Zhuang Miao

Characterization study of native oxides on GaAs(100) surface by XPS

In order to know more about the surface state of GaAs(100) epitaxial wafer during a storage period of two years, the XPS analysis was carried out four times on the surface, respectively polished by chemical etching, stored in desiccator for half a year, one year and two years. The results indicated that even after cleaned by proper etchant solutions, the fresh surface was slightly oxidized with Ga2O3, As2O3 and organic contaminant. The epi-wafer was always exposed to air during the storage period, so more and more oxides turned out. The mixed oxide layer comprised of C-OR, COOR, Ga2O3, As2O3 and As2O5 appeared after only half a year. In the ageing process of two years, the oxide types of gallium or arsenic did not change with stable content of Ga2O3 and remarkably fluctuating relative contents of As2O3 and As2O5. Based on the intensity ratio of Ga 3d-Ga2O3 to Ga 3d-GaAs, the thickness of oxide layer was estimated. The oxide layer generated after chemical polishing was very thin, just only 0.435nm thick, and then it grew rapidly, approximately 1.822nm after one year while almost no change any more subsequently. It was indicated that after the epi-wafer was stored for one year, because of volatile As2O3 or As2O5, there remained a large amount of Ga2O3 in oxide layer, which prevented the reactions between bulk material and oxide layer with oxygen. So native oxide layer plays a role as passive film to protect epi-wafer against the environment during a long storage period.

Depth profile analysis of native oxide layer on GaAs (100) surface

Ar+ ion etching and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)depth profile analysis have been performed on the native oxide layerof GaAs(100) surface. The composition of the native oxide layer,that isthe oxide phases of gallium and arsenic, was characterized precisely. It is indicated that native oxide phases on extreme surface of GaAs(100) consist of a mixture of Ga2O3, As2O3 and As2O5. Furthermore, the respective distribution of oxide phases of gallium and arsenic along the depthwere compared and analyzed.A seemingly contradictory phenomenon was found, that is As enrichment exist in total oxide layer, but the content of Ga oxide was greater than that of As oxide in the oxide layer except for the outmost surface layer.Based on the comprehensive influence of oxidation process, etching, segregation and growth process, the intrinsic mechanism of the change of oxides along etching depth was discussed. According to the analyzed results, the oxide layer of GaAs (100) surface should be divided to two layers,that is the outmost layer containing oxides of Ga and As and the intermediate layer including only oxide of Ga.The concentration of As oxides in the outmost layer and the enrichment of As in total oxide layer are derived from surface structure inhomogeneity. The throughout total oxide layer of Ga oxide is attributed to its stronger oxidability.In the present work, the system study for native oxide layer of GaAs surface provides the powerful foundation for understanding surface state of GaAs and surface treatment.

Analysis of MTF based on MCP-CMOS

Low Level Light (LLL) night vision technology is extensively applied in national defense and civil application fields. The digitization of LLL imaging is trend of light detection technology in the future. The corresponding modulation transfer function (MTF) and total system MTF model were established, base on the structure composition and operation principle. Simulation was carried out to analyze the performance of the MTF modern. Results indicate that the MCPCMOS better contrast of object. When the spatial frequency increasing, the MTF of MCP-CMOS downing faster than that of GaAs LLL image intensifier. The GaAs image intensifier shows an better image restoration capability and higher limiting resolution. The model and simulation results can provide a theoretical guidance for the fabrication and application of high imaging quality MCP-CMOS.

Decline analysis of vacuum level in ultra high vacuum system

Vacuum technology is extensively used in space science, nuclear energy, surface science, materials science, electric vacuum industry, microelectronics, semiconductor, metallurgy, and so on. More and more fields need ultra high vacuum (UHV) or extreme high vacuum (XHV) for scientific research and production. Both the rigorous vacuum processing technics and highly developed sophisticated vacuum technology are the necessities for the acquisition and conservation of UHV or XHV ambience. In this paper, a vacuum decline was analyzed and the UHV system was recovered. Using the residual gas analyzer to measure the partial pressure of residual gas and identify the type of gas, the outgassing source was found out by comparing the measure results. The UHV system was recovered back to 10-9Pa through treatment. The residual gas analyzing method can effectively identify the type of gas about outgassing, narrow the scope of outgassing subassembly, shorten the vacuum system recovery time, and improve work efficiency. The method of determining the outgassing source by residual gas analyzer can be applied in the fields of UHV and XHV, and it has a certain reference significance for further improving the system vacuum degree.

Activation processes on GaAs photocathode by different currents of oxygen source

In order to know the influence of activation processes on GaAs photocathodes, three GaAs samples were activated by a fixed current of cesium source and different currents of oxygen source. The current of caesium source is same during activation to ensure initial adsorption of caesium quantum is similar, which is the base to show the difference during alternation activation of caesium and oxygen. Analysed with the activation data, it is indicated that Cs-to-O current ratio of 1.07 is the optimum ratio to obtain higher sensitivity and better stability. According to double dipole model, stable and uniform double dipole layers of GaAs-O-Cs:Cs-O-Cs are formed and negative electron affinity is achieved on GaAs surface by activation with cesium and oxygen. The analytical result is just coincident with the model. Thus there is an efficient technological method to improve sensitivity and stability of GaAs photocathode.

Simulation and detection of electron back-scattering in ion barrier films of micro-channel plate

The simulation calculation and analysis on the electron backscattering for ion barrier films (IBFs) of Al2O3 were performed by Monte Carlo methods. Simulation and experimental detection both found that electron backscattering ratio is inversely proportional to the incident electron energy, proportional to the film thickness and density. But if the film is thick enough, the back scattering ratio will not continue to increase, will maintain a relatively stable value. This work provided a theory support for fabricating high performance low-level-light device.

