E. Hulicius

Influence of humidity on transport in porous silicon

Abstract We measured systematically the influence of relative humidity on the d.c. electrical conductance of porous silicon (PS) prepared by electrochemical etching. The measurements were taken at room temperature and atmospheric pressure in the range of relative humidity 0%–100%. Between 25% and 75% relative humidity a steep increase in the conductance (of three orders of magnitude) was observed. At higher humidity the dependence saturated. Similarly, below 25% the conductance was only a weak function of relative humidity. It is worth noting that on changing the humidity, typical time constants of the process are of the order of several days. The S-shaped curve obtained is analogous with those for other porous or layered inorganic materials, for example porcelain or mica, respectively, where the enhanced conductance is due to transport via water films condensed in capillaries. Hence a transport mechanism specific to porous silicon can be expected only in samples kept at a relative humidity lower than 20% or previously evacuated. A sudden increase in the conductance at 25% relative humidity is interpreted as the beginning of wetting of the inner surfaces of porous silicon by a continuous water film.

Optical characterisation of MOVPE grown vertically correlated InAs/GaAs quantum dots

Structures with vertically correlated self-organised InAs quantum dots (QDs) in a GaAs matrix were grown by the low-pressure metal-organic vapour phase epitaxy (MOVPE) and characterised by different microscopic techniques. Photoluminescence in combination with photomodulated reflectance spectroscopy were applied for characterisation of QDs structures. We show that combination of both methods allows detecting optical transitions originating both from QDs and wetting (separation) layers, which can be than compared with those obtained from numerical simulations. On the basis of obtained results, we demonstrate that photoreflectance spectroscopy is an excellent tool for characterisation of QDs structures wetting layers and for identification of spacer thicknesses in vertically stacked QDs structures.

Vapor pressure of metal organic precursors

The vapour pressure of four metal organic precursors, diethylzinc, triethylantimony, trimethylgallium and trimethylaluminium, used in the metal organic vapor phase epitaxy processes was measured by a static method in the technologically important temperature range from 238 to 293 K. The experimental data were fitted by the Antoine equation and represent updated values of the present day high-purity materials providing comparison with the previously published data.

InAs(PSb)-based “W” quantum well laser diodes emitting near 3.3 μm

Mid-infrared laser diodes with an active region consisting of five “W” InAsSb/InAsP/InAsSb/InAsPSb quantum wells and broad InAsPSb waveguide were fabricated by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy on InAs substrates. Laser emission was demonstrated at 3.3 μm up to 135 K from asymmetrical structures having n-type InAsPSb and p-type InPSb cladding layers. The devices operated in pulsed regime at 3.3 μm, with a lowest threshold current density of 120 A/cm2 at 90 K, and an output power efficiency of 31 mW/facet/A. The characteristic temperature was 35 K.

Influence of growth rate on charge transport in GaSb homojunctions prepared by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy

Dark current–voltage (I–V) characteristic measurement in the temperature range from −190 °C to 65 °C was carried out on GaSb p-n homojunctions prepared by low-pressure metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. It was shown that the charge transport mechanism in these homojunctions is strongly affected by the growth rate of GaSb epitaxial layers. Samples prepared at higher growth rate (40 nm/min.) exhibit an anomalous low-temperature peak of tunneling current which can be explained by the presence of a narrow band of energies due to high concentration of native defects, probably GaSb antisites. The same defect levels are responsible for the generation–recombination current which dominates in these samples at higher temperatures. On the other hand, quite different behavior was found in the case of slowly grown (20 nm/min) samples. At sufficiently low temperatures, a current maximum near 50 mV of forward voltage points out a band-to-band tunneling as a prevailing transport mechanism. With increasing temperature, how...

Photovoltage spectroscopy of InAs/GaAs quantum dot structures

In addition to widely used photoluminescence spectroscopy photovoltaic measurement of quantum dot structures can give complementary information about electron and hole transitions. Structures with self-organized InAs quantum dots in GaAs matrix were grown by the Stranski–Krastanov mechanism using the low pressure metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy technique. Two types of samples were studied, with single and multiple quantum dot layers. We have shown that surface photovoltage spectroscopy can be used for the study of single, as well as multiple quantum dot layer structures.

