Evanescent-Coupled Ge p-i-n Photodetectors on Si-Waveguide With SEG-Ge and Comparative Study of Lateral and Vertical p-i-n Configurations

Si-waveguide-integrated lateral Ge p-i-n photodetectors using novel Si/SiGe buffer and two-step Ge-process are demonstrated for the first time. Comparative analysis between lateral Ge p-i-n and vertical p-Si/i-Ge/n-Ge p-i-n is made. Light is evanescently coupled from Si waveguide to the overlaying Ge- detector, achieving high responsivity of 1.16 A/W at 1550 nm with f_{3 dB} bandwidth of 3.4 GHz for lateral Ge p-i-n detector at 5 V reverse bias. In contrast, vertical p-Si/i-Ge/n-Ge p-i-n has lower responsivity of 0.29 A/W but higher bandwidth of 5.5 GHz at -5 V bias. The higher responsivity of lateral p-i-n detectors is attributed to smaller optical mode overlap with highly doped Ge region as in vertical p-i-n configuration.     

Ge-Rich (70%) SiGe Nanowire MOSFET Fabricated Using Pattern-Dependent Ge-Condensation Technique

A top-down approach of forming SiGe-nanowire (SGNW) MOSFET, with Ge concentration modulated along the source/drain (Si_0.7Ge_0.3) to channel (Si_0.3Ge_0.7) regions, is presented. Fabricated by utilizing a pattern-size-dependent Ge-condensation technique, the SGNW heterostructure PMOS device exhibits 4.5times enhancement in the drive current and transconductance (G_m) as compared to the homojunction planar device (Si_0.7Ge_0.3). This large enhancement can be attributed to several factors including Omega-gated nanowire structure, enhanced hole injection efficiency (due to valence band offset), and improved hole mobility (due to compressive strain and Ge enrichment in the nanowire channel).     

Dark-Current Suppression in Metal–Germanium–Metal Photodetectors Through Dopant-Segregation in NiGe—Schottky Barrier

We demonstrate, for the first time, the application of dopant-segregation (DS) technique in metal-germanium- metal photodetectors for dark-current suppression and high-speed performance. Low defect density and surface smooth epi-Ge (~300 nm) layer was selectively grown on patterned Si substrate using two-step epi-growth at 400degC/600degC combined with a thin (~10 nm) low-temperature Si/Si_0.8 Ge_0.2 buffer layer. NiGe with DS effectively modulates the Schottky barrier height and suppresses dark current to ~10 ^-7 A at -1 V bias (width/spacing: 30/2.5 mum). Under normal incidence illumination at 1.55 mum, the devices show photoresponsivity of 0.12 A/W. The 3 dB bandwidth under - 1 V bias is up to 6 GHz.     

Wavelength selection and tuning by optical control in a two-segmenterbium-doped fiber laser

A new method for controlling the wavelength of an Er³⁺-doped fiber laser is proposed and demonstrated. Using two sections of dissimilar Er³⁺-doped fiber and pumping them separately, switching among several distinct lasing wavelengths has been observed. Wavelength tuning over a range of 8 nm has also been achieved     

Self-starting, passively mode-locked Fabry-Perot fiber solitonlaser using nonlinear polarization evolution

The authors demonstrate pure self-starting mode-locked operation in a fiber Fabry-Perot cavity. The laser produces 1.6 ps transform-limited soliton pulses by means of nonlinear polarization evolution in conjunction with an intracavity fiber polarizer. This laser system can be used for the generation and study of soliton pulses in the picosecond regime. With a careful choice of the fiber dispersion and fiber length, the system should also be able to operate in the femtosecond regime. The advantage of the system over existing self-starting fiber soliton lasers is that an optical isolator (an expensive component) is not required. The replacement of the two mirrors with fiber reflection gratings would make this configuration a truly all-fiber device     

Molecular analysis of the F plasmid traVR region: traV encodes a lipoprotein

The nucleotide sequences of the conjugative F plasmid transfer region genes, traV and traR, have been determined. The deduced amino acid sequence of TraV indicated that it may be a lipoprotein; this was confirmed by examining the effect of globomycin on traV-encoded polypeptides synthesized in minicells. An open reading frame that may represent a previously undetected transfer gene, now designated trbG, was identified immediately upstream of traV. The deduced product of traR was found to share amino acid similarity with proteins from the bacteriophages 186 and P2 and with the dosage-dependent dnaK suppressor DksA.     

Materials characterization of silicon carbide reinforced titanium (Ti/SCS-6) metal matrix composites: Part II. Theoretical modeling of fatigue behavior

Flexural fatigue behavior was investigated on titanium (Ti-15V-3Cr) metal matrix composites reinforced with cross-ply, continuous silicon carbide (SiC) fibers. The titanium composites had an eightply (0, 90, +45, -45 deg) symmetric layup. Mechanistic investigation of the fatigue behavior is presented in Part I of this series. In Part II, theoretical modeling of the fatigue behavior was performed using finite element techniques to predict the four stages of fatigue deflection behavior. On the basis of the mechanistic understanding, the fiber and matrix fracture sequence was simulated from ply to ply in finite element modeling. The predicted fatigue deflection behavior was found to be in good agreement with the experimental results. Furthermore, it has been shown that the matrix crack initiation starts in the 90 deg ply first, which is in agreement with the experimental observation. Under the same loading condition, the stress in the 90 deg ply of the transverse specimen is greater than that of the longitudinal specimen. This trend explains why the longitudinal specimen has a longer fatigue life than the transverse specimen, as observed in Part I. This article is based on a presentation made in the symposium entitled “Creep and Fatigue in Metal Matrix Composites” at the 1994 TMS/ASM Spring meeting, held February 28–March 3, 1994, in San Francisco, California, under the auspices of the Joint TSM/SMD/ASM-MDS Composite Materials Committee.     

Dual-window dual-bandwidth spectroscopic optical coherence tomography metric for qualitative scatterer size differentiation in tissues

This study investigates the autocorrelation bandwidths of dual-window (DW) optical coherence tomography (OCT) k-space scattering profile of different-sized microspheres and their correlation to scatterer size. A dual-bandwidth spectroscopic metric defined as the ratio of the 10% to 90% autocorrelation bandwidths is found to change monotonically with microsphere size and gives the best contrast enhancement for scatterer size differentiation in the resulting spectroscopic image. A simulation model supports the experimental results and revealed a tradeoff between the smallest detectable scatterer size and the maximum scatterer size in the linear range of the dual-window dual-bandwidth (DWDB) metric, which depends on the choice of the light source optical bandwidth. Spectroscopic OCT (SOCT) images of microspheres and tonsil tissue samples based on the proposed DWDB metric showed clear differentiation between different-sized scatterers as compared to those derived from conventional short-time Fourier transform metrics. The DWDB metric significantly improves the contrast in SOCT imaging and can aid the visualization and identification of dissimilar scatterer size in a sample. Potential applications include the early detection of cell nuclear changes in tissue carcinogenesis, the monitoring of healing tendons, and cell proliferation in tissue scaffolds.     

A fault-tolerant communications switch prototype

A fault-tolerant communications switch prototype supporting the packet switching communications paradigm has been implemented. The special feature of this switch is that it incorporates a modified version of the grouped adaptive function, found in the Inmos IMS C104 switch, which can logically group both consecutively and non-consecutively numbered links.     

Efficient exact k-flexible aggregate nearest neighbor search in road networks using the M-tree

The Journal of Supercomputing - This study proposes an efficient exact k-flexible aggregate nearest neighbor (k-FANN) search algorithm in road networks using the M-tree. The state-of-the-art...