GaAs Spacer Research Articles

Control of the light polarization in ferromagnetic diode structures InGaAs/GaAs/δ-Mn

Electric-field influence on the polarization of the quantum well photoluminescence is studied in the diode structures InGaAs/GaAs/δ-Mn with narrow GaAs spacer dS = 2–5 nm at small magnetic field. Weakening of the circular polarization degree with increasing electric-field evidence about significant contribution of the stationary mechanism of the carriers’ polarization due to their exchange coupling with a nearby ferromagnetic δ-Mn-layer.

InAs/GaAs SK quantum dots stacking: Impact of spacer layer on optical properties

In this paper, we report the optical properties of vertically stacked multilayers of self-organized InAs/GaAs quantum dots QDs with different GaAs spacer layer thicknesses of 10 and 15 nm, using photoluminescence PL measurement. The 10 K PL spectrum exhibits double-emission peaks ambiguously identified in PL spectra where the excitation power dependence reveals that these emission peaks are attributed to fundamental ground state GS of large quantum dots in the low energy side, and first excited state 1ES transitions of large quantum dots in coincidence with fundamental ground state GS of smaller ones, in the high energy side. Both the excitation power dependence and the temperature dependence measurement results exhibited competition between the latter's optical transitions in the QDs, which becomes more prevalent at higher excitation powers. The main PL peak is quenched above 190 K, giving rise to “a 1D miniband”, ascribed to the electronic coupling between QDs along the stacking direction and tuning the emission wavelength around 1.3 μm.Our results emphasize the Key role of the vertically stacked InAs/GaAs QDs structures with thin GaAs spacer layers in optimizing design for long-wavelength devices.

Effect of emitter-base spacer design on the performance of InP/GaAsSb/InP DHBTs grown by MOCVD

Effect of spacer layer design between InP emitter and GaAsSb base in InP/GaAsSb/InP double heterojunction bipolar transistors (DHBTs) grown by MOCVD was investigated. A very thin tensile-strained GaAs layer, or a thin GaInP layer, or combination of both was inserted between InP emitter and GaAsSb base to mitigate Sb segregation and/or eliminate electron pile-up between emitter and base. With a base sheet resistances of ∼1800 ohm sq−1 for all devices, DHBTs with a GaAs spacer, a GaInP spacer and the combination demonstrate a current gain of 24, 49 and 64, respectively. The conduct band discontinuity ΔEc at InP/GaAsSb interfaces and the current blocking effect are effectively eliminated by employing the combination of GaAs and GaInP layers.

Reliability of micro-resistance welded dissimilar connection between Ag-plated Kovar foil and GaAs space solar cell: Processing, microstructure and bonding strength

Solar panels in low earth orbit (LEO) can suffer from damage caused by atomic oxygen (AO) exposure and thermal shock, which may shorten the service life of their interconnectors and joints. Ag-plated Kovar foil has emerged as a promising material for interconnecting solar cell arrays. This study uses parallel gap resistance welding (PGRW) to conduct ultrafast Ag-plated Kovar foil and solar cell bonding in just 190 ms. The bonding strength depends on the current densities, with a diffused interface observed at a density of 475 A/mm2. The EBSD results show that grains of Ag layer and Au layer grow at the central bonding interface, whereas grains of Ag layer and Au layer form a weakened bonded line at the edge bonding interface. The thermal reliability of joints with Ag-plated Kovar foil is better than traditional Ag foil, with no decline in tensile-shear force observed even after multiple thermal cycles. Although the Ag layer of Kovar foil oxidizes as AgO and Ag2O in an AO environment, the joining interface remains unaffected. This investigation into PGRW joints of Ag-plated Kovar foil is critical for enhancing the high reliability of solar arrays in harsh temperatures and AO space environments.

