The growth temperatures dependence of optical and electrical properties of InN films

InN films grown on sapphire at different substrate temperatures from 550 degrees C to 700 degrees C by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition were investigated. The low-temperature GaN nucleation layer with high-temperature annealing (1100 degrees C) was used as a buffer for main InN layer growth. X-ray diffraction and Raman scattering measurements reveal that the quality of InN films can be improved by increasing the growth temperature to 600 degrees C. Further high substrate temperatures may promote the thermal decomposition of InN films and result in poor crystallinity and surface morphology. The photoluminescence and Hall measurements were employed to characterize the optical and electrical properties of InN films, which also indicates strong growth temperature dependence. The InN films grown at temperature of 600 degrees C show not only a high mobility with low carrier concentration, but also a strong infrared emission band located around 0.7 eV. For a 600 nm thick InN film grown at 600 degrees C, the Hall mobility achieves up to 938 cm(2)/Vs with electron concentration of 3.9 x 10(18) cm(-3).

Thickness dependent dislocation, electrical and optical properties in InN films grown by MOCVD

InN thin films with different thicknesses are grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition, and the dislocations, electrical and optical properties are investigated. Based on the model of mosaic crystal, by means of X-ray diffraction skew geometry scan, the edge dislocation densities of 4.2 x 10(10) cm(-2) and 6.3 x 10(10) cm(-2) are fitted, and the decrease of twist angle and dislocation density in thicker films are observed. The carrier concentrations of 9 x 10(18) cm(-3) and 1.2 x 10(18) cm(-3) are obtained by room temperature Hall effect measurement. V-N is shown to be the origin of background carriers, and the dependence of concentration and mobility on film thickness is explained. By the analysis of S-shape temperature dependence of photoluminescence peak, the defects induced carrier localization is suggested be involved in the photoluminescence. Taking both the localization and energy band shrinkage effect into account, the localization energies of 5.05 meV and 5.58 meV for samples of different thicknesses are calculated, and the decrease of the carrier localization effect in the thicker sample can be attributed to the reduction of defects.

Effects of crystalline quality on the ultraviolet emission and electrical properties of the ZnO films deposited by magnetron sputtering

The ZnO films were deposited on c-plane sapphire, Si (0 0 1) and MgAl2O4 (1 1 1) substrates in pure Ar ambient at different substrate temperatures ranging from 400 to 750 degrees C by radio frequency magnetron sputtering. X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence and Hall measurements were used to evaluate the growth temperature and the substrate effects on the properties of ZnO films. The results show that the crystalline quality of the ZnO films improves with increasing the temperature up to 600 degrees C, the crystallinity of the films is degraded as the growth temperature increasing further, and the ZnO film with the best crystalline quality is obtained on sapphire at 600 degrees C. The intensity of the photoluminescence and the electrical properties strongly depend on the crystalline quality of the ZnO films. The ZnO films with the better crystallinity have the stronger ultraviolet emission, the higher mobility and the lower residual carrier concentration. The effects of crystallinity on light emission and electrical properties, and the possible origin of the n-type conductivity of the undoped ZnO films are also discussed. (C) 2009 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.

Defect evolution and accompanied change of electrical properties during the GaN growth by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

The defect evolution and its correlation with electrical properties of GaN films grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition are investigated. It is found that the dislocation density decreases gradually during the growth process, and the dislocation reduction rate in the island coalescence process is especially rapid. The changes in electron mobility of GaN with the increase of growth time are mainly dependent on the dislocations acting as scattering centers. Furthermore, the variation of carrier concentration in GaN may be related with the point defects and their clusters. The quality of GaN could be improved by suitably increasing the film thickness. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Influence of nitrogen annealing on electrical properties of lead zirconate titanate thin film deposited on titanium metal foil

We report on improved electrical properties of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) film deposited on titanium metal foil using nitrogen annealing. After nitrogen annealing of the PZT capacitors, symmetric capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics, higher dielectric constant and breakdown field, less change of dielectric constant with frequency, lower dielectric loss and leakage current are obtained. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The compact microcrystalline Si thin film with structure uniformity in the growth direction by hydrogen dilution profile

