On the radiative recombination and tunneling of charge carriers in SiGe/Si heterostructures with double quantum wells

For SiGe/Si(001) epitaxial structures with two nonequivalent SiGe quantum wells separated by a thin Si barrier, the spectral and time characteristics of interband photoluminescence corresponding to the radiative recombination of excitons in quantum wells are studied. For a series of structures with two SiGe quantum wells different in width, the characteristic time of tunneling of charge carriers (holes) from the narrow quantum well, distinguished by a higher exciton recombination energy, to the wide quantum well is determined as a function of the Si barrier thickness. It is shown that the time of tunneling of holes between the Si_0.85Ge_0.15 layers with thicknesses of 3 and 9 nm steadily decreases from ~500 to <5 ns, as the Si barrier thickness is reduced from 16 to 8 nm. At intermediate Si barrier thicknesses, an increase in the photoluminescence signal from the wide quantum well is observed, with a characteristic time of the same order of magnitude as the luminescence decay time of the narrow quantum well. This supports the observation of the effect of the tunneling of holes from the narrow to the wide quantum well. A strong dependence of the tunneling time of holes on the Ge content in the SiGe layers at the same thickness of the Si barrier between quantum wells is observed, which is attributed to an increase in the effective Si barrier height.     

面向高工作温度应用的带间级联红外光电器件

高温工作探测器是第三代红外焦平面发展的重要方向之一。带间级联探测器结合了势垒结构与多级吸收区结构的特点,通过多量子阱弛豫和隧穿实现光生载流子单方向输运,可以有效降低来自PN结耗尽区的产生-复合暗电流;利用多级短吸收区结构,在扩散长度很短的情况下仍然可以有效地收集光生载流子,从而可以提高探测器在高工作温度下的探测性能。本文主要介绍了作者在带间级联红外光电器件方面的研究进展,包括高工作温度带间级联探测器、高带宽带间级联探测器以及带间级联发光器件等。     

ZnSeTe/ZnTe多量子阱中载流子动力学过程

用飞秒脉冲泵浦.探测技术通过时间分辨差分透射谱和透射衰减曲线研究了ZnSe0.2Te0.8/ZnTe Ⅱ型多量子阱结构中热载流子的产生、弛豫及复合过程.观察到阱层和垒层中热载流子的形成,ZnTe垒层中热载流子在10ps左右会弛豫回ZnTe基态,并在10ps内注入到ZnSeTe阱层并辐射复合.     

Well-defined electrical properties of high-strain resonant interband tunneling structure

The GaAs/InAs high-strain resonant interband tunneling diodes (HSRITDs) have been implemented by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The current-voltage characteristics of variable quantum well and barrier thickness grown on (1 1 1) GaAs substrates are investigated. Experimental results reveal that the quantum barrier and well layer will influence current-voltage properties such as the peak current density, valley current density, and peak-to-valley current ratio (PVCR). Both peak current and valley current density decrease with increasing layers width. This result also exhibits the variation of PVCR with layers width.     

Theoretical analysis of confined quantum state GaAs/AlGaAssolid-state photomultipliers

A detailed theoretical analysis of the design considerations of a solid-state photomultiplier based on avalanche multiplication of carriers out of confined quantum states is presented. Since these devices are unipolar, much lower noise and higher speed of performance are anticipated as compared with interband avalanche photodiodes. As an example of the design criteria for confined-state photomultipliers, a GaAs/Al_0.32Ga_0.68As multiquantum well structure is analyzed as to impact ionization rate, gain, dark current, and multiplied dark current. It is found that the highest gain is achieved in an asymmetric quantum well structure in which the second barrier height is half as large as the initial barrier height. The gain is further evaluated for a symmetric quantum well device. The effects of the applied electric field, quantum well doping concentration, and layer widths on device performance are examined     

Electroluminescence of InGaAs/GaAs quantum-size heterostructures with (III,Mn)V and Ni ferromagnetic injectors

Electroluminescence characteristics of light-emitting diodes based on InGaAs/GaAs quantum well heterostructures with an injector layer made of ferromagnetic metal (Ni), semimetal compound (MnSb), or magnetic semiconductor (InMnAs) were comparatively studied. The general feature is electroluminescence quenching as the spacer layer thickness between a quantum well and a magnetic injector decreases. It was found that the temperature dependence of the electroluminescence in diodes with Ni and MnSb is caused by thermal ejection of carriers from the quantum well; in diodes with InMnAs, it is caused by the temperature dependence of the carrier concentration in magnetic semiconductor and thermal ejection of carriers from the quantum well in the high-temperature region.     

