Room-temperature InAsSb photovoltaic detectors for mid-infrared applications

Novel noncryogenic InAsSb photovoltaic detectors grown by molecular beam epitaxy are proposed and demonstrated. The quaternary alloy In/sub 0.88/Al/sub 0.12/As/sub 0.80/Sb/sub 0.20/ is introduced as a wide bandgap barrier layer lattice matched to the GaSb substrate. The valence band edge of In/sub 0.88/Al/sub 0.12/As/sub 0.80/Sb/sub 0.20/ nearly matches with InAs/sub 0.91/Sb/sub 0.09/, leading to more efficient transport of photogenerated holes. The resulting mid-infrared photovoltaic detector exhibits a 50% cutoff wavelength of 4.31 /spl mu/m and a peak responsivity of 0.84 A/W at room temperature. High Johnson-noise-limited detectivity (D/sup */) of 2.6/spl times/10/sup 9/ cm/spl middot/Hz/sup 1/2//W at 4.0 /spl mu/m, and 4.2/spl times/10/sup 10/ cm/spl middot/Hz/sup 1/2//W at 3.7 /spl mu/m are achieved at 300 K and 230 K, respectively.     

Observation of lasing from vertically self-organized InAs three-dimensional island quantum boxes on GaAs (001)

We report the first observation of lasing from vertically self-organized multiple stacks of electronically uncoupled InAs three-dimensional island quantum boxes grown via molecular beam epitaxy on GaAs (001) substrates. A low-threshold current density of 310 A/cm/sup 2/ at 79 K is found for a stack of five sets of islands corresponding to 2 ML InAs depositions separated by 36 monolayer GaAs spacers grown via migration enhanced epitaxy. The distribution of the island volumes (1.5/spl times/10/sup 5/ /spl Aring//sup 3/-4 /spl times/10/sup 5/ /spl Aring//sup 3/) gives, as expected, a multitude of laser lines between 980 mm and 996 nm.     

InAs/GaAs quantum dot infrared photodetector (QDIP) with double Al/sub 0.3/Ga/sub 0.7/As blocking barriers

The ten stacked self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dot infrared photodetectors (QDIP) with different Al/sub 0.3/Ga/sub 0.7/As barrier widths and growth temperatures were prepared. Asymmetric current-voltage (I-V) characteristics and 2/spl sim/7.5 /spl mu/m detection window were observed. Peak responsivity of 84 mA/W at -0.4 V and peak specific detectivity of 2.5/spl times/10/sup 9/ cm-Hz/sup 1/2//W at zero bias were observed at 50 K. The characteristics of polarization insensitivity over the incident light and the high background photocurrent suggest that the self-assembled QDIP can be operated at higher temperature (/spl sim/250 K) under normal incidence condition in contrast to quantum well infrared photodetector (QWIP).     

16 W continuous-wave output power from 100 /spl mu/m-aperture laser with quantum well asymmetric heterostructure

16 W continuous-wave room temperature front facet output optical power and 74% wallplug efficiency were attained in 100 /spl mu/m-aperture 1.06 /spl mu/m-emitting laser diodes with 2-3 mm cavity length. The lasers are based on AlGaAs/GaAs/InGaAs quantum well asymmetric heterostructures with 1.7 /spl mu/m-thick waveguide having 0.34 cm/sup -1/ internal optical loss.     

As/sup +/-implanted AlGaAs oxide-confined VCSEL with enhanced oxidation rate and high performance uniformity

We report the utilization of an As/sup +/-implanted AlGaAs region and regrowth method to enhance and control the wet thermal oxidation rate for 850-nm oxide-confined vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). The oxidation rate of the As/sup +/-implanted device showed a four-fold increase over the nonimplanted one at the As/sup +/ dosage of 1/spl times/10/sup 16/ cm/sup -3/ and the oxidation temperature of 400/spl deg/C. 50 side-by-side As/sup +/-implanted oxide-confined VCSELs fabricated using the method achieved very uniform performance with a deviation in threshold current of /spl Delta/I/sub th//spl sim/0.2 mA and slope-efficiency of /spl Delta/S.E./spl sim/3%.     

