Yongxia Zhao

Creation and suppression of point defects through a kick-out substitution process of Fe in InP

Indium antisite defect In-P-related photoluminescence has been observed in Fe-diffused semi-insulating (SI) InP. Compared to annealed undoped or Fe-predoped SI InP, there are fewer defects in SI InP obtained by long-duration, high-temperature Fe diffusion. The suppression of the formation of point defects in Fe-diffused SI InP can be explained in terms of the complete occupation by Fe at indium vacancy. The In-P defect is enhanced by the indium interstitial that is caused by the kick out of In and the substitution at the indium site of Fe in the diffusion process. Through these Fe-diffusion results, the nature of the defects in annealed undoped SI InP is better understood

Gallium vacancy and the residual acceptor in undoped GaSb studied by positron lifetime spectroscopy and photoluminescence

Positron lifetime, photoluminescence (PL), and Hall measurements were performed to study undoped p-type gallium antimonide materials. A 314 ps positron lifetime component was attributed to Ga vacancy (V-Ga) related defect. Isochronal annealing studies showed at 300 degreesC annealing, the 314 ps positron lifetime component and the two observed PL signals (777 and 797 meV) disappeared, which gave clear and strong evidence for their correlation. However, the hole concentration (similar to2x10(17) cm(-3)) was observed to be independent of the annealing temperature. Although the residual acceptor is generally related to the V-Ga defect, at least for cases with annealing temperatures above 300 degreesC, V-Ga is not the acceptor responsible for the p-type conduction

Effects of annealing ambient on the formation of compensation defects in InP

Positron annihilation lifetime (PAL) and photoinduced current transient spectroscopies (PICTS) have been employed to study the formation of compensation defects in undoped InP under different annealing processes with pure phosphorus (PP) ambience and iron phosphide (IP) ambience, respectively. The different annealing ambiences convert the as-grown n-type undoped InP into two types of semi-insulating (SI) states. The positron average lifetimes of as-grown InP, PP SI-InP, and IP SI-InP are found to be 246, 251, and 243 ps, respectively, which are all longer than the bulk lifetime of 240 ps, indicating the existence of vacancy-type positron-trapping defects. For as-grown InP, VInH4 complexes are the dominant defects. They dissociate into VInHn(0less than or equal tonless than or equal to3) acceptor vacancies under PP ambience annealing, compensating the residual shallow donors and turning the material semi-insulating. In forming IP SI-InP, diffusion of iron into V-In complexes under IP ambience annealing produces the substitutional compensation defect Fe-In, causing a shorter positron average lifetime. The PICTS measurements show that a group of vacancy-type defects has been suppressed by iron diffusion during the annealing process, which is in good agreement with the PAL results

Deep levels in semi-insulating InP obtained by annealing under iron phosphide ambiance

Deep levels in semi-insulating (SI) InP obtained by annealing in iron phosphide (IP) ambiance have been characterized by optical transient current spectroscopy (OTCS). Compared with the OTCS result of the SI InP prepared by annealing in pure phosphorus (PP) ambiance, the IP SI InP presents only two traps with activation energies of 0.20 and 0.63 eV, respectively. The results suggest that the diffusion of Fe-atoms suppresses the formation of a few defects in the IP SI InP. The nature of deep levels in the IP and PP SI InP has been discussed on the basis of these results. The relation between material property and defects in those SI InP has also been revealed.

Photoluminescence assessment of undoped semi-insulating InP wafers obtained by annealing in iron phosphide vapour

We have investigated the photoluminescence mapping characteristics of semi-insulating (SI) InP wafers obtained by annealing in iron phosphide ambience (FeP2-annealed). Compared with as-grown Fe-doped and undoped SI InP wafers prepared by annealing in pure phosphorus vapour (P-annealed), the FeP2-annealed ST InP wafer has been found to exhibit a better photoluminescence uniformity. Radial Hall measurements also show that there is a better resistivity uniformity on the FeP2-annealed Sl InP wafer. When comparing the distribution of deep levels between the annealed wafers measured by optical transient Current spectroscopy, we find that the incorporation of iron atoms into the Sl InP Suppresses the formation of a few defects. The correlation observed in this study implies that annealing in iron phosphorus ambience makes Fe atoms diffuse uniformly and occupy the indium site in the Sl InP lattice. As it stands, we believe that annealing undoped conductive InP in iron phosphide vapour is an effective means to obtain semi-insulating InP wafers with superior uniformity.