Carrier recombination rates in strained-layer InGaAs-GaAs quantumwells

The carrier recombination rates in semiconductor quantum wells are found to be structure dependent. Under high levels of excitation they generally do not follow the recombination rule of the bulk material. Through a differential carrier-lifetime measurement in the strained-layer InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells, it is shown that in quantum wells with lower potential barrier or thinner well width, the recombination rates are smaller due to a larger portion of the injected carriers populating the confinement layers where the carriers recombine more slowly owing to dilute carrier volume density     

Investigation of the influence of the well and the barrierthicknesses in GaSb/AlSb/GaSb/AlSb/InAs double-barrier interbandtunneling structures

The tunneling currents of GaSb/AlSb/GaSb/AlSb/InAs double-barrier interband tunneling (DBIT) structures were studied experimentally by varying the thickness of the well and the barrier layers systematically. The optimal thicknesses for the GaSb well and the AlSb barriers were found to be 6.5 and 1.0 nm, respectively, to obtain a high peak current density (19 kA/cm²), with a large peak-to-valley ratio of 4. The high peak current in the DBIT structure shows the strong effect of the resonant coherence of the wave function across the double barrier. For the case of a small GaSb well width (3 nm), a drastic reduction of the peak current was observed, an effect suggesting that the electron-wave function in the InAs couples primarily to the quantized light hole state in the GaSb well     

Intraband photoconductivity induced by interband illumination in InAs/GaAs heterostructures with quantum dots

The effect of lateral intraband photoconductivity in undoped InAs/GaAs heterostructures with quantum dots (QDs) has been studied, with QD levels populated with carriers by means of interband optical excitation of varied power at different wavelengths. In the absence of interband illumination, no photoconductivity is observed in the mid-IR spectral range. At the same time, additional exposure of the structures to visible or near-IR light gives rise to a strong photoconductivity signal in the mid-IR spectral range (3?C5 ??m), associated with intraband transitions in QDs. The signal is observed up to a temperature of ??200 K. Use of interband optical pumping makes the intraband photoconductivity signal stronger, compared with similar structures in which doping serves to populate QD levels.     

Intermediate band photovoltaics based on interband–intraband transitions using In0.53Ga0.47As/InP superlattice

We present a theoretical model to incorporate the quantum mechanism of two‐photon transitions into macroscopic operations. The two‐photon transition is described as a two‐step interband–intraband transition within the one‐band envelope‐function framework and is coupled with drift–diffusion as well as the potential distribution. In_0.53Ga_0.47As/InP superlattices (SLs) are chosen as the initial candidate to simulate intermediate band solar cell operation. In this type of structure, the absorption spectrum of interband and intraband transitions is asymmetric and strongly depends on device structure and operating conditions. Our results also reveal that the intraband transition dominates the detailed balance. Both the intermediate band (IB) configuration and the conversion efficiency are determined by the SL structure. Only well‐designed SLs can form the appropriate IB. Furthermore, an efficiency contour plot has been calculated to guide quantum design: the peak efficiency is 45.61% when the well thickness is 4 nm and the barrier thickness is 2 nm. As the well or barrier thickness increases to 10 nm, the absorption peak of the intraband transition gradually redshifts and narrows, so the efficiency correspondingly decreases to below 40%. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influence of Holes Capture Efficiency on Photoluminescence Temperature Dependence of n-AlGaAs/GaAs Quantum-Well Structures

Semiconductors - The process of excess current carriers capture from wide-gap barrier layers into a quantum well plays a decisive role in the operation of devices based on semiconductor structures....     

Investigation of negative differential resistance phenomena inGaSb/AlSb/InAs/GaSb/AlSb/InAs structures

The negative differential resistance (NDR) phenomena were observed in GaSb/AlSb/InAs/-GaSb/AlSb/InAs resonant interband tunnel structures. Electrons have resonantly achieved interband tunneling through the InAs/GaSb broken-gap quantum well. The InAs well width causes significant variations of the peak current density and NDR behaviors. The peak current density varies exponentially with the AlSb barrier thickness. The multiple NDR behavior was observed with appropriate InAs well and AlSb barrier thicknesses, e.g., 30 Å thick AlSb barrier and 240 Å wide InAs well. Only single negative resistance has, otherwise, been seen. The three-band model was used to interpret the effect of the InAs well and AlSb barrier on the current-voltage characteristics of GaSb/AlSb/InAs/GaSb/AlSb/InAs structures     

Enhanced interband-resonant light modulation byintersubband-resonant light in selectively n-doped quantum wells

The interband-resonant light modulation by the intersubband-resonant light in selectively n-doped quantum wells is investigated. The modulation efficiency depends greatly on the degree of nonlinear optical coupling between the interband and intersubband-resonant lights. It is shown theoretically and experimentally that the selective n-doping in the barrier layers of the quantum wells is very effective to increase the nonlinear coupling degree and thus the modulation efficiency. The thermal and the hot carrier effects on the modulation are also discussed     

Photoelectrical and electrical properties of polycrystalline CdxHg1−x Te layers on GaAs substrates

Temperature dependences of electrical conductivity, concentration, and mobility of electrons, as well as photoconductivity spectra and conductivity-illumination characteristics of Cd_0.8Hg_0.2Te polycrystalline layers grown on GaAs substrates are studied. The features of charge transport and photoconductivity of Cd_xHg_1?x Te/CdTe/GaAs structures are discussed. It is established that a high photoconductivity at a temperature of 300 K and a jump in conductivity-illumination characteristics at high levels of excitation are caused by the influence of electrically active grain boundaries, which produce the potential barriers for the drift and recombination of charge carriers. It is shown within the framework of the semiconductor barrier model with a random potential relief pattern that, for high levels of excitation by the radiation pulses of ruby or neodymium lasers, the height of potential barriers at the grain boundaries lowers due to screening by nonequilibrium carriers.     

