The fabrication of thick SiO2 layer by anodization

Silicon-based silica waveguide (SiO2/Si) devices have huge applications in optical telecommunication. SiO2 up to 25-mu m thick is necessary for some passive SiO2/Si waveguide devices. Oxidizing porous silicon to obtain thick SiO2 as cladding layer is presented. The experimental results of porous layer and oxidized porous layer formation were given. The relationship between cracking of SiO2 and temperature varying rate was given experimentally. Such conclusions are drawn: oxidation rate of porous silicon is several orders faster than that of bulk silicon; appropriate temperature variation rate during oxidation can prevent SiO2 on silicon substrates from cracking, and 25 mu m thick silicon dioxide layer has been obtained. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Semi-insulating GaAs grown in outer space

A semi-insulating GaAs single crystal ingot was grown in a recoverable satellite, within a specially designed pyrolytic boron nitride crucible, in a power-traveling furnace under microgravity. The characteristics of a compound semiconductor single crystal depends fundamentally on its stoichiometry, i.e. the ration of two types of atoms in the crystal. a practical technique for nondestructive and quantitative measuring stoichiometry in GaAs single crystal was used to analyze the space-grown GaAs single crystal. The distribution of stoichiometry in a GaAs wafer was measured for the first time. The electrical, optical and structural properties of the space-grown GaAs crystal were studied systematically, Device fabricating experiments prove that the quality of field effect transistors fabricated from direct ion-implantation in semi-insulating GaAs wafers has a close correlation with the crystal's stoichiometry. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.

Influence of precipitates on GaN epilayer quality

GaN epilayers grown on pre-nitridated (0001) sapphire substrates by metallorganic vapor phase epitaxy were investigated by wavelength dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and energy dispersive S-ray spectroscopy. Precipitates were observed to mainly consist of O impurity whose strengths were weaker than surrounding matrix. The precipitates were larger in size and distributed more sparsely and inhomogeneously in < 11-20 > directions of the epilayers grown on substrates pre-nitridated for longer periods. The larger precipitates often joined to cracks in the TEM specimens. The crack formation seems to be attributed to the compressive stress concentration at edge angles of the larger precipitates. Yellow luminescence of the epilayers was imaged by cathodoluminescence. The distribution similarity between the cathodoluminescence and the precipitates suggested that the precipitates were responsible for the yellow luminescence band. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A, All rights reserved.

Flip-chip bonded hybrid CMOS/SEED optoelectronic smart pixels

Hybrid integration of GaAs/AlGaAs multiple quantum well self electro-optic effect device (SEED) arrays are demonstrated flip-chip bonded directly onto 1 mu m silicon CMOS circuits. The GaAs/AlGaAs MQW devices are designed for 850 nm operation. Some devices are used as input light detectors and others serve as output light modulators. The measurement results under applied biases show good optoelectronic characteristics of elements in SEED arrays. Nearly the same reflection spectrum is obtained for the different devices at an array and the contrast ratio is more than 1.2:1 after flip-chip bonding and packaging. The transimpedance receiver-transmitter circuit can be operated at a frequency of 300 MHz.

Methods to tune the electronic states of self-organized InAs/GaAs quantum dots

After capping InAs islands with a thin enough GaAs layer, growth interruption has been introduced. Ejected energy of self-organized InAs/GaAs quantum dots has been successfully tuned in a controlled manner by changing the thickness of GaAs capping layer and the time of growth interruption and InAs layer thickness. The photoluminescence (PL) spectra showing the shift of the peak position reveals the tuning of the electronic states of the QD system. Enhanced uniformity of Quantum dots is observed judging from the decrease of full width at half maximum of FL. Injection InAs/GaAs quantum dot lasers have been fabricated and performed on various frequencies. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Structural properties of SI-GaAs grown in space

The structural properties of Semi-insulating gallium arsenide (SI-GaAs) crystal grown with power-travelling technique in space have been studied by double-crystal x-ray diffractometry and chemical etching. The quality of the crystal was first evaluated by x-ray rocking-curve method. The full width at half maximum of x-ray rocking curve in space-grown SI-GaAs is 9.4+/-0.08 are seconds. The average density of dislocations revealed by molten KOH is 2.0 X 10(4) cm(-2), and the highest density is 3.1 X 10(4) cm(-2). The stoichiometry in the single crystal grown in space is improved as well. Unfortunately, the rear of the ingot grown in space is polycrystalline owing to being out of control of power. (C) 1999 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.

