Unusual carrier thermalization in a dilute GaAs1-xNx alloy

Photoluminescence (PL) properties of the E-0, E-0+Delta(0), and E+ bands in an x=0.62% GaAs1-xNx alloy were investigated in detail, including their peak position, linewidth, and line shape dependences on the excitation energy, excitation power, and temperature, using micro-PL. The hot electrons within the E+ band are found to exhibit highly unusual thermalization, which results in a large blueshift in its PL peak energy by >2k(B)T, suggesting peculiar density of states and carrier dynamics of the E+ band.

Bioactivity of Mg-ion-implanted zirconia and titanium

Titanium and zirconia are bioinert materials lacking bioactivity. In this work, surface modification of the two typical biomaterials is conducted by Mg-ion-implantation using a MEVVA ion source in an attempt to increase their bioactivity. Mg ions were implanted into zirconia and titanium with fluences ranging from 1 x 10(17) to 3 x 10(17) ions/cm(2) at 40 keV. The Mg-implanted samples, as well as control (unimplanted) samples, were immersed in SBF for 7 days and then removed to identify the presence of calcium and phosphate (Ca-P) coatings and to characterize their morphology and structure by SEM, XRD, and FT-IR. SEM observations confirm that globular aggregates are formed on the surfaces of the Mg-implanted zirconia and titanium while no precipitates are observed on the control samples. XRD and FT-IR analyses reveal that the deposits are carbonated hydroxyapatite (HAp). Our experimental results demonstrate that Mg-implantation improves the bioactivity of zirconia and titanium. Further, it is found that the degree of bioactivity is adjustable by the ion dose. Mechanisms are proposed to interpret the improvement of bioactivity as a result of Mg implantation and the difference in bioactivity between zirconia and titanium. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Growth and annealing study of Mg-doped AlGaN and GaN/AlGaN superlattices

Mg-doped AlGaN and GaN/AlGaN superlattice are grown by metalorganic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD). Rapid thermal annealing (RTA) treatments are carried out on the samples. Hall and high resolution x-ray diffraction measurements are used to characterize the electrical and structural prosperities of the as-grown and annealed samples, respectively. The results of hall measurements show that after annealing, the Mg-doped AlGaN sample can not obtain the distinct hole concentration and can acquire a resistivity of 1.4 x 10(3) Omega cm. However, with the same annealing treatment, the GaN/AlGaN superlattice sample has a hole concentration of 1.7 x 10(17) cm(-3) and of Mg acceptors, which leads to higher hole concentration and lower p-type resistivity.

Study on Mg memory effect in npn type AlGaN/GaN HBT structures grown by MOCVD

AlGaN/GaN npn heterojunction bipolar transistor structures were grown by low-pressure MOCVD. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) measurements were carried out to study the Mg memory effect and redistribution in the emitter-base junction. The results indicated that there is a Mg-rich film formed in the ongrowing layer after the Cp2Mg source is switched off. The Mg-rich film can be confined in the base section by switching off the Cp2Mg source for appropriate time before the end of base growth. Low temperature growth of the undoped GaN spacer suppresses the Mg redistribution from Mg rich film. The delay rate of the Mg profile in sample C with spacer growing in low temperature is about 56 nm/decade, which becomes sharper than 80 nm/decade of the samples A and B without low temperature spacer. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Photoluminescence of Mg-doped GaN grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

Two Mg-doped GaN films with different doping concentrations were grown by a metalorganic chemical vapor deposition technique. Photoluminescence (PL) experiments were carried out to investigate the optical properties of these films. For highly Mg-doped GaN, the PL spectra at 10 K are composed of a blue luminescence (BL) band at 2.857 eV and two excitonic luminescence lines at 3.342 eV and 3.282 eV, in addition to a L2 phonon replica at 3.212 eV. The intensity of the L1 line decreases monotonously with an increase,in temperature. However, the intensity of the L2 line first slowly increases at first, and then decreases quickly with an increase in temperature. The two lines are attributed to bound excitonic emissions at extended defects. The BL band is most likely due to the transition from deep donor Mg-V-N complex to Mg shallow acceptor. From the temperature dependence of the luminescence peak intensity of the BL band, the activation energy of acceptor Mg was found to be 290 meV. (C) 2003 American Vacuum Society.

