Jin-Dong Song

Hot Carrier Trapping Induced Negative Photoconductance in InAs Nanowires toward Novel Nonvolatile Memory

We report a novel negative photoconductivity (NPC) mechanism in n-type indium arsenide nanowires (NWs). Photoexcitation significantly suppresses the conductivity with a gain up to 10(5). The origin of NPC is attributed to the depletion of conduction channels by light assisted hot electron trapping, supported by gate voltage threshold shift and wavelength-dependent photoconductance measurements. Scanning photocurrent microscopy excludes the possibility that NPC originates from the NW/metal contacts and reveals a competing positive photoconductivity. The conductivity recovery after illumination substantially slows down at low temperature, indicating a thermally activated detrapping mechanism. At 78 K, the spontaneous recovery of the conductance is completely quenched, resulting in a reversible memory device, which can be switched by light and gate voltage pulses. The novel NPC based optoelectronics may find exciting applications in photodetection and nonvolatile memory with low power consumption.

Terahertz phase microscopy in the sub-wavelength regime

Gouy phase shift is a well-known behavior that occurs when a propagating light is focused, but its behavior in the sub-wavelength confinement is not yet known. Here, we report the theoretical and experimental study of the aperture-size dependency of the Gouy phase shift in the sub-wavelength diffraction regime. In experiments carried out with laser-induced terahertz (THz) wave emission from various semiconductor apertures, we demonstrate the use of Guoy phase shit for sub-wavelength THz microscopy.

Nexus between directionality of terahertz waves and structural parameters in groove patterned InAs

We performed terahertz (THz) time-domain spectroscopy in various geometries, for characterizing the directivity of THz waves emitted from groove patterned InAs structures. We first identified two transient transport processes as underlying THz emission mechanisms in InAs epilayers with different thicknesses. Carrier drift around the surface depletion region was predominant for the THz wave generation in the thin sample group (10–70 nm), whereas electronic diffusion overrode the drift currents in the thick sample group (370–900 nm) as revealed by the amplitude change and phase reversal. Through a combination of electron-beam lithography and inductively coupled plasma etching in 1 μm-thick InAs epilayers, we could further periodically fabricate either asymmetric V-groove patterns or symmetric parabolic apertures. The THz amplitude was enhanced, particularly along the line-of-sight transmissive direction when the periodic groove patterns act as microscale reflective mirrors separated by a scale of the diffus...

Directional terahertz emission from corrugated InAs structures

The terahertz (THz) radiation from transient dipoles, formed by distinct diffusion coefficients between oppositely charged carriers as often observed in low band gap semiconductors, propagates with an anisotropic amplitude distribution perpendicular to the dipole axis along the diffusive motion. By directionally adjusting the electronic diffusion, we conceptualize groove-patterned THz emitters based on (100) InAs thin films and demonstrate the unidirectional radiation. Line-of-sight emission along the surface-normal direction is greatly enhanced in a distributed asymmetric trapezoid with its period similar to the electronic diffusion length of InAs. This directional enhancement is in clear contrast to the constant emission amplitude along the lateral direction, regardless of pattern scale, which manifests the role of groove patterns as microscale reflectors in laterally corrugating the carrier density. In contrast to the rather limited nonlinearity in (100) plane, the azimuthal angle dependence of the THz field amplitude in corrugated samples shows a combined effect of diffusive transport and second-order nonlinearity, whose compositional contributions varies in different structures.

Anomalous diamagnetic shifts in InP-GaP lateral quantum-wires.

Linearly polarized photoluminescence (PL) measurements were carried out on InP-GaP lateral nanowires grown using a lateral composition modulation method in pulsed magnetic fields up to ∼ 50 T. In these structures, the energy band alignment becomes type-I and type-II in In-rich wire and Ga-rich barrier regions, respectively. It is revealed that the polarization of the type-I PL is oriented along the [11̄0] crystal direction, whereas that of the type-II PL is along the [110] direction in the absence of magnetic field. These two different PL peaks exhibit anomalous energy shifts with respect to the direction of the magnetic field due to the variation of the confined energy in the exciton center of mass potential.

Threshold Current Reduction of GaAs/AlGaAs Quantum Cascade Laser due to the Deep Mesa Structure

GaAs/AlGaAs based quantum cascade lasers were fabricated with two different types of i) the shallow mesa type which was etched up to above active region and ii) the deep mesa type which was etched through active region. While the threshold current density of shallow mesa type was , the one of deep mesa type was reduced drastically up to . Such lowered threshold current density at deep mesa type attributed to the reduction of current loss to the lateral directions.

Electron and phonon coupling dynamics in low-gap semiconductor: quantum versus classical scale.

We have studied the characteristics of longitudinal-optical-phonon-plasmon coupled (LOPC) mode by using the ultrashort pulsed laser with 45 THz bandwidth as a function of thickness in InAs epilayers, ranging from 10 to 900 nm. We have observed the LOPC modes split into the upper (L(+) mode) and the lower (L(-) mode) branches only in the classical scale, but the longitudinal-optical (LO) phonon peak was persistently observed. The shorter decay time of the plasmon-like L(+) modes rather than the phonon-like L(-) modes should be associated with carrier-carrier scattering which is further considered with diffusion properties in the low-gap semiconductors. This result leads to that the absence of the LOPC modes in a scale less than exciton Bohr radius manifests the role of electron diffusion rather than the carrier screening via drift motion in surface depletion region.

Nexus between coherent longitudinal-optical phonons and electronic diffusions in low-gap semiconductors

We have studied the characteristics of longitudinal-optical-phonon--plasmon coupled (LOPC) mode as a function of thickness in InAs epilayers, ranging from 10 to 900 nm. The absence of LOPC modes in a scale less than exciton Bohr radius manifests the role of electron diffusion rather than the carrier screening via drift motion in surface depletion region.

Generation of polarization shaped terahertz waves

Terahertz polarization shaping technique is developed. We have used the combination of wedge-type diffractive optical components in conjunction with a circular InAs pattern to produce various THz waves with temporally-evolving polarization states.

Terahertz emission from optical fiber tip and near-field microscope applications

We devised and demonstrated terahertz emission from an optical fiber tip coated with InAs thin film illuminated by guided laser field and achieved λ/20 sub-wavelength imaging in an InAs-based transmissive near-field laser emission THz microscope.