GaN MSM UV photodetectors with titanium tungsten transparent electrodes

GaN metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) ultraviolet photodetectors with titanium tungsten (TiW) transparent electrodes were fabricated and characterized. It was found that the 10-nm-thick TiW film deposited with a 300-W RF power can still provide a reasonably high transmittance of 75.1% at 300 nm, a low resistivity of 1.7/spl times/10/sup -3/ /spl Omega//spl middot/cm and an effective Schottky barrier height of 0.773 eV on u-GaN. We also achieved a peak responsivity of 0.192 A/W and a quantum efficiency of 66.4% from the GaN ultraviolet MSM photodetector with TiW electrodes. With a 3-V applied bias, it was found that minimum noise equivalent power and maximum D/sup */ of our detector were 1.987/spl times/10/sup -10/ W and 6.365/spl times/10/sup 9/ cmHz/sup 0.5/W/sup -1/, respectively.     

Reliability study of InAs/InGaAs quantum dot diode lasers

Ridge-waveguide lasers with an InAs/InGaAs quantum dot active region have been subjected to accelerated ageing at 65 and 85/spl deg/C. No sudden failure was found during the 2070 h test. Activation energy of 0.79 eV was estimated, suggesting the 40/spl deg/C-lifetime >10/sup 6/ h.     

An ultra-low power InAs/AlSb HEMT Ka-band low-noise amplifier

The first antimonide-based compound semiconductor (ABCS) MMIC, a Ka-Band low-noise amplifier using 0.25-/spl mu/m gate length InAs/AlSb metamorphic HEMTs, has been fabricated and characterized on a 75 /spl mu/m GaAs substrate. The compact 1.1 mm/sup 2/ three-stage Ka-band LNA demonstrated an average of 2.1 dB noise-figure between 34-36 GHz with an associated gain of 22 dB. The measured dc power dissipation of the ABCS LNA was an ultra-low 1.5 mW per stage, or 4.5 mW total. This is less than one-tenth the dc power dissipation of a typical equivalent InGaAs/AlGaAs/GaAs HEMT LNA. Operation with degraded gain and noise figure at 1.1 mW total dc power dissipation is also verified. These results demonstrate the outstanding potential of ABCS HEMT technology for mobile and space-based millimeter-wave applications.     

Bias and temperature dependence of Sb-based heterostructure millimeter-wave detectors with improved sensitivity

Nearly lattice-matched InAs/AlSb/GaSb-based heterostructure backward diodes for zero-bias millimeter wave detection were fabricated and measured. A record-high curvature, /spl gamma/=39.1 V/sup -1/, at zero bias was measured. On-wafer sensitivity measurements from 1 to 110 GHz gave a record-high average sensitivity of 3687 V/W for zero-bias operation. Further enhancement of detector sensitivity was observed with applied dc bias, with a sensitivity of 7996 V/W obtained for a 0.9 /spl mu/A bias. Extrapolating the conjugately-matched measured sensitivity suggests that 1000 V/W should be achievable at a record-high 541 GHz. The temperature dependence of detector sensitivity was evaluated from measured dc current-voltage characteristics and gave expected sensitivities ranging from 3910 V/W at 293 K to 7740 V/W at 4.2 K.     

A resonant tunneling quantum-dot infrared photodetector

A novel device-resonant tunneling quantum-dot infrared photodetector-has been investigated theoretically and experimentally. In this device, the transport of dark current and photocurrent are separated by the incorporation of a double barrier resonant tunnel heterostructure with each quantum-dot layer of the device. The devices with In/sub 0.4/Ga/sub 0.6/As-GaAs quantum dots are grown by molecular beam epitaxy. We have characterized devices designed for /spl sim/6 /spl mu/m response, and the devices also exhibit a strong photoresponse peak at /spl sim/17 /spl mu/m at 300 K due to transitions from the dot excited states. The dark currents in the tunnel devices are almost two orders of magnitude smaller than those in conventional devices. Measured values of J/sub dark/ are 1.6/spl times/10/sup -8/ A/cm/sup 2/ at 80 K and 1.55 A/cm/sup 2/ at 300 K for 1-V applied bias. Measured values of peak responsivity and specific detectivity D/sup */ are 0.063 A/W and 2.4/spl times/10/sup 10/ cm/spl middot/Hz/sup 1/2//W, respectively, under a bias of 2 V, at 80 K for the 6-/spl mu/m response. For the 17-/spl mu/m response, the measured values of peak responsivity and detectivity at 300 K are 0.032 A/W and 8.6/spl times/10/sup 6/ cm/spl middot/Hz/sup 1/2//W under 1 V bias.     