Cooperative chemisorption of K and O elements on cleaved GaAs(110) surface

Using the projected augmented wave potential by the density functional theory based upon gradual gradient approach method and the slab model, from the calculated surface, we identify the relaxed atoms sites of GaAs(110) surface, the electronic structure of elements K and O adsorpted on binding sites of ideal GaAs(110) surface have also been calculated, especially the total energy of the adsorption system. The comparison results of calculated total energy showed: for K and O elements at highest coverage of Θ=1ML on GaAs(110) surface, they were not formed to local domain of competitive chemical adsorption, while they were formed to a compound uniformity phase of cooperative chemical adsorption. Our calculated results providing theoretical basis and reference for the application of alkali oxidation adsorpted on GaAs surface to form a negative electron affinity photocathode.

Arsenic volatilization of GaAs photocathode at low temperature during thermal cleaning

The gallium arsenide (GaAs) photocathode was generally cleaned by radiant heating, direct heating, ion bombardment annealing, and so on. In this paper, the radiant heating method, namely thermal cleaning method, was adopted for GaAs photocathode surface purification. Using this method could obtain an atomic clean surface, ensure the integrity of the GaAs surface lattice, and guarantee the uniformity of surface cleaning effect at the same time. But because the accurate measurement of the GaAs photocathode surface temperature in the vacuum system was very difficult, the residual gas analyzer (RGA) was used in this experiment to monitor the residual gas composition in ultrahigh vacuum during the thermal cleaning process and determine the thermal cleaning temperature by the partial pressure curves of As and Ga. It was found that the first peaks of As and Ga elements both appeared after heating about one hour, accompanied with H2O, N2/CO, CO2 and other common gas. According to partial pressure curves of H2O, N2/CO, CO2 and the heating time, it could be judged that the temperature at that time was not high, which should be under 150°C.After thermal cleaning experiment of three GaAs photocathodes, it was found that the peak value of As partial pressure at low temperature was generally within 10-11mbar~10-10mbar, and the peak value was at 10-10mbar at high temperature. Sometimes it was appeared that the peak value of As partial pressure at low temperature was even higher than the peak value at high temperature. The As volatilization phenomenon occurred at low temperature indicated that the elemental As exist on the GaAs photocathode surface or near surface after the chemical etching process, and the As could volatilize from GaAs photocathode at low temperature in the beginning of thermal cleaning. This research has guiding significance for further understanding the thermal cleaning mechanism of GaAs photocathode and improving the thermal cleaning technology.

Influence of ageing processing on GaAs photocathode of 3rd generation low-light-level image intensifier

The 3rd generation low-light-level image intensifiers should be aged for 100 hours before its normal use. In order to know the influence of ageing processing on GaAs photocathodes, five 3rd generation low-light-level image intensifiers were aged with the life testing instrument of low-light-level image intensifier in an experiment. With the spectral response testing instrument, the intensifiers were measured for totally 8 times to get their spectral response respectively before they were aged and in a half year after aged, and to calculate the integral sensitivity according to the spectral response curves. Based on the fluctuating spectral response curves and the varying integral sensitivity, it was indicated that the aged intensifiers up to standard had more stable photocathode sensitivity, smaller decrease in their spectral response curves, while those not up to standard had more obvious decline as a whole in their spectral response curves. Additionally, the threshold wavelength of all intensifiers was moving toward shortwave. The degeneration of GaAs photocathode resulted from the instability of the Cs-O layer on GaAs photocathode surface. During the ageing processing, the lack of a longtime light radiation on Cs-O layer, the widening surface barrier and the decreasing escape probability led to less photoelectronic emission and lower sensitivity. Moreover, the destruction of dipole layer resulted in smaller bending of surface band and higher vacuum level, so that the electrons in impurity level could not escape and the threshold wavelength moved toward shortwave. Thus the ageing processing played a role of picking out the 3rd generation low-light-level image intensifiers to get rid of the products not up to standard and to put the photocathodes of products up to standard into a relatively stable random failure period.

Characteristic of photocurrent decline of transmission-mode equally doped GaAs photocathode

Photocurrent of GaAs photocathode activated with Cs and O was tested by auto-activation monitor, the fitting curves of photocurrent showed that the photocurrent of the photocathode after the first activation declines exponentially, and then declines linearly with very small slope |k1|; the photocurrent after the second activation rises exponentially, and then declines linearly with a slope|k2| which is a bit larger than |k1|.Based on the mechanism difference between twice annealing of the photocathode, the degeneration behavior of the photocathode was analyzed by three-dipoles model and XPS test after the first activation and succedent thermal cleaning. It is indicated that Cs2O dipoles on the surface are saturated after the photocathode was activated for the first time, the remained Cs and Cs2O in the ultra-high vacuum chamber which deposited on the photocathode surface will prevent the emission of photoelectrons. The photocathode surface with Cs and O reconstructed when it was annealing for the second time, a lot of Cs2O dipoles changed into more stable GaAs-O-Cs dipoles, and this phenomenon would happened immediately as soon as the photocathode was activating for the second time. After the residual Cs and Cs2O dipoles depleted, the neutral gas CO2, H2O, O2, damaging the surface dipoles layer, are the main factors resulted in the decline of photocurrent. Due to the instable Cs2O dipoles on the surface of photocathode have greater chances of converting into stable GaAs-O-Cs dipoles when photocathode was activated for the first time, the photocurrent declines more slowly compared with the second activation. The discussion for the phenomenon is of great significance for exploring the photoemission mechanism of Ⅲ-Ⅴ semiconductors.