Fabrication of nanoscale metallic air-bridges by introducing a SiO2 sacrificial layer

A new method to fabricate nanoscale metallic air-bridges has been investigated. The pillar patterns of the air-bridge were defined on a SiO2, sacrificial layer by electron-beam lithography combined with inductively coupled plasma etching. Thereafter, the span (suspended part between the pillars) patterns were defined with a second electron-beam exposure on a PMMA/PMMA-MAA resist system. The fabrication process was completed by subsequent metal electron-beam evaporation, lift-off in acetone, and removal of the sacrificial layer in a buffered hydrofluoric (HF) solution. Air-bridges with two different geometries (line-shaped and cross-shaped) were studied in detail. The narrowest width of the air-bridges was around 200 nm, and the typical length of the air-bridges was 2-5 mu m. The advantages of our method are the simplicity of carrying out electron-beam exposure with good reproducibility and the capability of more accurate control of the pillar sizes and shapes of the air-bridge. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The influence of growth temperature and input V/III ratio on the initial nucleation and material properties of InN on GaN by MOCVD

The effects of growth temperature and V/III ratio on the InN initial nucleation of islands on the GaN (0 0 0 1) surface were investigated. It is found that InN nuclei density increases with decreasing growth temperature between 375 and 525 degrees C. At lower growth temperatures, InN thin films take the form of small and closely packed islands with diameters of less than 100 nm, whereas at elevated temperatures the InN islands can grow larger and well separated, approaching an equilibrium hexagonal shape due to enhanced surface diffusion of adatoms. At a given growth temperature of 500 degrees C, a controllable density and size of separated InN islands can be achieved by adjusting the V/III ratio. The larger islands lead to fewer defects when they are coalesced. Comparatively, the electrical properties of the films grown under higher V/III ratio are improved.

Simulation of light coupling enhancement and localization of transmission field via subwavelength metallic gratings

Surface plasmons(SPs) generated in nano metallic gratings on medium layer can greatly enhance the transmission field through the metallic gratings. The enhancement effect is achieved from lambda = 500 nm to near-infrared domain. The enhancement rate is about 110 % at the wavelength of about 6 10 nm and about 180 % at lambda = 700 nm and 740 nm where most kinds of thin film solar cells have a high spectral response. These structures should provide a promising way to increase the coupling efficiency of thin film solar cells and optical detectors of different wavelength response.

Electromagnetic-field-induced cohesive force enhancement in a metallic nanowire

We theoretically study the conducting electronic contribution to the cohesive force in a metallic nanowire irradiated under a transversely polarized external electromagnetic field at low temperatures and in the ballistic regime. In the framework of the free-electron model, we have obtained a time-dependent two-level electronic wavefunction by means of a unitary transformation. Using a thermodynamic statistical approach with this wavefunction, we have calculated the cohesive force in the nanowire. We show that the cohesive force can be divided into two components, one of which is independent of the electromagnetic field (static component), which is consistent with the existing results in the literature. The magnitude of the other component is proportional to the electromagnetic field strength. This extra component of the cohesive force is originally from the coherent coupling between the two lateral energy levels of the wire and the electromagnetic field.

Radiation hardness improvement of separation-by-implantation-of-oxygen/silicon-on-insulator material by nitrogen ion implantation

In our work, nitrogen ions were implanted into separation-by-implantation-of-oxygen (SIMOX) wafers to improve the radiation hardness of the SIMOX material. The experiments of secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) analysis showed that some nitrogen ions were distributed in the buried oxide layers and some others were collected at the Si/SiO2 interface after annealing. The results of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) suggested the density of the defects in the nitrided samples changed with different nitrogen ion implantation energies. Semiconductor-insulator-semiconductor (SIS) capacitors were made on the materials, and capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements were carried out to confirm the results. The super total dose radiation tolerance of the materials was verified by the small increase of the drain leakage current of the metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor with n-channel (NMOSFETs) fabricated on the materials before and after total dose irradiation. The optimum implantation energy was also determined.

Fabrication of arrayed waveguide grating based on SOI material

An arrayed waveguide grating based on SOI material was fabricated by inductive coupled plasma (ICP) etching technology. The central wavelength of the device was designed at 1.5509 mu m and the channel spacing was 200 GHz. Comparing with the values of the design, the differences of the central wavelength and the channel spacing in the test were 0.28 nm and 0.02 nm, respectively. The adjacent channel crosstalk was about 10 dB, and the uniformity of the five channels' insertion loss was only 0.7 dB. The results show that the device can be used as a demultiplexer.

A convenient way of determining the ferromagnetic transition temperature of metallic (Ga,Mn)As

We have studied magnetic and transport properties of insulating and metallic (Ga,Mn)As layers before and after annealing. A dramatic increase of the ferromagnetic transition temperature T-C by postgrowth annealing has been realized in both insulating and metallic (Ga,Mn)As. The as-grown insulating (Ga,Mn)As can be turned into metallic by the low-temperature annealing. For all the metallic (Ga,Mn)As, a characteristic feature in the temperature dependence of sheet resistance appears around T-C. This phenomenon may provide a simple and more convenient method to determine the T-C of metallic (Ga,Mn)As compared with superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) measurement. Moreover, the T-C of the metallic (Ga,Mn)As obtained by this way is in good agreement with that measured by a SQUID magnetometer. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.