High detectivity InGaN-GaN multiquantum well p-n junction photodiodes

InGaN-GaN multiquantum well (MQW) p-n junction photodiodes with semi-transparent Ni-Au electrodes were fabricated and characterized. It was found that the fabricated InGaN-GaN p-n junction photodiodes exhibit a 20-V breakdown voltage and a photocurrent to dark current contrast ratio of /spl sim/10/sup 5/ when a 0.4-V reverse bias was applied. The peak responsivity at 380 nm was 1.28 and 1.76 A/W with a 0.1- and 3-V applied reverse bias, respectively. Furthermore, an internal gain was found from our InGaN-GaN MQW p-n junction photodiodes possibly due to the long-lifetime of GaN based materials. Also, it was found that the low frequency noise of our photodiodes was dominated by the 1/f type noise. For a given bandwidth of 500 Hz, the corresponding noise equivalent power and normalized detectivity D/sup */ were found to be 6.34/spl times/10/sup -13/ W and 4.45/spl times/10/sup 11/ cm/spl middot/Hz/sup 0.5/ W/sup -1/, respectively.     

AlGaN solar-blind Schottky photodiodes fabricated on 4H-SiC

Solar-blind AlGaN-based Schottky photodiodes grown on 4H-SiC substrate are reported. The fabricated devices demonstrate dark current density as low as 2.2/spl times/10/sup -10/ A/cm/sup 2/ at a reverse bias of 5 V. A zero-bias peak responsivity of 44 mA/W was achieved at 256 nm, corresponding to an external quantum efficiency of 21%. Under a low illumination power density of 10 nW/cm/sup 2/, a rejection ratio of more than two orders of magnitude was observed in the wavelength range from 270 to 310 nm. A room-temperature solar-blind detectivity of 7.9/spl times/10/sup 14/ cm/spl middot/Hz/sup 1/2/W/sup -1/ was estimated at 256 nm under zero bias.     

1.3-/spl mu/m InAs quantum-dot laser with high dot density and high uniformity

We realized a triple-stacked 1.3-/spl mu/m InAs quantum dot (QD) with a high density of 2.4/spl times/10/sup 11/ cm/sup -2/ and a high uniformity of below 24 meV that employs an As/sub 2/ source and a gradient composition (GC) strain-reducing layer (SRL) grown on a GaAs substrate. We demonstrated the 1.3-/spl mu/m wavelength emission of this triple-stacked QD laser with a 0.92-mm cavity length and a cleaved facet at room temperature. In addition, we realized the highest maximum modal gain yet reported of 8.1 cm/sup -1/ per QD layer at beyond 1.28 /spl mu/m by using our high-density and high-uniformity QD.     

Self-phase modulation coefficient of multiple-quantum-well optical amplifiers

The self-phase modulation coefficient /spl gamma/ of 1310 nm multiple-quantum-well (MQW) semiconductor optical amplifiers has been investigated. It is found to vary from 16/spl times/10/sup 4/ W/sup -1/ m/sup -1/ for low driving conditions to 3/spl times/10/sup 4/ W/sup -1/ m/sup -1/ for high-driving conditions. This implies that the amount of self-phase modulation occurring in the amplifier is between 1.5-10/spl times/ more than that occurring in the optical fiber following the amplifier. The additional self-phase modulation caused by the semiconductor optical amplifier may be used to achieve compensation for fiber dispersion in optical communication systems at significantly lower average power levels. The linewidth enhancement factor /spl alpha//sub H/ was found to increase from a value of 2 at low driving conditions, in agreement with results reported for MQW lasers, to a value of 3 at high-driving conditions.     

4H-SiC UV photo detectors with large area and very high specific detectivity

Pt/4H-SiC Schottky photodiodes have been fabricated with the device areas up to 1 cm/sup 2/. The I-V characteristics and photoresponse spectra have been measured and analyzed. For a 5 mm/spl times/5 mm area device leakage current lower than 10/sup -15/ A at zero bias and 1.2/spl times/10/sup -14/ A at -1 V have been established. The quantum efficiency is over 30% from 240 to 320 nm. The specific detectivity, D/sup */, has been calculated from the directly measured leakage current and quantum efficiency are shown to be higher than 10/sup 15/ cmHz/sup 1/2//W from 210 to 350 nm with a peak D/sup */ of 3.6/spl times/10/sup 15/ cmHz/sup 1/2//W at 300 nm.     

