Path to the measurement of positive gain on the 1315-nm transition of atomic iodine pumped by O/sub 2/(a/sup 1//spl Delta/) produced in an electric discharge

Laser action at 1315 nm on the I(/sup 2/P/sub 1/2/)/spl rarr/I(/sup 2/P/sub 3/2/) transition of atomic iodine is conventionally obtained by a near-resonant energy transfer from O/sub 2/(a/sup 1//spl Delta/) which is produced using wet-solution chemistry. The system difficulties of chemically producing O/sub 2/(a/sup 1//spl Delta/) have motivated investigations into gas phase methods to produce O/sub 2/(a/sup 1//spl Delta/) using low-pressure electric discharges. We report on the path that led to the measurement of positive gain on the 1315-nm transition of atomic iodine where the O/sub 2/(a/sup 1//spl Delta/) was produced in a flowing electric discharge. Atomic oxygen was found to play both positive and deleterious roles in this system, and as such the excess atomic oxygen was scavenged by NO/sub 2/ to minimize the deleterious effects. The discharge production of O/sub 2/(a/sup 1//spl Delta/) was enhanced by the addition of a small proportion of NO to lower the ionization threshold of the gas mixture. The electric discharge was upstream of a continuously flowing supersonic cavity, which was employed to lower the temperature of the flow and shift the equilibrium of atomic iodine more in favor of the I(/sup 2/P/sub 1/2/) state. A tunable diode laser system capable of scanning the entire line shape of the (3,4) hyperfine transition of iodine provided the gain measurements.     

A multiwatt all gas-phase iodine laser (AGIL)

The demonstration and characterization of a multiwatt all gas-phase iodine laser (AGIL) are described. A 20-cm subsonic reactor was used to produce NCl (a/sup 1//spl Delta/) for series parametric studies of the I/sup */(/sup 2/P/sub 1/2/)-I(/sup 2/P/sub 3/2/) small-signal gain and extracted power dependence on reactant flow rates and reaction time. The highest measured gain was 2.5/spl times/10/sup -4/ cm/sup -1/ and the highest power observed was 15 W.     

The inequalities of quantum information theory

Let /spl rho/ denote the density matrix of a quantum state having n parts 1, ..., n. For I/spl sube/N={1, ..., n}, let /spl rho//sub I/=Tr/sub N/spl bsol/I/(/spl rho/) denote the density matrix of the state comprising those parts i such that i/spl isin/I, and let S(/spl rho//sub I/) denote the von Neumann (1927) entropy of the state /spl rho//sub I/. The collection of /spl nu/=2/sup n/ numbers {S(/spl rho//sub I/)}/sub I/spl sube/N/ may be regarded as a point, called the allocation of entropy for /spl rho/, in the vector space R/sup /spl nu//. Let A/sub n/ denote the set of points in R/sup /spl nu// that are allocations of entropy for n-part quantum states. We show that A~/sub n/~ (the topological closure of A/sub n/) is a closed convex cone in R/sup /spl nu//. This implies that the approximate achievability of a point as an allocation of entropy is determined by the linear inequalities that it satisfies. Lieb and Ruskai (1973) have established a number of inequalities for multipartite quantum states (strong subadditivity and weak monotonicity). We give a finite set of instances of these inequalities that is complete (in the sense that any valid linear inequality for allocations of entropy can be deduced from them by taking positive linear combinations) and independent (in the sense that none of them can be deduced from the others by taking positive linear combinations). Let B/sub n/ denote the polyhedral cone in R/sup /spl nu// determined by these inequalities. We show that A~/sub n/~=B/sub n/ for n/spl les/3. The status of this equality is open for n/spl ges/4. We also consider a symmetric version of this situation, in which S(/spl rho//sub I/) depends on I only through the number i=/spl ne/I of indexes in I and can thus be denoted S(/spl rho//sub i/). In this case, we give for each n a finite complete and independent set of inequalities governing the symmetric allocations of entropy {S(/spl rho//sub i/)}/sub 0/spl les/i/spl les/n/ in R/sup n+1/.     