Ultra-broadband and wide-angle plasmonic light absorber based on all-dielectric gallium arsenide (GaAs) metasurface in visible and near-infrared region

High-performance and cost-effective broadband light absorbers are crucial for various optical applications, including solar energy harvesting, thermophotovoltaic systems, and integrated photoelectric devices. In this study, an ultra-broadband and wide-angle plasmonic light absorber (PLA) based on an all-dielectric gallium arsenide (GaAs) metasurface in the visible and near-infrared regions is proposed and numerically investigated. The unit-cell of the proposed PLA is consisted of all-dielectric GaAs cylinder resonator (CR) adhered on an ultra-thin GaAs spacer layer backed with a tungsten (W) substrate. Numerical simulation results show that the absorption peak of the proposed PLA is up to 99.85 %, 99.9 % and 99.98 % at 0.452 μm, 0.712 μm and 1.596 μm, respectively. In addition, the ultra-broadband strong absorption of over 90 % also can be achieved from 0.39 μm to 2.09 μm with a relative bandwidth of 137.1 %. The ultrabroadband strong absorption of the proposed PLA is further demonstrated by the equivalent circuit model (ECM), which displays excellent agreement with the results of the full-wave numerical simulation performed using the finite element method (FEM). The simulated electromagnetic (EM) field distributions reveal that the ultra-broadband strong absorption of the designed PLA is mainly from the excited propagating surface plasmon (PSP), located surface plasmon (LSP), cavity resonance modes combined with coupling effect between adjacent CRs. The proposed PLA is also polarization-insensitive and wide incident angles for both transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) modes. The absorption properties of the designed PLA can be adjusted by varying geometric parameters of the unit-cell. The PLA achieves a remarkable short-circuit current density of over 64.75569 mA/cm2 and exhibits nearly perfect solar energy trapping due to the effective coupling of multiple resonances, resulting in enhanced photovoltaic performance. Thus, the proposed PLA can be potential application in the photodetectors, thermal imaging, and solar energy harvesting devices.

Synergistic Effect of Temperature Cycling and Atomic Oxygen on the Parallel Gap Resistance Welding Joint in GaAs Space Solar Panel

Synergistic Effect of Temperature Cycling and Atomic Oxygen on the Parallel Gap Resistance Welding Joint in GaAs Space Solar Panel

Multilayer Epitaxial Heterostructures with Multi-Component III-V:Fe Magnetic Semiconductors.

Three-layer structures based on various multi-component films of III-V semiconductors heavily doped with Fe were grown using the pulsed laser sputtering of InSb, GaSb, InAs, GaAs and Fe solid targets. The structures comprising these InAsSb:Fe, InGaSb:Fe and InSb:Fe layers with Fe concentrations up to 24 at. % and separated by GaAs spacers were deposited on (001) i-GaAs substrates at 200 °C. Transmission electron microscopy showed that the structures have a rather high crystalline quality and do not contain secondary-phase inclusions. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy investigations revealed a significant diffusion of Ga atoms from the GaAs regions into the InAsSb:Fe layers, which has led to the formation of an InGaAsSb:Fe compound with a Ga content up to 20 at. %. It has been found that the ferromagnetic properties of the InAsSb:Fe magnetic semiconductor improve with an increasing Sb:As ratio. It has been concluded that the indirect ferromagnetic exchange interaction between Fe atoms occurs predominantly via Sb atoms.

Photoluminescence characterization of interlayer carrier injection from InGaAs quantum well to InGaAs surface quantum dots with respect to GaAs spacer thickness

This work exploits carrier injection hybrid structures in which carriers are injected into a layer of In0.4Ga0.6As surface quantum dots (SQDs) from an adjacent In0.15Ga0.85As quantum well (QW) as a function of spacer thickness from 10 nm down to 2.5 nm. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements verify that all such hybrid structures indeed have carriers collected into the QW and subsequently obtain an enhancement for PL intensity over that of the reference SQDs. The hybrid structure with the 2.5 nm spacer obtains the best carrier injection efficiency, due to the strongest coupling between the QW and the SQDs, while a thicker spacer results in less carrier injection from decreased quantum tunneling. However, the carrier injection is less efficient than expected. This is due to the fact that the QW confined energy states line up with the broad wetting layer (WL) energy states of SQDs of our test samples, leading to resonant carrier tunneling from the QW to the WL. Thus, there is significant carrier loss through tunneling into the WL of SQDs and then to surface states via nonradiative recombination. This characteristic must be considered in the design of surface sensitive detection devices using SQD injection structures.