Localized exciton dynamics in AlInGaN alloy

Carrier recombination dynamics in AlInGaN alloy has been studied by photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved PL (TRPL) at various temperatures. The fast red-shift of PL peak energy is observed and well fitted by a physical model considering the thermal activation and transfer processes. This result provides evidence for the exciton localization in the quantum dot (QD)-like potentials in our AlInGaN alloy. The TRPL signals are found to be described by a stretched exponential function of exp[(-t/,tau)13], indicating the presence of a significant disorder in the material. The disorder is attributed to a randomly distributed QDs or clusters caused by indium fluctuations. By studying the dependence of the dispersive exponent beta on temperature and emission energy, we suggest that the exciton hopping dominate the diffusion of carriers localized in the disordered QDs. Furthermore, the localized states are found to have 0D density of states up to 250 K, since the radiative lifetime remains almost unchanged with increasing temperature. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Alloy states in dilute GaAs1-xNx alloys (x < 1%)

A set of GaAs1-xNx samples with small nitrogen composition (x<1%) were investigated by continuous-wave photoluminescence (PL), pulse-wave excitation PL, and time-resolved PL. In the PL spectra, an extra transition located at the higher-energy side of the commonly reported N-related emissions was observed. By measuring the PL dependence on temperature and excitation power, the PL peak was identified as a transition of alloy band edge-related recombination in GaAsN. The PL dynamics further confirms its intrinsic nature as being associated with the band edge rather than N-related bound states. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.

Pressure behavior of Te isoelectronic centers in S-rich ZnS1-xTex alloy

The photoluminescence from ZnS1-xTex alloy with 0 < x < 0.3 was investigated under hydrostatic pressure up to 7 GPa. Two peaks were observed in the alloys with x < 0.01, which are related to excitons bound to isolated Te isoelectronic impurities (Te-1 centers) and Te pairs (Te-2 centers), respectively. Only the Te-2 related emissions were observed in the alloys with 0.01 < x < 0.03. The emissions in the alloys with 0.03 < x < 0.3 are attributed to the excitons bound to the Te-n (n greater than or equal to 3) cluster centers. The pressure coefficient of the Te-1 related peak is 89(4) meV/GPa, about 40% larger than that of the band gap of ZnS. On the other hand, the pressure coefficient of the Te-2 related emissions is only 52(4) meV/GPa, about 15% smaller than that of the ZnS band gap. A simple Koster-Slater model has been used to explain the different pressure behavior of the Te-1 and Te-2 centers. The pressure coefficient of the Te-3 centers is 62(2) meV/GPa. Then the pressure coefficients of the Te-n centers decrease rapidly with further increasing Te composition.

Effects of annealing on properties of spin-valve pinned with FeMn alloy

The magnetic properties of spin-valve pinned by FeMn layer were investigated after it was annealed at different temperatures. Its property was dependent on the vacuum annealing temperature. The pinning field could be increased through annealing at a temporature lower than 200degreesC;the pinning field would reduce and other properties be deteriorated as the annealing temperature was higher than 200degreesC; the pinning effect lost and giantmagnetic resistance disappeared at 300degreesC. Based on the results of AES analysis it was concluded that the diffusion in spin-valve multilayer was along grain boundary.

Photoluminescence and capacitance transients in highly Mg-doped GaN

Behaviors of the photoluminescence blue-band and near-bandgap peak and the relevant thermal ionization energies of the shallow and deep Mg-related acceptors have been studied, respectively. The 2.989 eV blue-band is attributed to the deep donor-acceptor-pair transitions involving a deep Mg-related acceptor at E-v+0.427 eV. The blueshift with increasing excitation power is explained by variation in the contribution of close and distant donor-acceptor-pairs to the luminescence. The redshift with increasing temperature results from thermal release of carriers from close donor-acceptor-pairs. The 3.26 eV near-bandgap peak is attributed to the shallow donor-acceptor-pair transitions involving a shallow Mg-related acceptor at E-v+0.223 eV. The relevant thermal ionization energies of the shallow and deep Mg-related acceptors, being about E-v+0.16 and E-v+0.50eV, are determined from deep-level transient Fourier spectroscopy measurements.