The hydrogen dilution profiling (HDP) technique has been developed to improve the quality and the crystalline uniformity in the growth direction of mu c-Si:H thin films prepared by hot-wire chemical-vapor deposition. The high H dilution in the initial growth stage reduces the amorphous transition layer from 30-50 to less than 10 nm. The uniformity of crystalline content X-c in the growth direction was much improved by the proper design of hydrogen dilution profiling which effectively controls the nonuniform transition region of Xc from 300 to less than 30 nm. Furthermore, the HDP approach restrains the formation of microvoids in mu c-Si: H thin films with a high Xc and enhances the compactness of the film. As a result the stability of mu c-Si: H thin films by HDP against the oxygen diffusion, as well as the electrical property, is much improved. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.

Electrical characterization of Er- and Pr-implanted GaN films

Hall, current-voltage, and deep-level transient spectroscopy measurements were used to characterize the electrical properties of metalorganic chemical vapor deposition grown undoped, Er- and Pr-implanted GaN films. Only one deep level located at 0.270 eV below the conduction band was found in the as-grown GaN films. However, four defect levels located at 0.300, 0.188, 0.600, and 0.410 eV below the conduction band were found in the Er-implanted GaN films after annealing at 900 degrees C for 30 min, and four defect levels located at 0.280, 0.190, 0.610, and 0.390 eV below the conduction band were found in the Pr-implanted GaN films after annealing at 1050 degrees C for 30 min. The origins of the deep defect levels are discussed. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.

Spontaneous relaxation of a charge qubit under electrical measurement

In this work we first derive a generalized conditional master equation for quantum measurement by a mesoscopic detector, then study the readout characteristics of qubit measurement where a number of remarkable new features are found. The work would, in particular, highlight the qubit spontaneous relaxation effect induced by the measurement itself rather than an external thermal bath.

Electrical properties and electroluminescence of 4H-SiC p-n junction diodes

Homoepitaxial growth of 4H-SiC on off-oriented Si-face(0001) substrates was performed by using the step-controlled epitaxy technique in a newly developed low-pressure hot-wall CVD (LP-HWCVD) system with a horizontal air-cooled quartz tube at around 1500 degreesC and 1.33 x 10(4) Pa by employing SiH4 + C2H4 + H-2. In-situ doping during growth was carried out by adding NH3 gas into the precursor gases. It was shown that the maximum Hall mobility of the undoped 4H-SiC epilayers at room temperature is about 430 cm(2) (.) V-1 (.) s(-1) with a carrier concentration of similar to 10(16) cm(-3) and the highest carrier concentration of the N-doped 4H-SiC epilayer obtained at NH3 flow rate of 3 sccm is about 2.7 x 10(21) cm(-3) with a mobility of 0.75 cm(2) (.) V-1 (.) s(-1). SiC p-n junctions were obtained by epitaxially growing N-doped 4H-SiC epilayers on Al-doped 4H-SiC substrates. The C - V characteristics of the diodes were linear in the 1/C-3 - V coordinates indicating that the obtained p-n junctions were graded with a built-in voltage of 2.7 eV. The room temperature electroluminescence spectra of 4H-SiC p-n junctions are studied as a function of forward current. The D-A pair recombination due to nitrogen donors and the unintentional, deep boron center is dominant at low forward bias, while the D-A pair recombination due to nitrogen donors and aluminum acceptors are dominant at higher forward biases. The p-n junctions could operate at temperature of up to 400 degreesC, which provides a potential for high-temperature applications.

Electrical and optical coupling in an electroabsorption modulator integrated with a DFB laser

Electrical and optical coupling in an electroabsorption (EA) modulator integrated with a distributed feedback (DFB) laser have been investigated. The integrated device is treated as a three-port optoelectronic device with two electrical ports and one optical output port. The scattering parameters of this three-port device have been measured in the designed experiment. The measured results indicate that there exists the electrical coupling between the DFB laser and EA modulator of the integrated light source whenever the current applied to the laser section is below or above the threshold current, and the optical coupling will have stronger influence on the frequency responses than the electrical coupling when the bias current is above the threshold. A small-signal equivalent circuit model for the integrated device is established considering both the electrical and internal optical coupling. Experiments show that the equivalent circuit model is reasonable and the determined element values are correct. Based on the measurement and modeling, the influences of the electrical and optical coupling on the high-frequency responses are investigated and the effective measure to eliminate the additional modulation in the DFB laser are discussed.