Effect of pre-welding and welding voltage on thermal fatigue property of parallel gap resistance welded joint between Ag interconnector and Au/Ag back electrode of GaAs solar cell

Thermal reliability of Au/Ag interconnection is a crucial factor for the life of solar cell array during service in space. Although it is known that increasing the heat input can effectively improve the joint thermal fatigue resistance, such welding energy increase has to be achieved by coordination of various parameters to avoid damage to the solar cell matrix. Therefore, clarification of specific strengthening mechanism by different welding parameter is significant for the further improvement of joining quality. In this study, parallel gap resistance welding (PGRW) is used to perform micro-leveled interconnection between Au/Ag back electrode of triple-junction GaAs space solar cell and Ag interconnector. Besides the original parameter set, methods of welding voltage increase and pre-welding are used to improve the joining quality. Subsequently, the samples are subjected to temperature cycling environment between−160 °C and+120 °C for various cycles. According to the tensile-shear test results, although both methods have effectively improved the joint thermal fatigue property, quite different strengthening routes are shown. On one hand, joints strengthened by increasing welding voltage have higher tensile shear force than the ones strengthened by pre-welding. On the other hand, joints optimized by pre-welding show much stabler tensile-shear property. Material characterization by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has explained the different strengthening routes that increase of voltage actually changes the joining mechanism from original solid-phase diffusion between Au/Ag interface into total melting, while pre-welding keeps the interface with partial solid-phase diffusion interface. Besides, electron back scattered diffraction (EBSD) results indicate that the evolution of residual stress concentration is the intrinsic reason for thermal fatigue failure of the Au/Ag interface.

Spin Accumulation in Acoustically Excited Ni/GaAs/Ni Trilayers

In this paper, we report the first theoretical results on the acoustic generation of spin accumulation in ferromagnet-semiconductor-ferromagnet trilayers. As a representative material system, we consider a Ni/GaAs/Ni trilayer coupled to a piezoelectric transducer, which injects a planar acoustic wave into the adjoining Ni film. By combining an analytical solution of the spin diffusion equation in the GaAs spacer with results of numerical simulations of the coupled elastic and magnetic dynamics in the Ni films, we quantify an oscillating inhomogeneous spin accumulation in GaAs. It is found that both dc and ac parts of the mean spin accumulation vary nonmonotonically with the spacer thickness [Formula: see text], reaching maximal values at [Formula: see text] mostly close to 0.25 or 0.75 of the wavelength of the injected monochromatic acoustic wave. Remarkably, the transverse wave generates the spin accumulation much more efficiently than the longitudinal one. Our theoretical predictions provide guidelines for the development and optimization of energy-efficient acoustic spin injectors into semiconductors, which should have much lower power consumption than injectors driven by the microwave magnetic field.

Proximity effect in ferromagnetic structures InGaAs/GaAs/CoPt

Ferromagnetic influence of a thin (~8 nm) surface CoPt layer on the circular polarization of the InGaAs/GaAs quantum well photoluminescence is observed in structure GaAs/InGaAs/GaAs/Al2O3 (1 нм)/CoPt with narrow GaAs spacer dS = 5 nm, while electroluminescence is polarized in the whole range of dS = 5–100 nm. It is suggested that the short-range proximity effect is determined by overlap of electrons wave functions with the nearby ferromagnetic CoPt film.

