Lakhdar Dehimi

Simulations of the Temperature Dependence of the Charge Transfer Inefficiency in a High-Speed CCD

Results of detailed simulations of the charge transfer inefficiency of a prototype serial readout CCD chip are reported. The effect of radiation damage on the chip operating in a particle detector at high frequency at a future accelerator is studied, specifically the creation of two electron trap levels, 0.17 eV and 0.44 eV below the bottom of the conduction band. Good agreement is found between simulations using the ISE-TCAD DESSIS program and an analytical model for the former level but not for the latter. Optimum operation is predicted to be at about 250 K where the effects of the traps is minimal; this being approximately independent of readout frequency in the range 7-50 MHz. This work has been carried out within the Linear Collider Flavour Identification (LCFI) collaboration in the context of the International Linear Collider (ILC) project.

Radiation Hardness of CCD Vertex Detectors for the ILC

Results of detailed simulations of the charge transfer inefficiency of a prototype CCD chip are reported. The effect of radiation damage in a particle detector operating at a future accelerator is studied by examining two electron trap levels, 0.17 eV and 0.44 eV below the bottom of the conduction band. Good agreement is found between simulations using the ISE-TCAD DESSIS program and an analytical model for the 0.17 eV level. Optimum operation is predicted to be at about 250 K where the effects of the traps is minimal which is approximately independent of readout frequency. This work has been carried out within the Linear Collider Flavour Identification (LCFI) collaboration in the context of the International Linear Collider (ILC) project.

Inhomogeneous barrier height effect on the current-voltage characteristics of an Au/n-InP Schottky diode

We report the current–voltage (I–V) characteristics of the Schottky diode (Au/n-InP) as a function of temperature. The SILVACO-TCAD numerical simulator is used to calculate the I–V characteristic in the temperature range of 280–400 K. This is to study the effect of temperature on the I–V curves and assess the main parameters that characterize the Schottky diode such as the ideality factor, the height of the barrier and the series resistance. The I–V characteristics are analyzed on the basis of standard thermionic emission (TE) theory and the inhomogeneous barrier heights (BHs) assuming a Gaussian distribution. It is shown that the ideality factor decreases while the barrier height increases with increasing temperature, on the basis of TE theory. Furthermore, the homogeneous BH value of approximately 0.524 eV for the device has been obtained from the linear relationship between the temperature-dependent experimentally effective BHs and ideality factors. The modified Richardson plot, according to the inhomogeneity of the BHs, has a good linearity over the temperature range. The evaluated Richardson constant A* was 10.32 Acm−2K−2, which is close to the theoretical value of 9.4 Acm−2K−2 for n-InP. The temperature dependence of the I–V characteristics of the Au/n-InP Schottky diode have been successfully explained on the basis of the thermionic emission (TE) mechanism with a Gaussian distribution of the Schottky barrier heights (SBHs). Simulated I–V characteristics are in good agreement with the measurements [Korucu D, Mammadov T S. J Optoelectronics Advanced Materials, 2012, 14: 41]. The barrier height obtained using Gaussian Schottky barrier distribution is 0.52 eV, which is about half the band gap of InP.

Modeling of Charge Transfer Inefficiency in a CCD With High-Speed Column Parallel Readout

Charge Coupled Devices (CCDs) have been successfully used in several high energy physics experiments over the past two decades. Their high spatial resolution and thin sensitive layers make them an excellent tool for studying short-lived particles. The Linear Collider Flavour Identification (LCFI) collaboration is developing Column-Parallel CCDs (CPCCDs) for the vertex detector of a future Linear Collider. The CPCCDs can be read out many times faster than standard CCDs, significantly increasing their operating speed. An Analytic Model has been developed for the determination of the charge transfer inefficiency (CTI) of a CPCCD. The CTI values determined with the Analytic Model agree largely with those from a full TCAD simulation. The Analytic Model allows efficient study of the variation of the CTI on parameters like readout frequency, operating temperature and occupancy.

Simulation of double junction In0.46Ga0.54N/Si tandem solar cell

A comprehensive study of high efficiency In 0.46 Ga 0.54 N/Si tandem solar cell is presented. A tunnel junction (TJ) was needed to interconnect the top and bottom sub-cells. Two TJ designs, integrated within this tandem: GaAs (n + )/GaAs (p + ) and In 0.5 Ga 0.5 N (n + )/Si (p + ) were considered. Simulations of GaAs (n + )/GaAs (p + ) and In 0.5 Ga 0.5 N (n + )/Si (p + ) TJ I-V characteristics were studied for integration into the proposed tandem solar cell. A comparison of the simulated solar cell I-V characteristics under 1 sun AM1.5 spectrum was discussed in terms of short circuit current density ( J sc ), open circuit voltage ( V OC ), fill factor (FF) and efficiency ( η ) for both tunnel junction designs. Using GaAs (n + )/GaAs (p + ) tunnel junction, the obtained values of J sc =21.74 mA/cm 2 , V OC =1.81 V, FF=0.87 and η =34.28%, whereas the solar cell with the In 0.5 Ga 0.5 N/Si tunnel junction reported values of J sc =21.92 mA/cm 2 , V OC =1.81 V, FF=0.88 and η =35.01%. The results found that required thicknesses for GaAs (n + )/GaAs (p + ) and In 0.5 Ga 0.5 N (n + )/Si (p + ) tunnel junctions are around 20 nm, the total thickness of the top InGaN can be very small due to its high optical absorption coefficient and the use of a relatively thick bottom cell is necessary to increase the conversion efficiency.