Improved neutron radiation hardness for Si detectors: Application of low resistivity starting material and or manipulation of N-eff by selective filling of radiation-induced traps at low temperatures

Radiation-induced electrical changes in both space charge region (SCR) of Si detectors and bulk material (BM) have been studied for samples of diodes and resistors made on Si materials with different initial resistivities. The space charge sign inversion fluence (Phi(inv)) has been found to increase linearly with the initial doping concentration (the reciprocal of the resistivity), which gives improved radiation hardness to Si detectors fabricated from low resistivity material. The resistivity of the BM, on the other hand, has been observed to increase with the neutron fluence and approach a saturation value in the order of hundreds k Omega cm at high fluences, independent of the initial resistivity and material type. However, the fluence (Phi(s)), at which the resistivity saturation starts, increases with the initial doping concentrations and the value of Phi(s) is in the same order of that of Phi(inv) for all resistivity samples. Improved radiation hardness can also be achieved by the manipulation of the space charge concentration (N-eff) in SCR, by selective filling and/or freezing at cryogenic temperatures the charge state of radiation-induced traps, to values that will give a much smaller full depletion voltage. Models have been proposed to explain the experimental data.

InP-based optoelectronic devices for optical fiber communications

In this contribution we report the research and development of 1.55 mu m InGaAsP/InP gain-coupled DFB laser with an improved injection-carrier induced grating and of high performance 1.3 mu m and 1.55 mu m InGaAsP/InP FP and DFB lasers for communications. Long wavelength strained MQW laser diodes with a very low threshold current (7-10 mA) have been fabricated. Low pressure MOVPE technology has been employed for the preparation of the layered structure. A novel gain-coupled DFB laser structure with an improved injection-carrier modulated grating has been proposed and fabricated. The laser structures have been prepared by hybrid growth of MOVPE and LPE techniques and reasonably good characteristics have been achieved for resultant lasers. High performance 1.3 mu m and 1.55 mu m InGaAsP/InP DFB lasers have successfully been developed for CATV and trunk line optical fiber communication.

Si-based optoelectronic devices and their attractive applications

The semiconductor photonics and optoelectronics which have a great significance in the development of advanced high technology of information systems will be discussed in this paper. The emphasis will be put on the recent research carried out in our laboratory in enhanced luminescence from low dimensional materials such as SiGe/Si and Er-doped Si-rich SiO2/Si and Er-doped SixNy/Si. A ring shape waveguide structure, used to promote the effective absorption coefficient in PIN photodetector for 1.3 mu m wavelength and a resonant cavity enhanced structure, used to improve the quantum efficiency and response in heterostructure photo-transistor (HPT), are also proposed in this paper.

Photoluminescence study on coarsening of self-assembled InAlAs quantum dots on GaAs (001)

Red-emission at similar to 640 nm from self-assembled In0.55Al0.45As/Al0.5Ga0.5As quantum dots grown on GaAs substrate by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) has been demonstrated. We obtained a double-peak structure of photoluminescence (PL) spectra from quantum dots. An atomic force micrograph (AFM) image for uncapped sample also shows a bimodal distribution of dot sizes. From the temperature and excitation intensity dependence of PL spectra, we found that the double-peak structure of PL spectra from quantum dots was strongly correlated to the two predominant quantum dot families. Taking into account quantum-size effect on the peak energy, we propose that the high (low) energy peak results from a smaller (larger) dot family, and this result is identical with the statistical distribution of dot lateral size from the AFM image.