Atomic-scale characterization of single and double layers of InAs and InAlAs Stranski-Krastanov quantum dots

We report a detailed structural characterization of single and double layers of InAs and InAlAs quantum dots (QDs) and their wetting layers (WLs) by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and cross-sectional scanning tunneling microscopy (X-STM). The X-STM analysis with atomic resolution showed that the InAlAs WL consists of two distinct layers: a bottom part where all the Al atoms of the InAlAs alloy settled, and a top part containing exclusively In and Ga atoms. The QDs formed from the InAlAs layer contains no Al atoms at all and lie on top of the Al-rich WL. In the double layers of QDs, the InAlAs QDs were used as a seed to influence the nucleation of the InAs QDs grown on top. A gradual decrease in the density of the top InAs QDs was observed in the AFM images with increasing thickness of the GaAs spacer. The X-STM images showed that both QDs layers were completely intermixed for a 2-nm-thick spacer, while effective strain-induced stacking of both types of QDs was observed for a GaAs spacer thickness of 4 nm. However, both QD layers were completely decoupled for a GaAs spacer thickness of 8 nm and could thus be treated as individual layers.

Anomalous photoluminescence of InAs surface quantum dots: intensity enhancement and strain control by underlying quantum dots

Strain control and photoluminescence (PL) enhancement of InAs surface quantum dots (SQDs), exposed to ambient conditions, have been achieved by introducing underlying buried quantum dots (BQDs). The PL wavelength has been tuned from 1270 to as long as 1780 nm, redshifted as the size of the SQDs is reduced. This is in strong contrast to standard QDs, in which blueshift is observed from smaller QDs following basic quantum mechanics. Here, smaller SQDs, both in height and base area, as observed by atomic force microscopy, were obtained with wider GaAs spacer thickness between the SQDs and BQDs. The result strongly suggests that strain and related effects dominate the electronic properties of the SQDs rather than their size, and that a change in the complex strain field occurs through the spacer. The underlying BQDs also serve as effective carrier reservoirs. A PL intensity enhancement of 17 fold was observed as the GaAs spacer thickness was reduced from 150 to 10 nm. A large portion of the photoexcited carriers is initially captured and stored in the BQDs. When sufficient carriers are transferred to fill non-radiative surface states, the excess may be transferred to the SQDs enhancing the luminescence.

Strong coupling between a topological insulator and a III-V heterostructure at terahertz frequency

We theoretically probe the emergence of strong coupling in a system consisting of a topological insulator (TI) and a III-V heterostructure using a numerical approach based on the scattering matrix formalism. Specifically, we investigate the interactions between terahertz excitations in a structure composed of ${\mathrm{Bi}}_{2}{\mathrm{Se}}_{3}$ and GaAs materials. We find that the interaction between the ${\mathrm{Bi}}_{2}{\mathrm{Se}}_{3}$ layer and AlGaAs/GaAs quantum wells with intersubband transitions (ISBTs) in the terahertz frequency regime creates new hybrid modes, namely Dirac plasmon-phonon-ISBT polaritons. The formation of these hybrid modes results in anticrossings (spectral mode splitting) whose magnitude is an indication of the strength of the coupling. By varying the structural parameters of the constituent materials, our numerical calculations reveal that the magnitude of splitting depends strongly on the doping level and the scattering rate in the AlGaAs/GaAs quantum wells, as well as on the thickness of the GaAs spacer layer that separates the quantum-well structure from the TI layer. Our results reveal the material and device parameters required to obtain experimentally observable signatures of strong coupling. Our model includes the contribution of an extra two-dimensional hole gas (2DHG) that is predicted to arise at the ${\mathrm{Bi}}_{2}{\mathrm{Se}}_{3}$/GaAs interface, based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations that explicitly account for details of the atomic terminations at the interface. The presence of this massive 2DHG at the TI/III-V interface shifts the dispersion of the Dirac plasmon-ISBT polaritons to higher frequencies. The damping rate at this interface, in contrast, compensates the effect of the 2DHG. Finally, we observe that the phonon resonances in the TI layer are crucial to the coupling between the THz excitations in the TI and III-V materials.

