Mustafa Gunes

GaInNAs-based Hellish-vertical cavity semiconductor optical amplifier for 1.3 μm operation.

Hot electron light emission and lasing in semiconductor heterostructure (Hellish) devices are surface emitters the operation of which is based on the longitudinal injection of electrons and holes in the active region. These devices can be designed to be used as vertical cavity surface emitting laser or, as in this study, as a vertical cavity semiconductor optical amplifier (VCSOA). This study investigates the prospects for a Hellish VCSOA based on GaInNAs/GaAs material for operation in the 1.3-μm wavelength range. Hellish VCSOAs have increased functionality, and use undoped distributed Bragg reflectors; and this coupled with direct injection into the active region is expected to yield improvements in the gain and bandwidth. The design of the Hellish VCSOA is based on the transfer matrix method and the optical field distribution within the structure, where the determination of the position of quantum wells is crucial. A full assessment of Hellish VCSOAs has been performed in a device with eleven layers of Ga0.35In0.65N0.02As0.08/GaAs quantum wells (QWs) in the active region. It was characterised through I-V, L-V and by spectral photoluminescence, electroluminescence and electro-photoluminescence as a function of temperature and applied bias. Cavity resonance and gain peak curves have been calculated at different temperatures. Good agreement between experimental and theoretical results has been obtained.

An analysis of Hall mobility in as-grown and annealed n- and p-type modulation-doped GaInNAs/GaAs quantum wells

In this study, we investigate the effect of annealing and nitrogen amount on electronic transport properties in n- and p-type-doped Ga0.68In0.32NyAs1 − y/GaAs quantum well (QW) structures with y = 0%, 0.9%, 1.2%, 1.7%. The samples are thermal annealed at 700°C for 60 and 600 s, and Hall effect measurements have been performed between 10 and 300 K. Drastic decrease is observed in the electron mobility of n-type N-containing samples due to the possible N-induced scattering mechanisms and increasing effect mass of the alloy. The temperature dependence of electron mobility has an almost temperature insensitive characteristic, whereas for p-type samples hole mobility is decreased drastically at T > 120 K. As N concentration is increased, the hole mobility also increased as a reason of decreasing lattice mismatch. Screening effect of N-related alloy scattering over phonon scattering in n-type samples may be the reason of the temperature-insensitive electron mobility. At low temperature regime, hole mobility is higher than electron mobility by a factor of 3 to 4. However, at high temperatures (T > 120 K), the mobility of p-type samples is restricted by the scattering of the optical phonons. Because the valance band discontinuity is smaller compared to the conduction band, thermionic transport of holes from QW to the barrier material, GaAs, also contributes to the mobility at high temperatures that results in a decrease in mobility. The hole mobility results of as-grown samples do not show a systematic behavior, while annealed samples do, depending on N concentration. Thermal annealing does not show a significant improvement of electron mobility.

Effect of heavy metal layer thickness on spin-orbit torque and current-induced switching in Hf|CoFeB|MgO structures

We study the heavy metal layer thickness dependence of the current-induced spin-orbit torque (SOT) in perpendicularly magnetized Hf|CoFeB|MgO multilayer structures. The damping-like (DL) current-induced SOT is determined by vector anomalous Hall effect measurements. A non-monotonic behavior in the DL-SOT is found as a function of the thickness of the heavy-metal layer. The sign of the DL-SOT changes with increasing the thickness of the Hf layer in the trilayer structure. As a result, in the current-driven magnetization switching, the preferred direction of switching for a given current direction changes when the Hf thickness is increased above ∼7 nm. Although there might be a couple of reasons for this unexpected behavior in DL-SOT, such as the roughness in the interfaces and/or impurity based electric potential in the heavy metal, one can deduce a roughness dependence sign reversal in DL-SOT in our trilayer structure.

Quantum lifetimes and momentum relaxation of electrons and holes in Ga0.7In0.3N0.015As0.985/GaAs quantum wells

Electronic transport in n- and p-type modulation-doped Ga0.7In0.3N0.015As0.985/GaAs quantum wells are investigated using magneto-transport measurements in the temperature range between T = 1.8 and 32 K and at magnetic fields up to B = 11 T. The momentum relaxation and the quantum lifetimes (τq ) of electrons and holes are obtained directly from the temperature and magnetic field dependencies of the SdH oscillation amplitudes, respectively. A detailed analysis of quantum and transport life times indicates that the momentum relaxation of holes is forward displaced in k-space, while a large angle-scattering mechanism is prominent for the electrons. This discrepancy is believed to be due to scattering of electrons with nitrogen complexes and to the lack of such a mechanism for holes.

Superconductivity in heavily compensated Mg-doped InN

We report superconductivity in Mg-doped InN grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Superconductivity phase transition temperature occurs Tc=3.97 K as determined by magnetoresistance and Hall resistance measurements. The two-dimensional (2D) carrier density of the measured sample is n2D=9×1014 cm−2 corresponding to a three-dimensional (3D) electron density of n3D=1.8×1019 cm−3 which is within the range of values between Mott transition and the superconductivity to metal transition. We propose a plausible mechanism to explain the existence of the superconductivity in terms of a uniform distribution of superconducting InN nanoparticles or nanosized indium dots forming microscopic Josephson junctions in the heavily compensated insulating bulk InN matrix.

Influence of nitrogen on hole effective mass and hole mobility in p-type modulation doped GaInNAs/GaAs quantum well structures

Nitrogen dependence of hole effective mass and hole mobility in p-type modulation doped Ga0.68In0.32NyAs1−y/GaAs quantum well structures with y = 0, 0.009, 0.012, 0.017 are investigated using magnetotransport and Hall effect measurements. Observed N-dependent reduction of the hole effective mass is explained by stronger confinement of holes. Hole effective mass is also found to have hole density dependence due to the strain-induced valance band non-parabolicity. A tendency to decrease in hole effective mass upon annealing can be attributed to the reduction of well width and/or decrease in hole density. A significant improvement in low temperature hole mobility is observed after annealing.

