Sangcheol Kim

Electroluminescence at 7 terahertz from phosphorus donors in silicon

Terahertz (THz) emissions corresponding to intracenter transitions of phosphorus impurities in silicon have been observed up to 30K. Electrical pulses (250ns) with a repetition rate of 413Hz were used for excitation, and the peak power was calculated to be ∼20μW∕facet for a 190×120μm2 device with a peak pumping current of 400mA at 12K. THz emission intensity increased linearly with pumping current and quenched when the sample temperature was above 30K. The current–voltage characteristics suggested a conduction and excitation mechanism by injection of electrons from a Schottky barrier followed by impact ionization of the neutral impurities.

Infrared electroluminescence from GeSn heterojunction diodes grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Infrared electroluminescence was observed from GeSn/Ge p-n heterojunction diodes with 8% Sn, grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The GeSn layers were boron doped, compressively strained, and pseudomorphic on Ge substrates. Spectral measurements indicated an emission peak at 0.57 eV, about 50 meV wide, increasing in intensity with applied pulsed current, and with reducing device temperatures. The total integrated emitted power from a single edge facet was 54 μW at an applied peak current of 100 mA at 100 K. These results suggest that GeSn-based materials maybe useful for practical light emitting diodes operating in the infrared wavelength range near 2 μm.

Development of heparin-coated magnetic nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery applications

We have designed a potential drug delivery system by combining low-molecular-weight heparin to iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles with an average size of 20 nm. The particles were synthesized by the NaBH4 reduction of FeCl2 and then coated with poly-L-lysine. Heparin was noncovalently conjugated on these nanoparticles via the interactions between the negatively charged sulfate and carboxylate groups of heparin and the positively charged amine group of poly-L-lysine. The nanoparticles were examined by using transmission electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and zeta potential measurements. The data provide direct evidence that the heparin was immobilized at the surface of poly-L-lysine-coated iron oxide nanoparticles. Magnetic measurements revealed the particles are ferromagnetic with a saturation magnetization of 31 emu/g.

Terahertz emission from electrically pumped gallium doped silicon devices

Current pumped terahertz (THz) emitting devices have been fabricated from gallium doped silicon. The time resolved peak power was 12μW per facet at a peak pumping current of 400mA, and the emission was observed up to temperatures near 30K. The spectra occurred in two distinct series at 7.9–8.5THz, and at 13.2–13.8THz. The emission was attributed to the radiative transitions of holes from the split sublevels of the 1Γ8 excited state to the sublevels of the 1Γ8+ ground state and the 1Γ7+ ground state, yielding an energy separation of 22±0.07meV between the two ground states. These results indicated that emitters based on Ga impurity transitions open up a range of THz frequencies, and the properties of their spectra can improve the understanding of impurity level physics.

Photoconductivity of germanium tin alloys grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Photocurrent spectroscopy was used to measure the infrared absorption of germanium-tin alloys grown by molecular beam epitaxy. To study dependence on Sn composition, the photocurrent was measured at 100 K on alloys of Ge1−xSnx with atomic percentages of Sn up to 9.8%. The optical absorption coefficient was calculated from the photocurrent, and it was found that the absorption edge and extracted bandgap energy decreased with increasing Sn content. For all Ge1−xSnx samples, a fundamental bandgap below that of bulk Ge was observed, and a bandgap energy as low as 0.624 eV was found for a Sn percentage of 9.8% at 100 K.

Current–Voltage Characteristics of GeSn/Ge Heterojunction Diodes Grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy

Heterojunction diodes of p-GeSn/n-Ge were fabricated by solid-source molecular beam epitaxy on Ge substrates to investigate their electrical properties. Measurements of the current-voltage characteristics and their temperature and composition dependence were performed to extract the diode parameters of reverse saturation current, ideality factor, series resistance, and shunt resistance. The diodes showed good rectifying behavior with low turn-ON voltages in forward bias. The reverse saturation current increased with increasing Sn content and increasing temperature, and the magnitude of the breakdown voltage decreased with increasing temperature. These results suggest that Ge-Sn diodes may be useful for Ge-based circuits and optoelectronics.

Infrared photoresponse of GeSn/n-Ge heterojunctions grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Heterojunction devices of Ge(1-x)Sn(x) / n-Ge were grown by solid source molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), and the mid-infrared (IR) photocurrent response was measured. With increasing Sn composition from 4% to 12%, the photocurrent spectra became red-shifted, suggesting that the bandgap of Ge(1-x)Sn(x) alloys was lowered compared to pure Ge. At a temperature of 100 K, the wavelengths of peak photocurrent were shifted from 1.42 µm for pure Ge (0% Sn) to 2.0 µm for 12% Sn. The bias dependence of the device response showed that the optimum reverse bias was > 0.5 volts for saturated photocurrent. The responsivity of the Ge(1-x)Sn(x) devices was estimated to be 0.17 A/W for 4% Sn. These results suggest that Ge(1-x)Sn(x) photodetectors may have practical applications in the near/mid IR wavelength regime.

Magnetic tunneling junction based magnetic field sensors: Role of shape anisotropy versus free layer thickness

Al2O3- and MgO-based magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) sensors were designed and fabricated using microfabrication techniques. This study revealed that in the case of Al2O3-based sensors, the shape anisotropy in the free NiFe electrode resulted in a linear and hysteresis-free tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) curve. These sensors exhibited TMR values between 27% and 30% and sensitivity up to 0.4%/Oe over a magnetic field range of − 40 to 40 Oe. In the case of CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB MTJ sensors, shape anisotropy alone was not sufficient to achieve a linear and hysteresis-free MR response. A superparamagnetic free layer was used to achieve the desired sensor response. MgO-based sensors had about 90% TMR and 1.1%/Oe sensitivity over the same field range as Al2O3-based MTJs.

Increasing the operating temperature of boron doped silicon terahertz electroluminescence devices

High power electroluminescence near 8THz was observed from boron doped silicon devices operating at heat sink temperatures up to 118K. This represents the highest emission temperature yet observed for silicon dopant-based terahertz devices, and is a significant increase from previous reports. This letter compares the temperature dependence of the emission mechanism to the dopant occupation function and describes an empirical model that fits the variation of output power with temperature, and that can guide the design of future terahertz devices.

Cyclic deep reactive ion etching with mask replenishment

A multi-step reactive ion etching (MS-RIE) process for silicon was developed for the fabrication of deep anisotropic, closely packed structures with vertical sidewalls. This process used repeated cycles of etching and the replenishment of masking layers, similar to the Bosch process (Laermer and Schilp 1996 US Patent 5,498,312) [1] that is employed in specialized etching tools. The process described here, however, can be used on conventional RIE tools, and is based on the isotropic deposition of an etch-inhibiting polymer to protect sidewalls, its anisotropic removal from the bottom etch front, and a subsequent isotropic etch into deeper layers. A conventional parallel plate etcher without fast gas management, cryogenic substrate cooling, or inductively coupled plasma density enhancement, produced these steps. Each process step was optimized for the maximal etch rate, minimal mask erosion, deposition of the thinnest polymer required to protect the sidewalls, and was tailored for use with 2 µm thick photoresist as the initial mask layer. This cyclic RIE process was used to fabricate photonic devices with high aspect ratios of etched depths over 100 µm and etch widths near 1 µm.