Coupled InGaAs Quantum Dots for Electro-Optic Modulation

We investigated the growth of vertically coupled In0.75Ga0.25As quantum dots (QDs) by varying the GaAs spacer thickness (d). Vertically-aligned triple-layer QDs of uniform size and highest accumulated strain are formed with d = 5 nm. The electroluminescence (EL) characteristics for In0.75Ga0.25As QDs show an emission spectrum at optical wavelength (λ) of 1100−1300 nm. The EL spectra exhibit the highest optical gain at λ ~ 1200 nm, and the narrowest FWHM = 151 nm of the sample with d = 5 nm at injection current = 20 mA. Fabry–Perot measurements at λ = 1515 nm of TE and TM polarizations were carried out to investigate the electro-optic modulation for a single-mode ridge waveguide consisting of vertically-coupled triple-layer In0.75Ga0.25As QDs (d = 5 nm). The linear (r) and quadratic (s) electro-optic coefficients are r = 2.99 × 10−11 m/V and s = 4.10 × 10−17 m2/V2 for TE polarization, and r = 1.37 × 10−11 m/V and s = 3.2 × 10−17 m2/V2 for TM polarization, respectively. The results highlight the potential of TE/TM lightwave modulation by InGaAs QDs at photon energy below energy band resonance.

Single-particle and collective excitations in quantum wires comprised of vertically stacked quantum dots: Finite magnetic field

A theoretical investigation has been made of the magnetoplasmon excitations in a quasi-one-dimensional electron system composed of vertically stacked, self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dots. The smaller length scales involved in the experiments impel us to consider a perfectly periodic system of two-dimensionally confined InAs quantum dot layers separated by GaAs spacers. Subsequent system is subjected to a two-dimensional confining (harmonic) potential in the [Formula: see text]–[Formula: see text] plane and an applied magnetic field (B) in the symmetric gauge. This scheme defines virtually a system of quantum wire comprised of vertically stacked quantum dots (VSQD). We derive and discuss the Dyson equation, the generalized (nonlocal and dynamic) dielectric function, and the inverse dielectric function for investigating the single-particle and collective (magnetoplasmon) excitations within the framework of (full) random-phase approximation (RPA). As an application, we study the influence of the confinement potential and the magnetic field on the component eigenfunctions, the density of states (DOS), the Fermi energy, the collective excitations, and the inverse dielectric functions. How the B-dependence of DOS validate the VSQD mimicking the realistic quantum wires, the Fermi energy oscillates as a function of the Bloch vector, the intersubband single-particle continuum bifurcates at the origin, a collective excitation emerges and propagates within the gap of the split single-particle continuum, and the alteration in the well- and barrier-widths allows to customize the excitation spectrum in the desired energy range are some of the remarkable features of this investigation. These findings demonstrate, for the very first time, the significance of investigating the system of VSQD subjected to a quantizing magnetic field. Given the edge over the planar quantum dots and the foreseen applications in the single-electron devices and quantum computation, investigating the system of VSQD is deemed vital. The results suggest exploiting magnetoplasmon qubits to be a potential option for implementing the solemn idea of quantum state transfer in devising quantum gates for the quantum computation and quantum communication networks.

Optical absorption coefficient calculations of GaSb/GaAs quantum dots for intermediate band solar cell applications

Absorption coefficients of GaSb/GaAs quantum dots (QDs) are calculated by the 8-band strain-dependent k· p method and Fermi’s golden rule. A more realistic but simple approach to model the QD ensemble with wetting layer is described. Effects of the QD size and density, and the GaAs spacer thickness for multi-stacked QDs on absorption characteristics are studied. Absorption spectra of the single QD, single layer of QDs, and multi-stacked QDs are presented and discussed. Interband absorption is found to be more intense than intraband absorption. The calculated absorption spectra are brought into the drift-diffusion model coupled with rate equations to determine the current density-voltage curves of the GaSb/GaAs QD solar cells, which are compared with measured data in literature for validation. The models proposed in this work are capable of predicting the short-circuit current density and open-circuit voltage of real devices, and would have the potential to investigate the impact of doping and position of the QD layers, which is necessary for intermediate band solar cell analysis and design.