First charge collection and position-precision data on the medium-resistivity silicon strip detectors before and after neutron irradiation up to 2x10(14) n/cm(2)

Test strip detectors of 125 mu m, 500 mu m, and 1 mm pitches with about 1 cm(2) areas have been made on medium-resistivity silicon wafers (1.3 and 2.7 k Ohm cm). Detectors of 500 mu m pitch have been tested for charge collection and position precision before and after neutron irradiation (up to 2 x 10(14) n/cm(2)) using 820 and 1030 nm laser lights with different beam-spot sizes. It has been found that for a bias of 250 V a strip detector made of 1.3 k Ohm cm (300 mu m thick) can be fully depleted before and after an irradiation of 2 x 10(14) n/cm(2). For a 500 mu m pitch strip detector made of 2.7 k Ohm cm tested with an 1030 nm laser light with 200 mu m spot size, the position reconstruction error is about 14 mu m before irradiation, and 17 mu m after about 1.7 x 10(13) n/cm(2) irradiation. We demonstrated in this work that medium resistivity silicon strip detectors can work just as well as the traditional high-resistivity ones, but with higher radiation tolerance. We also tested charge sharing and position reconstruction using a 1030 nm wavelength (300 mu m absorption length in Si at RT) laser, which provides a simulation of MIP particles in high-physics experiments in terms of charge collection and position reconstruction, (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Biosensors for fermentation process control

Two biosensors for fermentation process control have been introduced, which were developed in our lab recently. One is an enzyme electrode-based on-line monitoring system for glutamate fermentation process control and the other is an H+-ISFET-based ENFET for penicillin G fermentation process control.

Pressure behavior of deep centers in ZnSxTe1-x alloys

We have measured photoluminescence of ZnSxTe1-x alloys (x > 0.7) at 300 K and under hydrostatic pressure up to 7 GPa. The spectra contain only a broad emission band under excitation of the 406.7 nm line. Its pressure coefficients are 47, 62 and 45 meV/GPa for x = 0.98, 0.92 and 0.79 samples, which are about 26%, 7% and 38% smaller than that of the band gap in the corresponding alloys. The Stokes shifts between emission and absorption of the bands were calculated by fitting the pressure dependence of the emission intensity, being 0.29, 0.48 and 0.13 eV for the three samples, respectively. The small pressure coefficient and large Stokes shift indicate that the emission band observed in our samples may correspond to the Te isoelectronic center in the ZnSxTe1-x alloy.

Growth and characterization of GaN on LiGaO2

The nearly lattice-matched (0 0 1)LiGaO2 substrates have been used for the growth of GaN by LP-MOVPE, GaN epilayers have been grown on both domains at very low input partial pressure of hydrogen and relatively low growth temperature. The differences in the growth rate, crystal and optical qualities of hexagonal GaN epilayers grown on LiGaO2 substrate with two polar domains are investigated. LiGaO2 single crystal with a single domain structure and an adequate surface plane is a promising substrate for the growth of high quality of hexagonal GaN thin films. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

High-field cyclotron resonance and electron-phonon interaction in modulation-doped multiple quantum well structures

A systematic study of electron cyclotron resonance (CR) in two sets of GaAs/Al0.3Ga0.7As modulation-doped quantum-well samples (well widths between 12 and 24 nm) has been carried out in magnetic fields up to 30 T. Polaron CR is the dominant transition in the region of GaAs optical phonons for the set of lightly doped samples, and the results are in good agreement with calculations that include the interaction with interface optical phonons. The results from the heavily doped set are markedly different. At low magnetic fields (below the GaAs reststrahlen region), all three samples exhibit almost identical CR which shows little effect of the polaron interaction due to screening and Pauli-principle effects. Above the GaAs LO-phonon region (B > similar to 23 T), the three samples behave very differently. For the most lightly doped sample (3 x 10(11) cm(-2)) only one transition minimum is observed, which can be explained as screened polaron CR. A sample of intermediate density (6 x 10(11) cm(-2)) shows two lines above 23 T; the higher frequency branch is indistinguishable from the positions of the single line of the low density sample. For the most heavily, doped sample (1.2 x 10(12) cm(-2)) there is no evidence of high frequency resonance, and the strong, single line observed is indistinguishable from the lower branch observed from sample with intermediate doping density. We suggest that the low frequency branch in our experiment is a magnetoplasmon resonance red-shifted by disorder, and the upper branch is single-particle-like screened polaron CR. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.