An investigation of the formation mechanisms of electric field domains in GaAs/AlAs superlattices

We have studied the vertical transport and formation mechanisms of electric field domains in doped weakly-coupled GaAs/AlAs superlattices. Under hydrostatic pressure two kinds of sequential resonant tunneling are observed within the pressure range from 0 to 4.5 kbar. A transition from Gamma-Gamma to Gamma-X sequential resonant tunneling occurs at P-t approximate to 1.6 kbar. For P < P-t, the high electric field domain is formed by the Gamma-Gamma process, while for P > P-t it is preferentially formed by the Gamma-X process.

Optical properties of delta-doped GaAs and GaAs/Al0.1Ga0.9As superlattices

Radiative transition in delta-doped GaAs superlattices with and without Al0.1Ga0.9As barriers is investigated by using photoluminescence at low temperatures. The experimental results show that the transition mechanism of delta-doped superlattices is very different from that of ordinary superlattices. Emission intensity of the transition from the electron first excited state to hole states is obviously stronger than that from the electron ground state to hole states due to larger overlap integral between wavefunctions of electrons in the first excited state and hole states. Based on the effective mass theory we have calculated the self-consistent potentials, optical transition matrix elements and photoluminescence spectra for two different samples. By using this model we can explain the main optical characteristics measured. Moreover, after taking into account the bandgap renormalization energy, good agreement between experiment and theory is obtained.

Electronic structures of the zinc-blende GaN/Ga1-xAlxN compressively strained superlattices and quantum wells

The electronic structures of the zinc-blende GaN/Ga0.85Al0.15N compressively strained superlattices and quantum wells are investigated using a 6 x 6 Hamiltonian model (including the heavy hole, light hole and spin-orbit splitting band). The energy bands, wavefunctions and optical transition matrix elements are calculated. It is found that the light hole couples with the spin-orbit splitting state even at the k=0 point, resulting in the hybrid states. The heavy hole remains a pure heavy hole state at k=0. The optical transitions from the hybrid valence states to the conduction states are determined by the transitions of the light hole and spin-orbit splitting states to the conduction states. The transitions from the heavy hole, light hole and spin-orbit splitting states to the conduction states obey the selection rule Delta n=0. The band structures obtained in this work will be valuable in designing GaN/GaAlN based optoelectronic devices. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited

360-nm Photoluminescence from Silicon Oxide Films Embedded with Silicon Nanocrystals

Si-rich silicon oxide films were deposited by RF magnetron sputtering onto composite Si/SiO2 targets. After annealed at different temperature, the silicon oxide films embedded with silicon nanocrystals were obtained. The photoluminescenee（PL） from the silicon oxide films embedded with silicon nanocrystals was observed at room temperature. The strong peak is at 360 nm, its position is independent of the annealing temperature. The origin of the 360-nm PL in the silicon oxide films embedded with silicon nanoerystals was discussed.

A 1.3μm Low-Threshold Edge-Emitting Laser with AlInAs-Oxide Confinement Layers

A 1.3μm low-threshold edge-emitting AlGaInAs multiple-quantum-well(MQW) laser with AlInAs-oxide confinement layers is fabricated.The Al-contained waveguide layers upper and low the active layers are oxidized as current-confined layers using wet-oxidation technique.This structure provides excellent current and optical confinement,resulting in 12.9mA of a low continuous wave threshold current and 0.47W/A of a high slope efficiency of per facet at room temperature for a 5-μm-wide current aperture.Compared with the ridge waveguide laser with the same-width ridge,the threshold current of the AlInAs-oxide confinement laser has decreased by 31.7% and the slope efficiency has increased a little.Both low threshold and high slope efficiency indicate that lateral current confinement can be realized by oxidizing AlInAs waveguide layers.The full width of half maximum angles of the Al-InAs-oxide confinement laser are 21.6° for the horizontal and 36.1° for the vertical,which demonstrate the ability of the AlInAs oxide in preventing the optical field from spreading laterally.

Raman scattering and infrared absorption of silicon nanocrystals in silicon oxide matrix

Structural dependence on annealing of a-SiOx:H was studied by using infrared absorption and Raman scattering. The appearance of Raman peaks in the range of 513-519cm(-1) after 1170 degreesC annealing was interpreted as the formation nanocrystalline silicon with the sizes from 3-10nm. The Raman spectra also show the existence of amorphous-like silicon phase, which is associated with Si-Si bond re-construction at boundaries of silicon nanocrystallites. The presence of the shoulder at 980cm(-1) of Si-O-Si stretching vibration at 1085cm(-1) in infrared spectra imply that except that SiO2 phase, there is silicon sub-oxide phase in the films annealed at 1170 degreesC. This sub-oxide phase is located at the interface between Si crystallites and SiO2, and thus support the shell model for the mixed structures of Si grains and SiO2 matrix.

Modulation magnesium-doping in AlGaN/GaN superlattices

Low resistivity of p-type Mg-doped AlGaN/GaN superlattices (SLs) is demonstrated. The resistivity of the SLs is less than 0.6 Omega .cm. and the measured hole concentration is higher than 1x10(18)cm(-3). The resistivity of SLs is much lower, and the hole concentration of SLs is much higher, than that of bulk GaN and AlGaN, The electrical properties of the SLs are less sensitive than the conventional bulk lavers.

Dependence of ultra-thin gate oxide reliability on surface cleaning approach

In this paper, we investigate the effect of silicon surface cleaning prior to oxidation on the reliability of ultra-thin oxides. It is demonstrated that chemical preoxide grown in H2SO4/H2O2 (SPM) solution prior to oxidation provides better oxide integrity than both HF-based solution dipping and preoxide grown in RCA SC1 or SC2 solutions. It is also found that the oxides with SPM preoxide exhibit better hot-carrier immunity than the RCA cleaned oxides.

The enhancement of spontaneous emission factor in selectively oxidized vertical cavity lasers with double oxide layers

The behaviors of lateral propagating modes in the aperture and the oxidized regions are investigated numerically for selectively oxidized vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). The results show that the lateral propagating modes in the oxidized region are greatly affected by the oxide layer due to its low index, the modes are divergence for the VCSELs with sufficient thick double oxide layers. So the coupling between the modes in the aperture and oxidized regions is very weak, and we can expect that the lateral spontaneous emission is greatly affected in this case. Ignoring the contribution of the lateral spontaneous emission, we calculate spontaneous emission factor by counting the total number of the guided modes in selectively oxidized VCSELs with double oxide layers. The results agree very well with the reported measurements and are inversely proportional to the lateral index step.

Sequential resonant tunnelling through Landau levels in GaAs/AlAs superlattices

Electron transport in heavily-doped GaAs/AlAs superlattices in parallel electric and magnetic fields is reported. The current-voltage (I-V) characteristic exhibited the feature of negative differential velocity (NDV) and high electric field domain effect at different biases. Under strong magnetic fields, sequential resonant tunnelling through Landau levels in the negative differential velocity regime is observed, which are manifested as oscillations in the conductance-voltage characteristics. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.