Analytic modeling of temperature dependence of 2D carrier mobility in as-grown and annealed GaInNAs/GaAs quantum well structures

Temperature and nitrogen dependence of 2D carrier mobility in as-grown and annealed Ga1−xInxNyAs1−y/GaAs quantum well (QW) structures (x = 0.32; y = 0, 0.009, and 0.012) are investigated. An analytical model that accounts for the most prominent scattering mechanisms is used to explain the characteristic of temperature dependence of the carrier mobility. An expression for alloy scattering-limited mobility in N-related alloys is developed to explain the behavior of hole mobility for N-containing p-type samples. Analytical modeling of temperature dependence of the electron mobility indicates that N-related alloy scattering and interface roughness scattering are the dominant mechanism at the entire temperature range of interest. The temperature insensitivity of the electron mobility is explained in terms of the overriding effect of N-related alloy scattering and high 2D electron density. A deviation between theoretical and experimental electron mobility at low temperatures is observed not to have any dependency on N concentration. We, therefore, suggest that CNM interaction parameter of the band anti-crossing (BAC) model must be defined as temperature dependent in order to explain the observed low temperature characteristics of electron mobility. The hole mobility is mainly restricted by interface roughness and alloy scatterings at temperatures lower than 100 K, whilst high temperature hole mobility is drastically affected from optical phonon scattering. Moreover, the hole mobility at high temperatures exhibits an N-independent characteristic and hole density starts to increase at temperatures above 70 K, which is explained using the concept of parallel conduction. Extraction of the hole density in each transport channel (QW and barrier) by using a simple parallel conduction extraction method (SPCEM) shows that, in p-type samples, low temperature hole mobility takes place in quantum well, while as temperature increases barrier channel also contribute to the hole mobility and becomes dominant at high temperatures. The experimental and calculated Hall mobility results reveal that thermal annealing has decreased interface roughness and alloy scatterings.

The role of dislocation-induced scattering in electronic transport in GaxIn1-xN alloys.

Electronic transport in unintentionally doped GaxIn1-xN alloys with various Ga concentrations (x = 0.06, 0.32 and 0.52) is studied. Hall effect measurements are performed at temperatures between 77 and 300 K. Temperature dependence of carrier mobility is analysed by an analytical formula based on two-dimensional degenerate statistics by taking into account all major scattering mechanisms for a two-dimensional electron gas confined in a triangular quantum well between GaxIn1-xN epilayer and GaN buffer. Experimental results show that as the Ga concentration increases, mobility not only decreases drastically but also becomes less temperature dependent. Carrier density is almost temperature independent and tends to increase with increasing Ga concentration. The weak temperature dependence of the mobility may be attributed to screening of polar optical phonon scattering at high temperatures by the high free carrier concentration, which is at the order of 1014 cm−2. In our analytical model, the dislocation density is used as an adjustable parameter for the best fit to the experimental results. Our results reveal that in the samples with lower Ga compositions and carrier concentrations, alloy and interface roughness scattering are the dominant scattering mechanisms at low temperatures, while at high temperatures, optical phonon scattering is the dominant mechanism. In the samples with higher Ga compositions and carrier concentrations, however, dislocation scattering becomes more significant and suppresses the effect of longitudinal optical phonon scattering at high temperatures, leading to an almost temperature-independent behaviour.

Acceptor formation in Mg-doped, indium-rich GaxIn1−xN: evidence for p-type conductivity

We report on the Mg-doped, indium-rich GaxIn1−xN (x < 30). In the undoped material, the intrinsic electron density is very high and as a result there is no detectable photoconductivity (PC) signal within the range of temperatures of 30 < T < 300 K. In the Mg-doped material however, where the conductivity is reduced, there is a strong PC spectrum with two prominent low-energy peaks at 0.65 and 1.0 eV and one broad high-energy peak at around 1.35 eV. The temperature dependence of the spectral photoconductivity under constant illumination intensity, at T > 150 K, is determined by the longitudinal-optical phonon scattering together with the thermal regeneration of non-equilibrium minority carriers from traps with an average depth of 103 ± 15 meV. This value is close to the Mg binding energy in GaInN. The complementary measurements of transient photoluminescence at liquid He temperatures give the e-A0 binding energy of approximately 100 meV. Furthermore, Hall measurements in the Mg-doped material also indicate an activated behaviour with an acceptor binding energy of 108 ± 20 meV.

High carrier concentration induced effects on the bowing parameter and the temperature dependence of the band gap of GaxIn1−xN

The influence of intrinsic carrier concentration on the compositional and temperature dependence of the bandgap of GaxIn1−xN is investigated in nominally undoped samples with Ga fractions of x = 0.019, 0.062, 0.324, 0.52, and 0.56. Hall Effect results show that the free carrier density has a very weak temperature dependence and increases about a factor of 4, when the Ga composition increases from x = 0.019 to 0.56. The photoluminescence (PL) peak energy has also weak temperature dependence shifting to higher energies and the PL line shape becomes increasingly asymmetrical and broadens with increasing Ga composition. The observed characteristics of the PL spectra are explained in terms of the transitions from free electron to localized tail states and the high electron density induced many-body effects. The bowing parameter of GaxIn1−xN is obtained from the raw PL data as 2.5 eV. However, when the high carrier density induced effects are taken into account, it increases by about 14% to 2.9 eV. Furthermore,...