1.65 /spl mu/m-band optical amplification with Er/sup 3+/-doped fluorozirconate fibre using 0.8 /spl mu/m upconversion pumping

In order to expand the available bandwidth for wavelength division multiplexing transmission systems, a 1.65 /spl mu/m-band optical fibre amplifier with Er/sup 3+/-doped fluorozirconate fibre using 0.8 /spl mu/m upconversion pumping has been demonstrated. The positive gain, 3.8 dB, is the first ever achieved by means of (/sup 2/H/sub 11/2/, /sup 4/S/sub 3/2/) /spl rarr/ /sup 4/I/sub 9/2/ stimulated emission transition.     

RF, DC, and reliability characteristics of ALD HfO/sub 2/-Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ laminate MIM capacitors for Si RF IC applications

High-performance metal-insulator-metal capacitors using atomic layer-deposited HfO/sub 2/-Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ laminate are fabricated and characterized for RF and mixed-signal applications. The laminate capacitor can offer high capacitance density (12.8 fF//spl mu/m/sup 2/) up to 20 GHz, low leakage current of 4.9/spl times/10/sup -8/ A/cm/sup 2/ at 2 V and 125/spl deg/C, and small linear voltage coefficient of capacitance of 211 ppm/V at 1 MHz, which can easily satisfy RF capacitor requirements for year 2007 according to the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors. In addition, effects of constant voltage stress and temperature on leakage current and voltage linearity are comprehensively investigated, and dependences of quadratic voltage coefficient of capacitance (/spl alpha/) on frequency and thickness are also demonstrated. Meanwhile, the underlying mechanisms are also discussed.     

Entropy and the law of small numbers

Two new information-theoretic methods are introduced for establishing Poisson approximation inequalities. First, using only elementary information-theoretic techniques it is shown that, when S/sub n/=/spl Sigma//sub i=1//sup n/X/sub i/ is the sum of the (possibly dependent) binary random variables X/sub 1/,X/sub 2/,...,X/sub n/, with E(X/sub i/)=p/sub i/ and E(S/sub n/)=/spl lambda/, then D(P(S/sub n/)/spl par/Po(/spl lambda/)) /spl les//spl Sigma//sub i=1//sup n/p/sub i//sup 2/+[/spl Sigma//sub i=1//sup n/H(X/sub i/)-H(X/sub 1/,X/sub 2/,...,X/sub n/)] where D(P(S/sub n/)/spl par/Po(/spl lambda/)) is the relative entropy between the distribution of S/sub n/ and the Poisson (/spl lambda/) distribution. The first term in this bound measures the individual smallness of the X/sub i/ and the second term measures their dependence. A general method is outlined for obtaining corresponding bounds when approximating the distribution of a sum of general discrete random variables by an infinitely divisible distribution. Second, in the particular case when the X/sub i/ are independent, the following sharper bound is established: D(P(S/sub n/)/spl par/Po(/spl lambda/))/spl les/1//spl lambda/ /spl Sigma//sub i=1//sup n/ ((p/sub i//sup 3/)/(1-p/sub i/)) and it is also generalized to the case when the X/sub i/ are general integer-valued random variables. Its proof is based on the derivation of a subadditivity property for a new discrete version of the Fisher information, and uses a recent logarithmic Sobolev inequality for the Poisson distribution.     

Integrated high-/spl kappa/ (/spl kappa/ /spl sim/19) MIM capacitor with Cu/low-/spl kappa/ interconnects for RF application

We demonstrate a high-performance metal-high /spl kappa/ insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor integrated with a Cu/low-/spl kappa/ backend interconnection. The high-/spl kappa/ used was laminated HfO/sub 2/-Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ with effective /spl kappa/ /spl sim/19 and the low-/spl kappa/ dielectric used was Black Diamond with /spl kappa/ /spl sim/2.9. The MIM capacitor (/spl sim/13.4 fF//spl mu/m/sup 2/) achieved a Q-factor /spl sim/53 at 2.5 GHz and 11.7 pF. The resonant frequency f/sub r/ was 21% higher in comparison to an equivalently integrated Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/-MIM capacitor (/spl sim/0.93 fF//spl mu/m/sup 2/) having similar capacitance 11.2 pF. The impacts of high-/spl kappa/ insulator and low-/spl kappa/ interconnect dielectric on the mechanism for resonant frequency improvement are distinguished using equivalent circuit analysis. This letter suggests that integrated high-/spl kappa/ MIM could be a promising alternative capacitor structure for future high-performance RF applications.     