In/sub 0.5/Ga/sub 0.5/As/GaAs quantum dot infrared photodetectors grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition

We report the growth by low-pressure metal-organic chemical vapor deposition, fabrication, and characterization of ten-layer In/sub 0.5/Ga/sub 0.5/As/GaAs quantum dot infrared photodetectors. Normal incidence photoresponse of the detector was obtained at 5.9 /spl mu/m. The 77-K peak responsivity was 5.6 mA/W with the detectivity D/sup */ of 1.2/spl times/10/sup 9/ cm/spl middot/Hz/sup 1/2//W at the bias of 0.4 V.     

A dependency of quantum efficiency of silicon CMOS n/sup +/pp/sup +/ LEDs on current density

A dependency of quantum efficiency of nn/sup +/pp/sup +/ silicon complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor integrated light-emitting devices on the current density through the active device areas is demonstrated. It was observed that an increase in current density from 1.6/spl times/10/sup +2/ to 2.2/spl times/10/sup +4/ A/spl middot/cm/sup -2/ through the active regions of silicon n/sup +/pp/sup +/ light-emitting diodes results in an increase in the external quantum efficiency from 1.6/spl times/10/sup -7/ to 5.8/spl times/10/sup -6/ (approximately two orders of magnitude). The light intensity correspondingly increase from 10/sup -6/ to 10/sup -1/ W/spl middot/cm/sup -2//spl middot/mA (approximately five orders of magnitude). In our study, the highest efficiency device operate in the p-n junction reverse bias avalanche mode and utilize current density increase by means of vertical and lateral electrical field confinement at a wedge-shaped n/sup +/ tip placed in a region of lower doping density and opposite highly conductive p/sup +/ regions.     

Nitride-based p-i-n bandpass photodetectors

Nitride-based p-i-n bandpass photodetectors with semitransparent Ni-Au electrodes were successfully fabricated and characterized. The photodetectors exhibit a 20-V breakdown voltage and a small dark current of 40 pA at 4-V reverse bias. It was found that spectral responsivity shows a narrow bandpass characteristics from 337 to 365 nm. Moreover, the peak responsivity was estimated to be 0.13 A/W at 354 nm, corresponding to a quantum efficiency of 44%. The relatively high response at shorter wavelength is due to the unoptimized thickness of p-Al/sub 0.1/Ga/sub 0.9/N absorption layer. At low frequency, the noise of the photodetector is dominant by the 1/f-type noise. For our 330/spl times/330 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ device, given a bias of -3.18 V, the corresponding noise equivalent power and normalized detectivity D/sup */ are calculated to be 5.6/spl times/10/sup -12/ W and 3.34/spl times/10/sup 11/ cmHz/sup 0.5/ W/sup -1/, respectively.     

Development of liquid cooling techniques for flip chip ball grid array packages with High Heat flux dissipations

In this paper, development of single-phase liquid cooling techniques for flip chip ball grid array packages (FBGAs) with high flux heat dissipations is reported. Two thermal test chips with different footprints, 12 mm/spl times/ 12 mm and 10 mm /spl times/10 mm, respectively, were used for high heat flux characterizations. A liquid-cooled aluminum heat sink with an area of 15 mm (L) /spl times/12.2 mm (W) populated by microchannels was designed and fabricated. The microchannel heat sink was assembled onto the chip, using a thermal interface material to reduce the contact thermal resistance at the interface. A variable speed pump was used to provide the pressure head for the liquid cooling loop. The measured thermal resistance results ranged from 0.44 to 0.32/spl deg/C/W for the 12-mm chip case and from 0.59 to 0.44/spl deg/C/W for the 10-mm chip case, both under flowrates ranging from 1.67/spl times/10/sup -6/ m/sup 3//s to 1.67/spl times/10/sup -5/ m/sup 3//s. An analytical model of the flow and heat transfer in microchannel heat sinks is also presented. Computational predictions agree with the measurements for pressure drop within 15% and thermal resistances within 6%. The analytical results indicate that thermal interface resistance becomes a key limitation to maximizing heat removal rate from electronic packages.     

Thin-film /spl lambda//spl sim/3.7 /spl mu/m 'W' laser released from InAs substrate

A mid-infrared type-II 'W' laser fabricated by releasing the epitaxial film from its original InAs substrate is reported. The process exploits the extreme selectivity between GaSb and InAs when etched by hydrochloric acid. The detached film is coated with an Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ optical cladding layer, grafted to a foreign GaAs substrate, and cleaved into laser bars. For epitaxial-side-up mounting, the device operates to 70 K, with a low threshold (/spl sime/150 W/cm/sup 2/) when pumped with the maximum available CW power of 320 mW from a 980 nm laser diode.