Electrical and optical properties of InAs/GaAs quantum dots doped by high energy Mn implantation

Mn ions were doped into InAs/GaAs quantum dots samples by high energy. implantation and subsequent annealing. The optical and electric properties of the samples have been studied. The photoluminescence intensity of the samples annealed rapidly is stronger than that of the samples annealed for long time. By studying the relationship between the photoluminescence peaks and the implantation dose, it can be found that the photoluminescence peaks of the quantum dots show a blueshift firstly and then move to low energy with the implantation. dose increasing. The latter change in the photoluminescence peaks is probably attributed to that Mn ions entering the InAs quantum dots, which release the strain of the quantum dots. For the samples implanted by heavy dose (annealed rapidly) and the samples annealed for long time, the resistances versus temperature curves reveal anomalous peaks around 40 K.

Effect of heavy boron doping on the electrical characteristics of SiGeHBTs

A modified version of the Jain-Roulston (J-R) model is developed that takes into account the compensation effect of B to Ge in strained SiGe layers for the first time. Based on this new model, the distribution of the bandgap narrowing (BGN) between the conduction and valence bands is calculated. The influence of this distribution on the transport characteristics of abrupt SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) has been further considered by using the tunnelling and thermionic emission mechanisms instead of the drift and diffusion mechanisms at the interfaces where discontinuities in energy levels appear. The results show that our modified J-R model better fits the experimental values, and the energy band structure has a strong influence on electrical characteristics.

Effects of Ag on electrical properties of Ag/Ni/p-GaN ohmic contact

Properties of the Ag/Ni/p-GaN structure at different temperatures are studied by Auger electron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and high resolution x-ray diffraction. The effect of Ag in ohmic contact on the crystalline quality is investigated and the optimized value of annealing temperature is reported. The lowest specific contact resistance of 2.5 x 10(-4) Omega cm(2) is obtained at annealing temperature of 550 degrees C.

Influence of deep level defects on electrical compensation in semi-insulating InP materials

In this paper, we analyze and compare electrical compensation and deep level defects in semi-insulating ( SI) materials prepared by Fe-doping and high temperature annealing of undoped InP. Influence of deep level defects in the SI-InP materials on the electrical compensation has been studied thermally stimulated current spectroscopy (TSC). Electrical property of the Fe-doped SI-InP is deteriorated due to involvement of a high concentration of deep level defects in the compensation. In contrast, the concentration of deep defects is very low in high temperature annealed undoped SI-InP in which Fe acceptors formed by diffusion act as the only compensation centre to pin the Fermi level, resulting in excellent electrical performance. A more comprehensive electrical compensation model of SI-InP has been given based on the research results.

XPS depth profiling study of n/TCO interfaces for p-i-n amorphous silicon solar cells

Detailed X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) depth profiling measurements were performed across the back n-layer/transparent conducting oxide (n/TCO) inter-faces for superstrate p-i-n solar cells to examine differences between amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and microcrystalline silicon (mu c-Si:H) n-layer materials as well as TCO materials ZnO and ITO in the chemical, microstructural and diffusion properties of the back interfaces. No chemical reduction of TCO was found for all variations of n-layer/TCO interfaces. We found that n-a-Si:H interfaces better with ITO, while n-mu c-Si:H, with ZnO. A cross-comparison shows that the n-a-Si:H/ITO interface is superior to the n-mu c-Si:H/ZnO interface, as evidenced by the absence of oxygen segregation and less oxidized Si atoms observed near the interface together with much less diffusion of TCO into the n-layer. The results suggest that the n/TCO interface properties are correlated with the characteristics of both the n-layer and the TCO layer. Combined with the results reported on the device performance using similar back n/TCO contacts, we found the overall device performance may depend on both interface and bulk effects related to the back n/TCO contacts. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.