Photonic crystal vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser based on GaAs material

A photonic crystal vertical-cavity-surface-emitting laser ( PC-VCSEL) with a wavelength of about 850 nm was realized. The direct-current electrically-driven PC-VCSELs with a minimum threshold current of 2 mA and a maximum threshold current of 13.5 mA were obtained. We fabricated a series of PC-VCSEL chips whose lattice constants are in the range from 0.5 to 3 mu m with different filling factors, and found that the laser characterization depends on the lattice constant, the filling factor, the size of cavity, etc.

Thermally induced Fe atom transition from substitutional to interstitial sites in InP and its influence on material property

As-grown Fe-doped semi-insulating InP single crystal has been converted into n-type low-resistance material after high temperature annealing. Defects in the InP materials have been studied by conventional Hall effect measurement, thermally stimulated current spectroscopy, deep level transient spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction respectively. The results indicate that Fe atoms in the InP material change from the substitutional to the interstitial sites under thermal activation. Consequently, the InP material loses its deep compensation centers which results in the change in types of conduction. The mechanism and cause of the phenomena have been analyzed through comparison of the sites of Fe atom occupation and activation in doping, diffusion and ion implantation processes of InP.

ZnO thin films on Si(111) grown by pulsed laser deposition from metallic Zn target

ZnO thin films with highly c-axis orientation have been fabricated on p-type Si(1 1 1) substrates at 400 degrees C by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) from a metallic Zn target with oxygen pressures between 0.1 and 0.7 mbar. Experimental results indicate that the films deposited at 0.3 and 0.5 mbar have better crystalline and optical quality and flatter surfaces than the films prepared at other pressures. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of (0 0 0 2) diffraction peak decreases remarkably from 0.46 to 0.19 degrees with increasing annealing temperature for the film prepared at 0.3 mbar. In photoluminescence (PL) spectra at room temperature, the annealed film at 700 degrees C exhibits a smaller ultraviolet (UV) peak FWHM of 108 meV than the as-grown film (119 meV). However, an enhanced deep-level emission is observed. Possible origins to above results are discussed. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Material growth and device fabrication of highly strained InGaAs/InGaAsP long wavelength distributed feedback lasers

1.6-1.7 mu m highly strained InGaAs/InGaAsP distributed feedback lasers was grown and fabricated by low pressure mentalorganic chemical vapor deposition. High quality highly strained InGaAs/InP materials were obtained by using strain buffer layer. Four pairs of highly strained quantum wells were used in the devices and carrier blocking layer was used to improve the temperature characteristics of the devices. The uncoated 1.66 mu m and 1.74 mu m lasers with ridge wave guide 3 mu m wide have low threshold current (< 15mA) and high output power (> 14mW at 100mA). In the temperature range from 10 degrees C to 40 degrees C, the characteristic temperature T-0 of the 1.74 mu m laser is 57K, which is comparable to that of the 1.55 mu m-wavelength InGaAsP/InP-DFB laser.

Surface plasmon coupling in hexagonal textured metallic microcavity

The coupling of surface plasmons to the photonic modes in hexagonal textured metallic microcavity was studied. The modified photonic modes enable efficient coupling with the luminescence source in the microcavity. Hexagonal photonic crystal lattice has higher folding symmetry providing more channels for surface plasmon coupling in different in-plane directions, i.e., more isotropic light extraction profile than one-or two-dimensional gratings. Results show that strong coupling between surface plasmon modes and the waveguide mode in the microcavity has led to angle-selective enhanced light extraction and it was as much as 12 times more light extracted compare to planar microcavity. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.

Fabrication of metallic air bridges using multiple-dose electron beam lithography

The techniques of fabricating metallic air bridges using different resists in a one-step electron beam lithography are presented. The exposure process employed a single-layer polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) or photoresists with either different doses in the span and feet areas or with varying acceleration voltage of the electron beam. The process using photoresists with different doses has produced air bridges more stable than what the PMMA method using various acceleration voltages would achieve. Using this method, air bridges up to 12 mu m long have been fabricated. The length and height of these metallic air bridges vary with the photoresist thickness. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.

Optical properties of semiconductor quantum-well material using photonic crystal fabricated by micro-fabrication machine

Two-dimensional photonic crystals in near infrared region were fabricated by using the focused ion beam ( FIB) method and the method of electron-beam lithography (EBL) combined with dry etching. Both methods can fabricate perfect crystals, the method of FIB is simple,the other is more complicated. It is shown that the material with the photonic crystal fabricated by FIB has no fluorescence,on the other hand, the small-lattice photonic crystal made by EBL combined with dry etching can enhance the extraction efficiency two folds, though the photonic crystal has some disorder. The mechanisms of the enhanced-emission and the absence of emission are also discussed.

Realization of low threshold of InGaAs/InAlAs quantum cascade laser

By optimizing the molecule beam epitaxy growth condition, the quality of quantum cascade (QC) material has greatly been improved. The spectrum of double x-ray diffraction indicates that the interface between the constituent layers is very smooth, the lattice mismatch between the epilayer and the substrate is less than 0.1%, and the periodicity fluctuation of the active region is not more than 4.2%. The QC laser with the emission wavelength of about 5.1 mum is operated at the threshold of 0.73 kA/cm(2) at liquid nitrogen temperature with the repetition rate of 10kHz and at a duty cycle of 1%. Meanwhile, the performance of the laser can be improved with suitable post process techniques such as the metallic ohmic contact technology.