Type I–type II band alignment of a GaAsSb/InAs/GaAs quantum dot heterostructure influenced by dot size and strain-reducing layer composition

The aim of this work is to red shift quantum dot (QD) photoluminescence (PL) towards telecommunication wavelengths by engineering the metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy (MOVPE) prepared structure of InAs/GaAs QDs covered by a GaAsSb strain-reducing layer. Our results proved that type I or type II band alignment can be controlled by both GaAsSb composition and QD size. Maintaining type I heterostructure is important for high luminescence efficiency and emission wavelength stability of the QD structure. The simulation of electron structure in InAs QDs covered with a GaAsSb strain-reducing layer as well as experimental results suggest the importance of increasing QD size for obtaining a longer wavelength PL from the type I heterostructure. The PL maximum wavelength 1371 nm was achieved for the MOVPE prepared type I QD structure with 14% of Sb in GaAsSb. This type of structure exhibits seven times higher PL intensity, twice narrower PL peak and 85 meV redshift in comparison with similarly prepared QDs covered by GaAs.

Study of InAs quantum dots in GaAs prepared on misoriented substrates

Abstract Optical properties of quasi zero-dimensional semiconductor quantum dots were studied by photoluminescence and Raman spectroscopy. The dependence of photoluminescence on substrate orientation and Raman spectra of single and multiple InAs/GaAs quantum dot structures are reported. The samples were grown on (100) oriented GaAs substrates without and with 3° misorientation towards (110) by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy in the Stranski–Krastanow regime. Strong dependence of photoluminescence properties of the quantum dot structures on substrate misorientation is shown. The InAs-related features are observed in the macro-Raman spectra and micro-Raman spectra. The effects of confinement, alloying and strain on PL and on phonon spectra are discussed.

InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well for fast scintillation application: radioluminescence and photoluminescence study.

We prepare InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well (MQW) structure by metal-organic vapour phase epitaxy and characterize it by fine XRD measurements. We demonstrate its suitability for scintillator application including a unique measurement of wavelength-resolved scintillation response under nanosecond pulse soft x-ray source in extended dynamical and time scales. The photoluminescence and radioluminescence were measured: we have shown that the ratio of the intensity of quantum well (QW) exciton luminescence to the intensity of the yellow luminescence (YL) band IQW/IYL depends strongly on the type and intensity of excitation. Slower scintillation decay measured at YL band maximum confirmed the presence of several radiative recombination centres responsible for wide YL band, which also partially overlap with the QW peak. Further improvements of the structure are suggested, but even the presently reported decay characteristics of the excitonic emission in MQW are better compared to the currently widely used single crystal YAP:Ce or YAG:Ce scintillators. Thus, such a type of a semiconductor scintillator is highly promising for fast detection of soft x-ray and related beam diagnostics.

Superlinear electroluminescence due to impact ionization in GaSb-based heterostructures with deep Al(As)Sb/InAsSb/Al(As)Sb quantum wells

We report on the observation of superlinear electroluminescence (EL) in nanoheterostructures based on GaSb with a deep narrow Al(As)Sb/InAsSb/Al(As)Sb quantum well (QW) in the active region, grown by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy. Electroluminescence spectra for different driving currents were measured at temperatures of 77 and 300 K. It is shown that such structure exhibits superlinear dependence of optical power on the drive current and its increase of 2–3 times in the current range 50–200 mA. This occurs due to impact ionization in the Al(As)Sb/InAsSb quantum well in which a large band offset at the interface ΔEC = 1.27 eV exceeds ionization threshold energy for electrons in the narrow-gap well. Calculation of the size quantization energy levels is presented, and possible cases of impact ionization, depending on the band offset ΔEC at the interface and on the quantum well width, are considered. This effect can be used to increase quantum efficiency and optical power of light emitting devices (laser...