The empirical distribution of rate-constrained source codes

Let X = (X/sub 1/,...) be a stationary ergodic finite-alphabet source, X/sup n/ denote its first n symbols, and Y/sup n/ be the codeword assigned to X/sup n/ by a lossy source code. The empirical kth-order joint distribution Q/spl circ//sup k/[X/sup n/,Y/sup n//spl rceil/(x/sup k/,y/sup k/) is defined as the frequency of appearances of pairs of k-strings (x/sup k/,y/sup k/) along the pair (X/sup n/,Y/sup n/). Our main interest is in the sample behavior of this (random) distribution. Letting I(Q/sup k/) denote the mutual information I(X/sup k/;Y/sup k/) when (X/sup k/,Y/sup k/)/spl sim/Q/sup k/ we show that for any (sequence of) lossy source code(s) of rate /spl les/R lim sup/sub n/spl rarr//spl infin//(1/k)I(Q/spl circ//sup k/[X/sup n/,Y/sup n//spl rfloor/) /spl les/R+(1/k)H (X/sub 1//sup k/)-H~(X) a.s. where H~(X) denotes the entropy rate of X. This is shown to imply, for a large class of sources including all independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.). sources and all sources satisfying the Shannon lower bound with equality, that for any sequence of codes which is good in the sense of asymptotically attaining a point on the rate distortion curve Q/spl circ//sup k/[X/sup n/,Y/sup n//spl rfloor//spl rArr//sup d/P(X/sup k/,Y~/sup k/) a.s. whenever P(/sub X//sup k//sub ,Y//sup k/) is the unique distribution attaining the minimum in the definition of the kth-order rate distortion function. Consequences of these results include a new proof of Kieffer's sample converse to lossy source coding, as well as performance bounds for compression-based denoisers.     

Asymptotic properties on codeword lengths of an optimal FV code for general sources

This correspondence is concerned with asymptotic properties on the codeword length of a fixed-to-variable length code (FV code) for a general source {X/sup n/}/sub n=1//sup /spl infin// with a finite or countably infinite alphabet. Suppose that for each n /spl ges/ 1 X/sup n/ is encoded to a binary codeword /spl phi//sub n/(X/sup n/) of length l(/spl phi//sub n/(X/sup n/)). Letting /spl epsiv//sub n/ denote the decoding error probability, we consider the following two criteria on FV codes: i) /spl epsiv//sub n/ = 0 for all n /spl ges/ 1 and ii) lim sup/sub n/spl rarr//spl infin///spl epsiv//sub n/ /spl les/ /spl epsiv/ for an arbitrarily given /spl epsiv/ /spl isin/ [0,1). Under criterion i), we show that, if X/sup n/ is encoded by an arbitrary prefix-free FV code asymptotically achieving the entropy, 1/nl(/spl phi//sub n/(X/sup n/)) - 1/nlog/sub 2/ 1/PX/sup n/(X/sup n/) /spl rarr/ 0 in probability as n /spl rarr/ /spl infin/ under a certain condition, where P/sub X//sup n/ denotes the probability distribution of X/sup n/. Under criterion ii), we first determine the minimum rate achieved by FV codes. Next, we show that 1/nl(/spl phi//sub n/(X/sup n/)) of an arbitrary FV code achieving the minimum rate in a certain sense has a property similar to the lossless case.     

