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.     

Parametric study of small-signal gain in a slit nozzle, supersonicchemical oxygen-iodine laser operating without primary buffer gas

A detailed experimental study of the gain and temperature in the cavity of a supersonic chemical oxygen-iodine laser (COIL) is carried out to find optimal values of the flow parameters corresponding to the maximum gain. It is found that high gain (>0.7%/cm) can be obtained in a COIL operating without primary buffer gas and, hence, having a high gas temperature (>250 K) in the cavity. The measurements are performed for slit nozzles with different numbers and positions of iodine injection holes. Using a diode laser-based diagnostic, the gain is studied as a function of the molar flow rates of various reagents, with optical axis position along and across the flow, and Mach number in the cavity. Maximum gain of 0.73%/cm is obtained at chlorine and secondary nitrogen flow rates of 15 mmole/s and 7 mmole/s, respectively, for a slit nozzle with transonic injection of iodine. The gain is found to be strongly inhomogeneous across the flow. For a slit nozzle with iodine injection in the diverging part of the nozzle, the values of the maximum gain are smaller than for nozzles with transonic injection. Opening a leak downstream of the cavity in order to decrease the Mach number and increase the cavity pressure results in a decrease of the gain and dissociation fraction. The gain is a nonmonotonic function of the iodine flow rate, whereas the temperature increases with increasing iodine flow. An analytical model is developed for calculating in slit nozzles the iodine dissociation fraction F and the number N of O₂ (¹Δ) molecules lost in the region of iodine dissociation per I₂ molecule     

Studies of CW laser oscillation on the 1315-nm transition of atomic iodine pumped by O/sub 2/(a/sup 1//spl Delta/) produced in an electric discharge

In this paper, we report on studies of a continuous-wave laser 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 where the O/sub 2/(a/sup 1//spl Delta/) used to pump the iodine was produced by a radio frequency excited electric discharge. The electric discharge was sustained in He-O/sub 2/ and Ar-O/sub 2/ gas mixtures upstream of a supersonic cavity which is employed to lower the temperature of the continuous gas flow and shift the equilibrium of atomic iodine in favor of the I(/sup 2/P/sub 1/2/) state. The results of experimental studies for several different flow conditions, discharge arrangements, and mirror sets are presented. The highest laser output power obtained in these experiments was 520 mW in a stable cavity composed of two 99.995% reflective mirrors.     

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.     

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.     

Long-wavelength In/sub 0.53/Ga/sub 0.47/As-In/sub 0.52/Al/sub 0.48/As large-area avalanche photodiodes and arrays

Large-area (500-/spl mu/m diameter) mesa-structure In/sub 0.53/Ga/sub 0.47/As-In/sub 0.52/Al/sub 0.48/As avalanche photodiodes (APDs) are reported. The dark current density was /spl sim/2.5/spl times/10/sup -2/ nA//spl mu/m/sup 2/ at 90% of breakdown; low surface leakage current density (/spl sim/4.2 pA//spl mu/m) was achieved with wet chemical etching and SiO/sub 2/ passivation. An 18 /spl times/ 18 APD array with uniform distributions of breakdown voltage, dark current, and multiplication gain has also been demonstrated. The APDs in the array achieved 3-dB bandwidth of /spl sim/8 GHz at low gain and a gain-bandwidth product of /spl sim/120 GHz.     

The electrical and material characterization of hafnium oxynitride gate dielectrics with TaN-gate electrode

Electrical and material characteristics of hafnium oxynitride (HfON) gate dielectrics have been studied in comparison with HfO/sub 2/. HfON was prepared by a deposition of HfN followed by post-deposition-anneal (PDA). By secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS), incorporated nitrogen in the HfON was found to pile up at the dielectric/Si interface layer. Based on the SIMS profile, the interfacial layer (IL) composition of the HfON films appeared to be like hafnium-silicon-oxynitride (HfSiON) while the IL of the HfO/sub 2/ films seemed to be hafnium-silicate (HfSiO). HfON showed an increase of 300/spl deg/C in crystallization temperature compared to HfO/sub 2/. Dielectric constants of bulk and interface layer of HfON were 21 and 14, respectively. The dielectric constant of interfacial layer in HfON (/spl sim/14) is larger than that of HfO/sub 2/ (/spl sim/7.8). HfON dielectrics exhibit /spl sim/10/spl times/ lower leakage current (J) than HfO/sub 2/ for the same EOTs before post-metal anneal (PMA), while /spl sim/40/spl times/ lower J after PMA. The improved electrical properties of HfON over HfO/sub 2/ can be explained by the thicker physical thickness of HfON for the same equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) due to its higher dielectric constant as well as a more stable interface layer. Capacitance hysteresis (/spl Delta/V) of HfON capacitor was found to be slightly larger than that of HfO/sub 2/. Without high temperature forming gas anneal, nMOSFET with HfON gate dielectric showed a peak mobility of 71 cm/sup 2//Vsec. By high temperature forming gas anneal at 600/spl deg/C, mobility improved up to 256 cm/sup 2//Vsec.     

