed. In short, it is feasible to discriminate various varieties of commodity corn seed based on near infrared spectroscopy and BPR.

A New Discrimination Method of Maize Seed Varieties Based on Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

A new discrimination method for the maize seed varieties based on the near-infrared spectroscopy was proposed. The reflectance spectra of maize seeds were obtained by a FT-NIR spectrometer (12 000-4 000 cm(-1)). The original spectra data were preprocessed by first derivative method. Then the principal component analysis (PCA) was used to compress the spectra data. The principal components with the cumulate reliabilities more than 80% were used to build the discrimination models. The model was established by Psi-3 neuron based on biomimetic pattern recognition (BPR). Especially, the parameter of the covering index was proposed to assist to discriminating the variety of a seed sample. The authors tested the discrimination capability of the model through four groups of experiments. There were 10, 18, 26 and 34 varieties training the discrimination models in these experiments, respectively. Additionally, another seven maize varieties and nine wheat varieties were used to test the capability of the models to reject the varieties not participating in training the models. Each group of the experiment was repeated three times by selecting different training samples at random. The correct classification rates of the models in the four-group experiments were above 91. 8%. The correct rejection rates for the varieties not participating in training the models all attained above 95%. Furthermore, the performance of the discrimination models did not change obviously when using the different training samples. The results showed that this discrimination method can not only effectively recognize the maize seed varieties, but also reject the varieties not participating in training the model. It may be practical in the discrimination of maize seed varieties.

LD side-pumped high beam quality passive Q-switched and mode-locked Nd:YAG laser based on SESAM

We report a LD side-pumped fundamental-mode (Mx(2) = 1.35 and My(2) = 1.27) passive Q-switched and mode-locked Nd:YAG laser based on a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM). At a pump current of 12.5 A, the average output power of 5.68 W with 80 kHz repetition rate and 2 mu s pulse width of the Q-switched envelope was generated. The repetition rate of the mode-locked pulse within the Q-switched envelope of 88 MHz was achieved.

A Photovoltaic InAs Quantum-Dot Infrared Photodetector

A photovoltaic quantum dot infrared photodetector with InAs/GaAs/AlGaAs structures is reported. The detector is sensitive to normal incident light. At zero bias and 78 K, a clear spectral response in the range of 2 -7 mu m has been obtained with peaks at 3.1, 4.8 and 5.7 mu m. The bandgap energies of GaAs and Al0.2Ga0.8As at 78K are calculated and the energy diagram of the transitions in the Quantum-Dot Infrared Photodetector (QDIP) is given out. The photocurrent signals can be detected up to 110 K, which is state-of-the-art for photovoltaic QDIP. The photovoltaic effect in our detector is a result of the enhanced band asymmetry as we design in the structure.

Non-collinear CPOPA seeded by an Yb3+-doped self-starting passive mode-locked fiber laser

Using a home-made seed at 1053 nm from a Yb3+-doped passively mode-locked fiber laser of 1.5 nJ/pulse, 362 ps pulse duration with a repetition rate of 3.842 MHz, a compact, low cost, stable and excellent beam quality non-collinear chirped pulse optical parametric amplifier omitting the bulky pulse stretcher has been demonstrated. A gain higher than 4.0 x 10(6), single pulse energy exceeding 6 mJ with fluctuations less than 2% rms, 14 nm amplified signal spectrum and recompressed pulse duration of 525 fs are achieved. This provides a novel and simple amplification scheme. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.