K. Lischka

Quantitative determination of hexagonal minority phase in cubic GaN using Raman spectroscopy

We show that Raman scattering is a very sensitive and straightforward tool for the quantitative determination of a structural minority phase in GaN. In- and on-plane excitations, as well as polarization dependent measurements on predominantly cubic and hexagonal GaN samples, were performed and forward scattering effects were found. We were able to verify as an example the phase purity of a cubic GaN sample down to the 1% level.

The near band edge photoluminescence of cubic GaN epilayers

The near band edge photoluminescence (PL) of cubic GaN epilayers grown by radio frequency (rf) plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on (100) GaAs is measured. Since the PL is excited with an unfocused laser beam it resembles the layer properties rather than the properties of micron-size inclusions or micro crystals. The low temperature PL spectra show well separated lines at 3.26 and 3.15 eV which are due to excitonic and donor-acceptor pair transitions (donor binding energy 25 meV, acceptor binding energy 130 meV). No emission above the band gap of the cubic phase is detected. PL results are confirmed by x-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy which reveal only negligible contributions from hexagonal inclusions and micron size single crystals. The room temperature PL consists of an emission band at about 3.21 eV with a full width at half maximum of 117 meV.

Phase separation suppression in InGaN epitaxial layers due to biaxial strain

In this letter, we show that external biaxial strain suppress spinodal phase separation in thin InGaN epitaxial layers pseudomorphically grown on thick unstrained cubic ~c! GaN~001! buffer layers. The InGaN films are terminated by a top GaN layer forming GaN/InGaN/GaN double heterostructures. By monitoring the alloy composition and thickness for a fixed growth temperature, we control the presence of biaxial strain induced by the rigid GaN buffer in the InGaN layers. We start by first showing from ab initio calculations of the alloy free energy taking strain into account that the biaxial strain is expected to induce a suppression of the miscibility gap leading to a single homogeneous phase for the InGaN alloys. We use high resolution x-ray diffraction ~HRXRD! reciprocal space maps to select the strained layers. We have shown recently that micro-Raman is an accurate tool to observe separate phases in InGaN epitaxial layers. 4,8 Micro-Raman spectroscopy measurements are also used in this work to demonstrate conclusively the suppression of the spinodal phase separation process in strained quantum wells. The c-GaN/In x Ga 12x N/GaN double heterostructures were grown on GaAs~001! substrates by molecular-beam epitaxy using a rf plasma nitrogen source. The GaN buffer layers were grown at T5720 °C with thicknesses of about 400 nm. The c-InGaN films were deposited at lower growth temperatures of 600 °C. The films were deposited at growth rates of 40 nm/h. The GaN cap layers, of about 30 nm thick, were grown at low temperatures of about 600 °C in order to reduce In desorption and interdiffusion. The growth front was continuously monitored by reflection high-energy electron diffraction and the diffraction patterns exhibited a cubic symmetry along all major azimuths.

Temperature dependence of exciton peak energies in ZnS, ZnSe, and ZnTe epitaxial films

High-quality ZnS, ZnSe, and ZnTe epitaxial films were grown on (001)-GaAs-substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. The 1s-exciton peak energy positions have been determined by absorption measurements from 2 K up to about room temperature. For ZnS and ZnSe additional high-temperature 1s-exciton energy data were obtained by reflectance measurements performed from 300 up to about 550 K. These complete E1s(T) data sets are fitted using a recently developed analytical model. The high-temperature slopes of the individual E1s(T) curves and the effective phonon temperatures of ZnS, ZnSe, and ZnTe are found to scale almost linearly with the corresponding zero-temperature energy gaps and the Debye temperatures, respectively. Various ad hoc formulas of Varshni type, which have been invoked in recent articles for numerical simulations of restricted E1s(T) data sets for cubic ZnS, are discussed.

Lattice dynamics of hexagonal and cubic InN: Raman-scattering experiments and calculations

We present results of first- and second-order Raman-scattering experiments on hexagonal and cubic InN covering the acoustic and optical phonon and overtone region. Using a modified valence-force model, we calculated the phonon dispersion curves and the density of states in both InN modifications. The observed Raman shifts agree well the calculated Γ-point frequencies and the corresponding overtone density of states. A tentative assignment to particular phonon branches is given.

Investigations on the Stranski-Krastanow growth of CdSe quantum dots

We have investigated the growth kinetics of the self-assembled formation of coherently strained CdSe islands. We have found that two distinctly different types of islands are formed in succession. Analyzing the density distribution function of the two dominating size classes of islands, we show that islands of an average diameter of about 16 nm (type B islands) are correlated with a phase transition via a Stranski–Krastanow growth process. The other islands with a diameter of less than 10 nm (type A islands) is formed during the growth of the first 2 ML. At a coverage of about 3.1 ML CdSe stacking faults appear, indicating the beginning of the plastic relaxation of the quantum dot structure.

Universality of electron accumulation at wurtzite c- and a-plane and zinc-blende InN surfaces

Electron accumulation is found to occur at the surface of wurtzite (112¯0), (0001), and (0001¯) and zinc-blende (001) InN using x-ray photoemission spectroscopy. The accumulation is shown to be a universal feature of InN surfaces. This is due to the low Г-point conduction band minimum lying significantly below the charge neutrality level.

CuO and Co 3 O 4 nanoparticles: synthesis, characterizations, and Raman spectroscopy

Copper oxide and cobalt oxide (CuO, Co3O4) nanocrystals (NCs) have been successfully prepared in a short time using microwave irradiation without any postannealing treatment. Both kinds of nanocrystals (NCs) have been prepared using copper nitrate and cobalt nitrate as the starting materials and distilled water as the solvent. The resulted powders of nanocrystals (NCs) were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements. The obtained results confirm the presence of the both of oxides nanopowders produced during chemical precipitation using microwave irradiation. A strong emission under UV excitation is obtained from the prepared CuO and Co3O4 nanoparticles. The results show that the nanoparticles have high dispersion and narrow size distribution. The line scans of atomic force microscopy (AFM) images of the nanocrystals (NCs) sprayed on GaAs substrates confirmthe results of both X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. Furthermore, vibrational studies have been carried out using Raman spectroscopic technique. Specific Raman peaks have been observed in the CuO and Co3O4 nanostructures, and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the peaks indicates a small particle size of the nanocrystals.

STRUCTURAL PROPERTIES AND RAMAN MODES OF ZINC BLENDE INN EPITAXIAL LAYERS

We report on x-ray diffraction and micro-Raman scattering studies on zinc blende InN epitaxial films. The samples were grown by molecular beam epitaxy on GaAs(001) substrates using a InAs layer as a buffer. The transverse-optical (TO) and longitudinal-optical phonon frequencies at Γ of c-InN are determined and compared to the corresponding values for c-GaN. Ab initio self-consistent calculations are carried out for the c-InN and c-GaN lattice parameters and TO phonon frequencies. A good agreement between theory and experiment is found.

Coexistence of planar and three-dimensional quantum dots in CdSe/ZnSe structures

Two well distinguishable classes of nanoscale islands were identified in CdSe/ZnSe quantum dot structures by optical spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. For 2.1 to 3.1 monolayer CdSe deposition, coherent three-dimensional (3D) islands, formed in the Stranski–Krastanow (SK) mode, are found with typical diameters of ∼16 nm and a coverage-dependent density of up to 3×1010 cm−2. Simultaneously, small islands with lateral extensions below 10 nm and a density of ∼5×1011 cm−2 are formed by strain-modified island growth. Whereas the 3D SK islands dominate the emission properties at room temperature, the latter smaller islands determine the optical properties at temperatures below 120 K.