Parametric study of an efficient supersonic chemical oxygen-iodinelaser/jet generator system operating without buffer gas

A detailed experimental study of an efficient supersonic chemical oxygen-iodine laser is presented. The laser is energized by a jet-type singlet oxygen generator, operated without primary buffer gas and applies simple nozzle geometry and transonic mixing of iodine and oxygen. Output power of 190 W with chemical efficiency of 18% was obtained in a 5-cm gain length for Cl₂ flow rate of 11.8 mmole/s. The power is studied as a function of the distance between the optical axis and the supersonic nozzle exit plane, the molar flow rates of various reagents, the basic hydrogen peroxide solution and gas pressures in the generator, the type of the secondary buffer gas (N₂ or He) and the stagnation temperature of the gas. It is found that the power under the present operation conditions is almost unaffected by water vapor in the medium. The role of buffer gas under different conditions is discussed     

High responsivity InP-InGaAs quantum-well infrared photodetectors: characteristics and focal plane array performance

We report the detailed characteristics of long-wavelength infrared InP-In/sub 0.53/Ga/sub 0.47/As quantum-well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs) and 640/spl times/512 focal plane array (FPA) grown by molecular beam epitaxy. For reliable assessment of the detector performance, characterization was performed on test detectors of the same size and structure with the FPA pixels. Al/sub 0.27/Ga/sub 0.73/As-GaAs QWIPs with similar spectral response (/spl lambda//sub p/=/spl sim/7.8 /spl mu/m) were also fabricated and characterized for comparison. InP-InGaAs QWIPs (20-period) yielded quantum efficiency-gain product as high as 0.46 under -3-V bias with a 77-K peak detectivity above 1/spl times/10/sup 10/ cm/spl middot/Hz/sup 1/2//W. At 70 K, the detector performance is background limited with f/2 aperture up to /spl sim/ 3-V bias where the peak responsivity (2.9 A/W) is an order of magnitude higher than that of the AlGaAs-GaAs QWIP. The results show that impact ionization in similar InP-InGaAs QWIPs does not start until the average electric-field reaches /spl sim/25 kV/cm, and the detectivity remains high under moderately large bias, which yields high responsivity due to large photoconductive gain. The InP-InGaAs QWIP FPA offers reasonably low noise equivalent temperature difference (NETD) even with very short integration times (/spl tau/).70 K NETD values of the FPA with f/1.5 optics are 36 and 64 mK under bias voltages of -0.5 V (/spl tau/=11 ms) and -2 V (/spl tau/=650 /spl mu/s), respectively. The results clearly show the potential of InP-InGaAs QWIPs for thermal imaging applications requiring high responsivity and short integration times.     

Diamond FET using high-quality polycrystalline diamond with f/sub T/ of 45 GHz and f/sub max/ of 120 GHz

Using high-quality polycrystalline chemical-vapor-deposited diamond films with large grains (/spl sim/100 /spl mu/m), field effect transistors (FETs) with gate lengths of 0.1 /spl mu/m were fabricated. From the RF characteristics, the maximum transition frequency f/sub T/ and the maximum frequency of oscillation f/sub max/ were /spl sim/ 45 and /spl sim/ 120 GHz, respectively. The f/sub T/ and f/sub max/ values are much higher than the highest values for single-crystalline diamond FETs. The dc characteristics of the FET showed a drain-current density I/sub DS/ of 550 mA/mm at gate-source voltage V/sub GS/ of -3.5 V and a maximum transconductance g/sub m/ of 143 mS/mm at drain voltage V/sub DS/ of -8 V. These results indicate that the high-quality polycrystalline diamond film, whose maximum size is 4 in at present, is a most promising substrate for diamond electronic devices.     

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 impact of uniform strain applied via bonding onto plastic substrate on MOSFET performance

For the first time, this letter presents a novel post-backend strain applying technique and the study of its impact on MOSFET device performance. By bonding the Si wafer after transistor fabrication onto a plastic substrate (a conventional packaging material FR-4), a biaxial-tensile strain (/spl sim/0.026%) was achieved globally and uniformly across the wafer due to the shrinkage of the bonded adhesive. A drain-current improvement (average /spl Delta/I/sub d//I/sub d//spl sim/10%) for n-MOSFETs uniformly across the 8-in wafer is observed, independent of the gate dimensions (L/sub g//spl sim/55 nm -0.530 /spl mu/m/W /spl sim/2-20 /spl mu/m). The p-MOSFETs also exhibited I/sub d/-improvement by /spl sim/7% under the same biaxial-tensile strain. The strain impact on overall device characteristics was also studied, including increased gate-induced drain leakage and short-channel effects.     