Photoluminescence of rapid-thermal annealed Mg-doped GaN films

We report the investigation of temperature and excitation power dependence in photoluminescence spectroscopy measured in Mg-doped GaN epitaxial layers grown on sapphire by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition, The objective is to examine the effects of rapid-thermal annealing on Mg-related emissions. It is observed that the peak position of the 2.7-2.8 eV emission line is a function of the device temperature and annealing conditions, The phenomenon is attributed to Coulomb-potential fluctuations in the conduction and valence band edge and impurity levels due to the Mg-related complex dissociation. The blue shift of the 2.7-2.8 eV emission line with increasing excitation power provides clear evidence that a donor-acceptor recombination process underlies the observed emission spectrum. In addition, quenching of minor peaks at 3.2 and 3.3 eV are observed and their possible origin is discussed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Room-temperature optical transitions in Mg-doped cubic GaN/GaAs(100) grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

The mechanism of room-temperature optical transitions in a Mg-doped cubic GaN epilayer grown on GaAs(100) by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition has been investigated. By examining the dependence of photoluminescence on the excitation intensity (which varied over four orders) at room temperature, four different emissions with different origins were identified. A blue emission at similar to 3.037 eV was associated with a shallow Mg acceptor, while three different lower-energy emissions at similar to 2.895, similar to 2.716, and similar to 2.639 eV were associated with a deep Mg complex. In addition to a shallow acceptor at E congruent to 0.213 eV, three Mg-related deep defect levels were also found at around 215, 374, and 570 meV (from the conduction band). (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)01904-6].

Effect of thermal annealing on hole trap levels in Mg-doped GaN grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy

Deep trap levels in a Mg-doped GaN grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy are studied with deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS). The Mg concentration of the sample was 4.8 x 10(19) cm(-3), but the hole concentration was as low as 1.3x10(17) cm-3 at room temperature. The DLTS spectrum has a dominant peak D-1 with an activation energy of 0.41+/-0.05 eV, accompanied by two additional peaks with activation energies of 0.49+/-0.09 eV (D-2) and 0.59+/-0.05 eV (D-3). It was found that the dominant peak D-1 consists of five peaks, each of which has different activation energy and capture cross section. In order to investigate these deep levels further, we performed heat treatment on the same samples to observe the variations of activation energy, capture cross section, and amplitude of DLTS signals. It was found that the longer the heat treatment duration is, the lower the amplitude of DLTS peaks become. This suggests that the decrease of the DLTS signal originates from hydrogen atom outgoing from the film during the annealing process. The possible originality of multiple trap levels was discussed in terms of the Mg-N-H complex. (C) 2000 American Vacuum Society. [S0734-2101(00)01701-2].

Pulsed excimer laser annealing of Mg-doped cubic GaN

A KrF (248 nm) excimer laser with a 38 ns pulse width was used to study pulsed laser annealing (PLA) on Mg-doped cubic GaN alms. The laser-induced changes were monitored by photoluminescence (PL) measurement. It indicated that deep levels in as-grown cubic GaN : Mg films were neutralized by H and PLA treatment could break Mg-H-N complex. The evolution of emissions around 426 and 468 nm with different PLA conditions reflected the different activation of the involved deep levels. Rapid thermal annealing (RTA) in N-2 atmosphere reverts the luminescence of laser annealed samples to that of the pre-annealing state. The reason is that most H atoms still remained in the epilayers after PLA due to the short duration of the pulses and reoccupied the original locations during RTA. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 61.72.Vv; 61.72.Cc; 18.55. -m.

Strain relaxation of GeSi alloy with low dislocation density grown on low-temperature Si buffers

We have developed a low-temperature (LT) growth technique. Even with Ge fraction x upto 90%, the total thickness of fully relaxed GexSi1-x buffers can he reduced to 1.7 mu m with dislocation density lower than 5 x 10(6) cm(-2). The surface roughness is no more than 6 nm. The strain relaxation is quite inhomogeneous From the beginning. Stacking faults generate and form the mismatch dislocations in the interface of GeSi/LT-Si. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.