Turn-on voltage investigation of GaAs-based bipolar transistors with Ga/sub 1-x/In/sub x/As/sub 1-y/N/sub y/ base layers

The fundamental lower limit on the turn on voltage of GaAs-based bipolar transistors is first established, then reduced with the use of a novel low energy-gap base material, Ga/sub 1-x/In/sub x/As/sub 1-y/N/sub y/. InGaP/GaInAsN DHBTs (x/spl sim/3y/spl sim/0.01) with high p-type doping levels (/spl sim/3/spl times/10/sup 19/ cm/sup -3/) and dc current gain (/spl beta//sub max//spl sim/68 at 234 /spl Omega///spl square/) are demonstrated. A reduction in the turn-on voltage over a wide range of practical base sheet resistance values (100 to 400 /spl Omega///spl square/) is established relative to both GaAs BJTs and conventional InGaP/GaAs HBTs with optimized base-emitter interfaces-over 25 mV in heavily doped, high dc current gain samples. The potential to engineer turn-on voltages comparable to Si- or InP-based bipolar devices on a GaAs platform is enabled by the use of lattice matched Ga/sub 1-x/In/sub x/As/sub 1-y/N/sub y/ alloys, which can simultaneously reduce the energy-gap and balance the lattice constant of the base layer when x/spl sim/3y.     

Cyclic codes over GR(4/sup m/) which are also cyclic over /spl Zopf//sub 4/

Let GR(4/sup m/) be the Galois ring of characteristic 4 and cardinality 4/sup m/, and /spl alpha/_={/spl alpha//sub 0/,/spl alpha//sub 1/,...,/spl alpha//sub m-1/} be a basis of GR(4/sup m/) over /spl Zopf//sub 4/ when we regard GR(4/sup m/) as a free /spl Zopf//sub 4/-module of rank m. Define the map d/sub /spl alpha/_/ from GR(4/sup m/)[z]/(z/sup n/-1) into /spl Zopf//sub 4/[z]/(z/sup mn/-1) by d/spl alpha/_(a(z))=/spl Sigma//sub i=0//sup m-1//spl Sigma//sub j=0//sup n-1/a/sub ij/z/sup mj+i/ where a(z)=/spl Sigma//sub j=0//sup n-1/a/sub j/z/sup j/ and a/sub j/=/spl Sigma//sub i=0//sup m-1/a/sub ij//spl alpha//sub i/, a/sub ij//spl isin//spl Zopf//sub 4/. Then, for any linear code C of length n over GR(4/sup m/), its image d/sub /spl alpha/_/(C) is a /spl Zopf//sub 4/-linear code of length mn. In this article, for n and m being odd integers, it is determined all pairs (/spl alpha/_,C) such that d/sub /spl alpha/_/(C) is /spl Zopf//sub 4/-cyclic, where /spl alpha/_ is a basis of GR(4/sup m/) over /spl Zopf//sub 4/, and C is a cyclic code of length n over GR(4/sup m/).     

Spatial distribution of the gain and temperature across the flow in a slit-nozzle supersonic chemical oxygen-iodine laser with transonic and supersonic schemes of iodine injection

Spatial distributions of the gain and temperature across the flow were studied for transonic and supersonic schemes of the iodine injection in a slit-nozzle supersonic chemical oxygen-iodine laser as a function of the iodine and secondary nitrogen flow rate, jet penetration parameter, and gas pumping rate. The mixing efficiency for supersonic injection of iodine (/spl sim/0.85) is much larger than for transonic injection (/spl sim/0.5), the maximum values of the gain being /spl sim/0.65%/cm for both injection schemes. Measurements of the gain distribution as a function of the iodine molar flow rate nI/sub 2/ were carried out. For transonic injection, the optimal value of nI/sub 2/ at the now centerline is smaller than that at off axis locations. The temperature is distributed homogeneously across the flow, increasing only in the narrow boundary layers near the walls. Opening a leak downstream of the cavity in order to decrease the Mach number results in a much larger mixing efficiency (/spl sim/0.8) than for a closed leak.     