Modeling of charge transfer inefficiency in a CCD with high-speed column parallel readout

Charge Coupled Devices (CCDs) have been successfully used in several high energy physics experiments over the past two decades. Their high spatial resolution and thin sensitive layers make them an excellent tool for studying short-lived particles. The Linear Collider Flavour Identification (LCFI) collaboration is developing Column-Parallel CCDs (CPCCDs) for the vertex detector of a future Linear Collider. The CPCCDs can be read out many times faster than standard CCDs, significantly increasing their operating speed. An Analytic Model has been developed for the determination of the charge transfer inefficiency (CTI) of a CPCCD. The CTI values determined with the Analytic Model agree largely with those from a full TCAD simulation. The Analytic Model allows efficient study of the variation of the CTI on parameters like readout frequency, operating temperature and occupancy.

Analysis of the Forward I – V Characteristics of Al-Implanted 4H-SiC p -i- n Diodes with Modeling of Recombination and Trapping Effects Due to Intrinsic and Doping-Induced Defect States

In this paper, the impact of silicon carbide intrinsic defect states, such as Z1/2 and EH6/7 centers, on the forward current–voltage curves of aluminum (Al)-implanted 4H-SiC p-i-n diodes is investigated by means of a physics-based device simulator. During the simulations, an explicit carrier trap effect due to an electrically active defect concentration produced by the Al+ ion implantation process in the anode region was also taken into account. The obtained current–voltage characteristics are compared with those measured experimentally for several samples at different current levels. It is found that intrinsic defect densities as high as the epilayer doping may lead to undesirable device properties and instability of the forward bias behavior. The diode ideality factor and the series resistance increase with the increase of defects and could be controlled by using high-purity epi-wafers. Furthermore, due to their location in the bandgap and capture cross-sections, the impact of Z1/2 centers on the device electrical characteristics is more severe than that of EH6/7 centers.

Modelling of a Cd1−xZnxTe/ZnTe Single Quantum Well for Laser Diodes

In this paper, the carrier density, temperature and quantum well width effect have been investigated for the optical gain for a Cd1−xZnxTe/ZnTe Zinc-blend strained quantum well structure. The device emits laser radiations in green–yellow–orange. Our results showed that the optical gain significantly increases with the increasing of the carrier density. It also increases with the decreasing of the Zn concentration, the well width and the temperature. In addition, the optimal threshold current density values were determined for three alloy compositions as 0.7, 0.8 and 0.9.

Numerical simulations of the electrical transport characteristics of a Pt/n-GaN Schottky diode

In this paper, using a numerical simulator, we investigated the current–voltage characteristics of a Pt/n-GaN thin Schottky diode on the basis of the thermionic emission (TE) theory in the 300 to 500 K temperature range. During the simulations, the effect of different defect states within the n-GaN bulk with different densities and spatial locations is considered. The results show that the diode ideality factor and the threshold voltage decrease with increasing temperature, while at the same time, the zero-bias Schottky barrier height (Φb0) extracted from the forward current density–voltage (J–V) characteristics increases. The observed behaviors of the ideality factor and zero-bias barrier height are analyzed on the basis of spatial barrier height inhomogeneities at the Pt/GaN interface by assuming a Gaussian distribution (GD). The plot of apparent barrier height (Φb,App) as a function of q/2kT gives a straight line, where the mean zero-bias barrier height () and the standard deviation (σ0) are 1.48 eV and 0.047 V, respectively. The plot of the modified activation energy against q/kT gives an almost the same value of and an effective Richardson constant A* of 28.22 A cm−2 K−2, which is very close to the theoretical value for n-type GaN/Pt contacts. As expected, the presence of defect states with different trap energy levels has a noticeable impact on the device electrical characteristics.

Comparison of Measurements of Charge Transfer Inefficiencies in a CCD With High-Speed Column Parallel Readout

Charge Coupled Devices (CCDs) have been successfully used in several high energy physics experiments over the past two decades. Their high spatial resolution and thin sensitive layers make them an excellent tool for studying short-lived particles. The Linear Collider Flavour Identification (LCFI) Collaboration has been developing Column-Parallel CCDs for the vertex detector of a future Linear Collider which can be read out many times faster than standard CCDs. The most recent studies are of devices designed to reduce both the CCDs intergate capacitance and the clock voltages necessary to drive it. A comparative study of measured Charge Transfer Inefficiency values between our previous and new results for a range of operating temperatures is presented.