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.     

Enhanced negative substrate bias degradation in nMOSFETs with ultrathin plasma nitrided oxide

The degradation induced by substrate hot electron (SHE) injection in 0.13-/spl mu/m nMOSFETs with ultrathin (/spl sim/2.0 nm) plasma nitrided gate dielectric was studied. Compared to the conventional thermal oxide, the ultrathin nitrided gate dielectric is found to be more vulnerable to SHE stress, resulting in enhanced threshold voltage (V/sub t/) shift and transconductance (G/sub m/) reduction. The severity of the enhanced degradation increases with increasing nitrogen content in gate dielectric with prolonged nitridation time. While the SHE-induced degradation is found to be strongly related to the injected electron energy for both conventional oxide , and plasma-nitrided oxide, dramatic degradation in threshold voltage shift for nitrided oxide is found to occur at a lower substrate bias magnitude (/spl sim/-1 V), compared to thermal oxide (/spl sim/-1.5 V). This enhanced degradation by negative substrate bias in nMOSFETs with plasma-nitrided gate dielectric is attributed to a higher concentration of paramagnetic electron trap precursors introduced during plasma nitridation.     

Very low noise RF nMOSFETs on plastic by substrate thinning and wafer transfer

A very low minimum noise figure (NF/sub min/) of 1.2 dB and a high associated gain of 12.8 dB at 10 GHz were measured for six-finger, 0.18-/spl mu/m radio frequency (RF) metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors mounted on insulating plastic following substrate-thinning (/spl sim/30 /spl mu/m) and wafer transfer. Before this process, the devices had a slightly better RF performance of 1.1-dB NF/sub min/ and a 13.7-dB associated gain. The small RF performance degradation of the active transistors transferred to plastic shows the potential of integrating electronics onto plastic.     

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.     

Correlating drain-current with strain-induced mobility in nanoscale strained CMOSFETs

The correlation between channel mobility gain (/spl Delta//spl mu/), linear drain-current gain (/spl Delta/I/sub dlin/), and saturation drain-current gain (/spl Delta/Idsat) of nanoscale strained CMOSFETs are reported. From the plots of /spl Delta/I/sub dlin/ versus /spl Delta/I/sub dsat/ and ballistic efficiency (Bsat,PSS), the ratio of source/drain parasitic resistance (R/sub SD,PSS/) to channel resistance (R/sub CH,PSS/) of strained CMOSFETs can be extracted. By plotting /spl Delta//spl mu/ versus /spl Delta/I/sub dlin/, the efficiency of /spl Delta//spl mu/ translated to /spl Delta/I/sub dlin/ is higher for strained pMOSFETs than strained nMOSFETs due to smaller RSD,PSS-to-RCH,PSS ratio of strained pMOSFETs. It suggests that to exploit strain benefits fully, the RSD,PSS reduction for strained nMOSFETs is vital, while for strained pMOSFETs the /spl Delta/I/sub dlin/-to-/spl Delta//spl mu/ sensitivity is maintained until R/sub SD,PSS/ becomes comparable to/or higher than R/sub CH,PSS/.     

Temperature sensitivity of 1300-nm InGaAsN quantum-well lasers

The temperature sensitivity of metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD)-grown highly strained (/spl Delta//spl alpha///spl alpha//spl sim/2.7%) In/sub 0.4/Ga/sub 0.6/Asand In/sub 0.4/Ga/sub 0.6/As/sub 0.995/N/sub 0.005/ quantum-well (QW) active lasers, with lasing wavelength of 1.185 and 1.295 /spl mu/m, respectively, is analyzed in terms of measured fundamental device parameters. From our analysis, the lower To values for the InGaAsN QW lasers can be explained in terms of the temperature dependence of the current injection efficiency, presumably due to increased carrier leakage in the InGaAsN QW lasers.     

Room temperature continuous-wave operation of buried ridge stripe lasers using InAs-InP (100) quantum dots as active core

Self-organized InAs quantum-dot (QD) lasers emitting at 1.5 /spl mu/m were grown by gas source molecular beam epitaxy on (100) InP substrates. Room temperature continuous-wave (CW) operation of QD-based buried ridge stripe lasers is reported. We investigated experimentally the relevant CW performances of as-cleaved InP-based QD lasers for telecom applications such as temperature properties (T/sub 0/=56 K), infinite length threshold current density (J/sub /spl infin///spl sim/150 A/cm/sup 2/ per QDs layer) and internal efficiency (0.37 W/A). Lasing in pulsed mode is observed for cavity length as short as 200 /spl mu/m with a threshold current of about 37 mA, demonstrating the high gain of the QD's active core. In addition, the Henry parameter of these InP-based QD lasers is experimentally determined using the Hakki-Paoli method (/spl alpha//sub H//spl sim/2.2).