Supersonic chemical oxygen-iodine laser with X-shaped streamwise vortex Generator

High-throughput operation of a supersonic chemical oxygen-iodine laser (COIL) is achieved with an advanced mixing nozzle. The mixing nozzle consists of a staggered arrangement of thin wedges lying across the flow duct, and looks like the letter "X" when it is viewed from the side. A 32.9% chemical efficiency is measured experimentally with this nozzle and buffer-gas precooling. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations are conducted to understand the rapid mixing capability of the nozzle. A series of streamwise vortices generated by the alternating wedges greatly enhances the mixing process in the supersonic stream and the rapid formation of the gain medium. The temperature and Mach number of the flow field are estimated from the gain-profile measurement of the I (/sup 2/P/sub 1/2/) to I (/sup 2/P/sub 3/2/) transition. Good agreement with the CFD calculations is seen.     

Continuous-wave operation of 1.55-/spl mu/m vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser with digital-alloy active region using submonolayer superlattices

For the first time, a digital-alloy active region (DAAR) consisting of submonolayer superlattices was used in a 1.55-/spl mu/m vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser. The device showed continuous-wave operation with a room-temperature threshold current (I/sub th/) of 1.2 mA, maximum output power (P/sub max/) of 0.26 mW, and a differential quantum efficiency (/spl eta//sub d/) of 21%. These results indicate that the DAAR is at least as efficient as the analog-alloy active region and provides much better control of alloy composition and strain.     

Mode Propagation in a Nonuniform Cylindrical Medium (Correspondence)

A simplified form of the coupling coefficient C(/spl beta//sub p/, /spl beta//sub q/) resulting from a coupled mode theory analysis of wave propagation in a nonuniform medium is derived. It is found for most situations of interest that C(/spl beta//sub p/, /spl beta//sub q/) is proportional to 1/(/spl beta//sub p/-/spl beta//sub q/) and the power transfer between two modes is proportional to 1/(/spl beta//sub p/ - /spl beta//sub q/)/sup 4/. /spl beta//sub p/ and /spl beta//sub q/ are the two different modal propagation constants. For a dielectric rod C(/spl beta//sub p/, /spl beta//sub q/) is a simple line integral around the rod boundary. Approximate forms are presented for optical waveguides.     

Measurements of InGaP electron ionization coefficient using InGaP-GaAs-InGaP double HBTs

Electron impact ionization coefficients (/spl alpha/) in In/sub 0.52/Ga/sub 0.48/P have been extracted based on the measurements of electron multiplication factor in npn InGaP-GaAs-InGaP double heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs). The electron ionization coefficient of InGaP determined in this brief extends the previously reported data in low electric field by two orders of magnitude down to 1 cm/sup -1/ with the electric field as low as 330 kV/cm.     

Improved-performance, InGaAs/InGaAsP (/spl lambda/=980 nm) asymmetric broad-waveguide diode lasers via waveguide-core doping

Doping the waveguide core (p=2/spl times/10/sup 17/ cm/sup -1/) in asymmetric-waveguide InGaAs/InGaAsP, two-quantum-well diode lasers (/spl lambda/=980 nm) raises the injection efficiency to 90% and decreases the threshold-current density, J/sub th/. For 2 mm long, 100 /spl mu/m wide stripe, uncoated chips J/sub th/ decreases from /spl sim/188 A/cm/sup 2/ to /spl sim/150 A/cm/sup 2/. High characteristic temperatures for J/sub th/ and the slope efficiency are obtained: T/sub 0/=215K and T/sub 1/=600K.     

Hot-carrier stress effects on gate-induced-drain leakage current in n-channel MOSFETs studied by hydrogen/deuterium isotope effect

The degradation of gate-induced-drain leakage (GIDL) current under hot-carrier stress (HCS) has been studied in n-channel MOSFETs that were annealed in hydrogen (H) or deuterium (D). It is found that the degradation of GIDL current (I/sub GIDL/) can be effectively suppressed by deuterium passivation of interface traps. By using the H/D isotope effect, the impacts of oxide charge trapping (/spl Delta/N/sub ox/) and interface trap generation (/spl Delta/N/sub it/) on I/sub GIDL/ are successfully separated. The results indicate that, depending on stress and measurement conditions, I/sub GIDL/ may increase or decrease under HCS. /spl Delta/N/sub ox/ alters I/sub GIDL/ at high electric fields by varying the band-to-band tunneling current. /spl Delta/N/sub it/ alters I/sub GIDL/ at a low electric field by introducing a trap-assisted leakage component. Furthermore, evidence of hole trapping at the peak substrate current stress is indisputably presented for the first time and its impact on I/sub GIDL/ is discussed.     