Infrared photodetector sensitized by InAs quantum dots embedded near an Al0.3Ga0.7As/GaAs heterointerface

Mid-infrared sensors detect infrared radiation emitted from objects, and are actually widely used for monitoring gases and moisture as well as for imaging objects at or above room temperature. Infrared photodetectors offer fast detection, but many devices cannot provide high responsivity at room temperature. Here we demonstrate infrared sensing with high responsivity at room temperature. The central part of our device is an Al0.3Ga0.7As/GaAs heterostructure containing InAs quantum-dot (QD) layer with a 10-nm-thick GaAs spacer. In this device, the electrons that have been accumulated at the heterointerface are transferred to the conduction band of the Al0.3Ga0.7As barrier by absorbing infrared photons and the following drift due to the electric field at the interface. These intraband transitions at the heterointerface are sensitized by the QDs, suggesting that the presence of the QDs increases the strength of the intraband transition near the heterointerface. The room-temperature responsivity spectrum exhibits several peaks in the mid-infrared wavelength region, corresponding to transitions from the InAs QD and wetting layer states as well as the transition from the quantized state of the triangular potential well at the two-dimensional heterointerface. We find that the responsivity is almost independent of the temperature and the maximum value at 295 K is 0.8 A/W at ~ 6.6 µm for a bias of 1 V, where the specific detectivity is 1.8times {10}^{10} cmHz1/2/W.

Photoluminescence characterization of wetting layer and carrier dynamics for coupled InGaAs/GaAs surface quantum dot pair structures.

The optical properties are investigated by spectroscopic characterizations for bilayer InGaAs/GaAs quantum dot (QD) structures consisting of a layer of surface quantum dots (SQDs) separated from a layer of buried quantum dots (BQDs) by different GaAs spacers with thicknesses of 7 nm, 10.5 nm and 70 nm. The coupling from the BQDs to SQDs leads to carrier transfer for the two samples with thin spacers, 7 nm and 10.5 nm, in which QD pairs are obtained while not for the 70 nm spacer sample. The carrier tunneling time is measured to be 0.145 ns and 0.275 ns from BQDs to SQD through the 7 nm and 10.5 nm spacers, respectively. A weak emission band can be observed at the wavelength of ∼ 960 nm, while the excitation intensity dependent PL and PLE spectra show that this is from the wetting layer (WL) of the SQDs. This WL is very important for carrier dynamics in bilayer structures of BQDs and SQDs, including for carrier generation, capture, relaxation, tunneling, and recombination. These results provide useful information for understanding the optical properties of InGaAs SQDs and for using such hybrid structures as building blocks for surface sensing devices.

Experimental and theoretical study of thermally activated carrier transfer in InAs/GaAs multilayer quantum dots

In this paper, we have investigated the thermally activated carriers transfer mechanism in closely stacked InAs/GaAs quantum dots (QDs) by means of steady-state photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved photoluminescence measurements. The 10 K PL spectrum exhibits double-emission peaks where the excitation power dependence reveals that these emission peaks are attributed to large and small QD groups. With increasing the sample temperature, an abnormal line-width shrinkage of large QDs (LQDs) is observed. The increase in PL decay lifetime of LQDs versus temperature is nicely explained as the electron and hole wave function overlap between dot layers induced by vertical electronic coupling effect. Using a thermal escape model, the activation energies for PL thermal quenching at high temperatures (above 80K) were derived from fitting the temperature-dependent PL decay lifetime data of LQDs and SQDs. The determined activation energies show that the escape of electron-hole pairs from QDs occurs via transfer channel located below the wetting layer. These results are well reproduced by a rate equation-based model treating the QDs as a localized-state ensemble. Our results emphasize the important role of the vertically stacked InAs/GaAs QDs structures with thin GaAs spacer layer to slow down the carrier PL decay lifetime of the thermal transfer process between QDs. This finding is important for the use of such structures as intermediate band in solar cells.