Energy transfer in organic multilayer quantum well structure and its application to OLEDs

We fabricate a series of samples and OLEDs with organic multilayer quantum well structure, which consist of alternate PBD and Alq3. Both PBD and Alq3 are electron-transporting materials, and PBD is used as potential barrier layer, while Alq3 is used as potential well layer and emitting layer. Compared with double-layer structure, the luminescent characteris- tics of organic samples and diodes with quantum well structure are investigated and the quantum well structure helps the energy transfer between well layer and barrier layer. The quantum well structure makes carriers disperse in the different well layers and then increases the number of excitons to enhance the efficiency of the recombination.     

Schottky rectifiers on silicon using high barriers

Schottky diodes are presently used for power rectification because of their low forward voltage drop. However, they have only been fabricated on relatively low resistivity and thin semiconductor layers. Hence the reverse breakdown voltages are low. To make diodes that stand higher reverse voltages, low doped material of sufficient thickness is necessary. Ordinary Schottky barriers do not inject minority carriers and the resistive voltage drop at high forward currents will be large, However, for high Schottky barriers ～ 0.9eV, minority carriers are injected and the series resistance is decreased.In this paper we report results from one-dimensional numerical calculations as well as experimental results of high barrier Schottky diodes. We discuss the voltage drop at high forward currents for different substrate resistivity and thickness, as well as values of the high barrier.     

Dynamics of photoluminescence and recombination processes in Sb-containing laser nanostructures

The dynamics of interband photoluminescence has been studied at various temperatures and excitation levels in structures with quantum wells based on InGaAsSb alloys and barriers based on AlGaAsSb and AlInGaAsSb alloys. The lifetimes of optically injected charge carriers in quantum wells at various temperatures and levels of optical excitation have been experimentally determined. An increase in the recombination rate in structures with deeper InGaAsSb/AlGaAsSb quantum wells for electrons is attributed to manifestation of resonant Auger recombination. The Auger recombination brings about heating of electrons and holes in lower subbands of dimensional quantization. The temperature of charge carriers in the course of Auger recombination is estimated using the equation for balance of power with accumulation of nonequilibrium optical phonons taken into account. The studied structures were used to fabricate lasers of two types with lasing wavelength of approximately 3 μm; it is shown that the use of a quinary alloy as the material for the barrier leads to an improvement in the characteristics of the lasers.     

Specific features of the photoexcitation spectra of epitaxial InN layers grown by molecular-beam epitaxy with the plasma activation of nitrogen

The results of studies of the photoexcitation spectra of epitaxial InN layers formed by molecular-beam epitaxy with the plasma activation of nitrogen are reported. The concentration of free charge carriers in the layers is 10¹⁸–10¹⁹ cm^–3. The photoconductivity, photoluminescence, and absorption spectra exhibit a shift of the long-wavelength threshold of interband transitions in accordance with the Burstein–Moss effect for n-InN with different concentrations of equilibrium electrons. In the samples, absolute negative photoconductivity with a nanosecond relaxation time is observed. The results of photoelectric, absorption, and luminescence spectroscopy experiments are correlated with the technological parameters and electron microscopy data.     

Suppression of Recombination in the Waveguide of a Laser Heterostructure by Means of Double Asymmetric Barriers

A semiconductor-laser design is proposed in which parasitic recombination in the waveguide region is suppressed by means of double asymmetric barriers adjacent to the active region. Double asymmetric barriers block the undesirable transport of one type of charge carrier while allowing the transport of the other type of carrier. The spacer in the double asymmetric barrier can serve to compensate the elastic strain introduced by the barrier layers as well as to control the energy spectrum of charge carriers and, thus, the transmission coefficient. By the example of a laser with Al_0.2Ga_0.8As waveguide layers, it is shown that the design with double asymmetric barriers makes it possible to suppress undesirable electron transport by a factor of 4 in comparison to the design using single asymmetric barriers.     

Waveguide infrared photodetectors on a silicon chip

A novel infrared (IR) photodetector structure is discussed. It represents a waveguide in which the core is a strained-layer GexSi1-x/Si superlattice (SLS) sandwiched between Si layers of a lower refractive index. Absorption of infrared radiation occurs in the core region due to interband electron transitions, and photogenerated carriers are collected in the Si cladding layers. Due to the recently discovered effect of bandgap narrowing by the strain in alloy layers the fundamental absorption threshold of the SLS is shifted to longer wavelengths, so that the detector can be operated in the range of silica-fiber transparency, 1.3-1.55 µm. The optimum SLS composition and thickness have been estimated from the known material properties and waveguide theory. The detector quantum efficiency grows with the optical path length, remaining consistent with the requirements of high-speed fiber-optical communications. A major advantage of the proposed structure is the possibility of obtaining avalanche gain in the silicon cladding. First experimental results have demonstrated the validity of the concept.