InAlN/GaN HEMTs: a first insight into technological optimization

High-electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) were fabricated from heterostructures consisting of undoped In/sub 0.2/Al/sub 0.8/N barrier and GaN channel layers grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy on (0001) sapphire substrates. The polarization-induced two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) density and mobility at the In/sub 0.2/Al/sub 0.8/N/GaN heterojunction were 2/spl times/10/sup 13/ cm/sup -2/ and 260 cm/sup 2/V/sup -1/s/sup -1/, respectively. A tradeoff was determined for the annealing temperature of Ti/Al/Ni/Au ohmic contacts in order to achieve a low contact resistance (/spl rho//sub C/=2.4/spl times/10/sup -5/ /spl Omega//spl middot/cm/sup 2/) without degradation of the channels sheet resistance. Schottky barrier heights were 0.63 and 0.84 eV for Ni- and Pt-based contacts, respectively. The obtained dc parameters of 1-/spl mu/m gate-length HEMT were 0.64 A/mm drain current at V/sub GS/=3 V and 122 mS/mm transconductance, respectively. An HEMT analytical model was used to identify the effects of various material and device parameters on the InAlN/GaN HEMT performance. It is concluded that the increase in the channel mobility is urgently needed in order to benefit from the high 2DEG density.     

Compression mappings on primitive sequences over Z/(p/sup e/)

Let Z/(p/sup e/) be the integer residue ring with odd prime p/spl ges/5 and integer e/spl ges/2. For a sequence a_ over Z/(p/sup e/), there is a unique p-adic expansion a_=a_/sub 0/+a_/spl middot/p+...+a_/sub e-1//spl middot/p/sup e-1/, where each a_/sub i/ is a sequence over {0,1,...,p-1}, and can be regarded as a sequence over the finite field GF(p) naturally. Let f(x) be a primitive polynomial over Z/(p/sup e/), and G'(f(x),p/sup e/) the set of all primitive sequences generated by f(x) over Z/(p/sup e/). Set /spl phi//sub e-1/ (x/sub 0/,...,x/sub e-1/) = x/sub e-1//sup k/ + /spl eta//sub e-2,1/(x/sub 0/, x/sub 1/,...,x/sub e-2/) /spl psi//sub e-1/(x/sub 0/,...,x/sub e-1/) = x/sub e-1//sup k/ + /spl eta//sub e-2,2/(x/sub 0/,x/sub 1/,...,x/sub e-2/) where /spl eta//sub e-2,1/ and /spl eta//sub e-2,2/ are arbitrary functions of e-1 variables over GF(p) and 2/spl les/k/spl les/p-1. Then the compression mapping /spl phi//sub e-1/:{G'(f(x),p/sup e/) /spl rarr/ GF(p)/sup /spl infin// a_ /spl rarr/ /spl phi//sub e-1/(a_/sub 0/,...,a_/sub e-1/) is injective, that is, a_ = b_ if and only if /spl phi//sub e-1/(a_/sub 0/,...,a_/sub e-1/) = /spl phi//sub e-1/(b_/sub 0/,...,b_/sub e-1/) for a_,b_ /spl isin/ G'(f(x),p/sup e/). Furthermore, if f(x) is a strongly primitive polynomial over Z/(p/sup e/), then /spl phi//sub e-1/(a_/sub 0/,...,a_/sub e-1/) = /spl psi//sub e-1/(b_/sub 0/,...,b_/sub e-1/) if and only if a_ = b_ and /spl phi//sub e-1/(x/sub 0/,...,x/sub e-1/) = /spl psi//sub e-1/(x/sub 0/,...,x/sub e-1/) for a_,b_ /spl isin/ G'(f(x),p/sup e/).