Trap-assisted large gain in Cu2O/C60 hybrid ultraviolet/visible photodetectors

Photomultiplication-type ultraviolet (UV)/visible photodetectors (PDs) are demonstrated in an electrodeposited Cu2O/C60 hybrid structure. These simple organic/inorganic hybrid PDs exhibit external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) of 1.1 × 104% under illumination of 365 nm UV light at −3 V, indicating a large gain of photocurrent for these devices. Such an EQE is one of the highest values among the reported organic/inorganic hybrid PDs at the same voltage. Cu2O and C60 are found to play different roles in realizing the photomultiplication. Copper vacancies are proposed as the defects in the electrodeposited Cu2O layers, which can trap photogenerated holes. Such trapped holes will trigger the injection of multiple electrons and hence result in the photocurrent gain of the devices while C60 primarily acts as a light absorption media to provide free holes.

A smart copper(II)-responsive binuclear gadolinium(III) complex-based magnetic resonance imaging contrast agent

A novel Gd-DO3A-type bismacrocyclic complex, [Gd2(DO3A)2BMPNA], with a Cu2+-selective binding unit was synthesized as a potential “smart” copper(II)-responsive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent. The relaxivity of the complex was modulated by the presence or absence of Cu2+; in the absence of Cu2+, the complex exhibited a relatively low relaxivity value (6.40 mM−1 s−1), while the addition of Cu2+ triggered an approximately 76% enhancement in relaxivity (11.28 mM−1 s−1). Moreover, this Cu2+-responsive contrast agent was highly selective in its response to Cu2+ over other biologically-relevant metal ions. The influence of some common biological anions on the Cu2+-responsive contrast agent and the luminescence lifetime of the complex were also studied. The results of the luminescence lifetime measurements indicated that the enhancement in relaxivity was mainly ascribed to the increased number of inner-sphere water molecules binding to the paramagnetic Gd3+ core upon the addition of Cu2+. In addition, the visual change associated with the significantly enhanced relaxivity due to the addition of Cu2+ was observed from T1-weighted phantom images.

Influence of semi-insulating InP substrates on InAlAs epilayers grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Tensile-strained InAlAs layers have been grown by solid-source molecular beam epitaxy on as-grown Fe-doped semi-insulating (SI) InP substrates and undoped SI InP substrates obtained by annealing undoped conductive InP wafers (wafer-annealed InP). The effect of the two substrates on InAlAs epilayers and InAlAs/InP type II heterostructures has been studied by using a variety of characterization techniques. Our calculation data proved that the out-diffusion of Fe atoms in InP substrate may not take place due to their low diffusion, coefficient. Double-crystal X-ray diffraction measurements show that the lattice mismatch between the InAlAs layers and the two substrates is different, which is originated from their different Fe concentrations. Furthermore, photoluminescence results indicate that the type II heterostructure grown on the wafer-annealed InP substrate exhibits better optical and interface properties than that grown on the as-grown Fe-doped substrate. We have also given a physically coherent explanation on the basis of these investigations

Shallow donor defect formation and its influence on semi-insulating indium phosphide after high temperature annealing with long duration

Fe-doped semi-insulating (SI) InP has become semi-conducting (SC) material completely after annealing at 900/spl deg/C for 10 hours. Defects in the SC and SI InP materials have been studied by deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) and thermally stimulated current spectroscopy (TSC) respectively. The DLTS only detected Fe acceptor related deep level defect with significant concentration, suggesting the formation of a high concentration of shallow donor in the SC-InP. TSC results confirmed the nonexistence of deep level defects in the annealed SI-InP. The results demonstrate a significant influence of the thermally induced defects on the electrical properties of SI-InP. The formation mechanism and the nature of the shallow donor defect have been discussed based on the results.

Carrier injection level dependence of post-breakdown metastability in semi-insulating GaAs

Abstract Recently, a room temperature electrically induced metastability in semi-insulating (SI)-GaAs has been reported in which the normally high resistance state of SI-GaAs converts into a low resistance state when breakdown electric fields are applied to the metal/SI-GaAs/metal system. The low resistance state continues to persist when the electric field is lowered below the breakdown bias and as such may be treated as metastable state of the material. This phenomenon is believed to be closely related to the ‘lock-on’ effect utilized in high power photoconductive semiconductor switches made from SI-GaAs. The present study seeks to understand the mechanism for this electrically induced metastability by studying the influence of the injection current on the metastable phase. The data favor an interpretation of the high current state of the SI-GaAs in terms of double carrier injection and the sustaining of an internal electron–hole plasma in the material.