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Ge1-ySny alloys represent a new class of photonic materials for integrated optoelectronics on Si. In this work, the electrical and optical properties of Ge1-ySny alloy films grown on Si, with concentrations in the range 0 ≤ y ≤ 0.04, are studied via a variety of methods. The first microelectronic devices

Ge1-ySny alloys represent a new class of photonic materials for integrated optoelectronics on Si. In this work, the electrical and optical properties of Ge1-ySny alloy films grown on Si, with concentrations in the range 0 ≤ y ≤ 0.04, are studied via a variety of methods. The first microelectronic devices from GeSn films were fabricated using newly developed CMOS-compatible protocols, and the devices were characterized with respect to their electrical properties and optical response. The detectors were found to have a detection range that extends into the near-IR, and the detection edge is found to shift to longer wavelengths with increasing Sn content, mainly due to the compositional dependence of the direct band gap E0. With only 2 % Sn, all of the telecommunication bands are covered by a single detector. Room temperature photoluminescence was observed from GeSn films with Sn content up to 4 %. The peak wavelength of the emission was found to shift to lower energies with increasing Sn content, corresponding to the decrease in the direct band gap E0 of the material. An additional peak in the spectrum was assigned to the indirect band gap. The separation between the direct and indirect peaks was found to decrease with increasing Sn concentration, as expected. Electroluminescence was also observed from Ge/Si and Ge0.98Sn0.02 photodiodes under forward bias, and the luminescence spectra were found to match well with the observed photoluminescence spectra. A theoretical expression was developed for the luminescence due to the direct band gap and fit to the data.
ContributorsMathews, Jay (Author) / Menéndez, Jose (Thesis advisor) / Kouvetakis, John (Thesis advisor) / Drucker, Jeffery (Committee member) / Chizmeshya, Andrew (Committee member) / Ponce, Fernando (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
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Description
Recently a new materials platform consisting of semiconductors grown on GaSb and InAs substrates with lattice constants close to 6.1 A was proposed by our group for various electronic and optoelectronic applications. This materials platform consists of both II-VI (MgZnCdHg)(SeTe) and III-V (InGaAl)(AsSb) compound semiconductors, which have direct bandgaps spanning

Recently a new materials platform consisting of semiconductors grown on GaSb and InAs substrates with lattice constants close to 6.1 A was proposed by our group for various electronic and optoelectronic applications. This materials platform consists of both II-VI (MgZnCdHg)(SeTe) and III-V (InGaAl)(AsSb) compound semiconductors, which have direct bandgaps spanning the entire energy spectrum from far-IR (~0 eV) up to UV (~3.4 eV). The broad range of bandgaps and material properties make it very attractive for a wide range of applications in optoelectronics, such as solar cells, laser diodes, light emitting diodes, and photodetectors. Moreover, this novel materials system potentially offers unlimited degrees of freedom for integration of electronic and optoelectronic devices onto a single substrate while keeping the best possible materials quality with very low densities of misfit dislocations. This capability is not achievable with any other known lattice-matched semiconductors on any available substrate. In the 6.1-A materials system, the semiconductors ZnTe and GaSb are almost perfectly lattice-matched with a lattice mismatch of only 0.13%. Correspondingly, it is expected that high quality ZnTe/GaSb and GaSb/ZnTe heterostructures can be achieved with very few dislocations generated during growth. To fulfill the task, their MBE growth and material properties are carefully investigated. High quality ZnTe layers grown on various III-V substrates and GaSb grown on ZnTe are successfully achieved using MBE. It is also noticed that ZnTe and GaSb have a type-I band-edge alignment with large band offsets (delta_Ec=0.934 eV, delta_Ev=0.6 eV), which provides strong confinement for both electrons and holes. Furthermore, a large difference in refractive index is found between ZnTe and GaSb (2.7 and 3.9, respectively, at 0.7 eV), leading to excellent optical confinement of the guided optical modes in planar semiconductor lasers or distributed Bragg reflectors (DBR) for vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers. Therefore, GaSb/ZnTe double-heterostructure and ZnTe/GaSb DBR structure are suitable for use in light emitting devices. In this thesis work, experimental demonstration of these structures with excellent structural and optical properties is reported. During the exploration on the properties of various ZnTe heterostructures, it is found that residual tensile strains exist in the thick ZnTe epilayers when they are grown on GaAs, InP, InAs and GaSb substrates. The presence of tensile strains is due to the difference in thermal expansion coefficients between the epilayers and the substrates. The defect densities in these ZnTe layers become lower as the ZnTe layer thickness increases. Growth of high quality GaSb on ZnTe can be achieved using a temperature ramp during growth. The influence of temperature ramps with different ramping rates in the optical properties of GaSb layer is studied, and the samples grown with a temperature ramp from 360 to 470 C at a rate of 33 C/min show the narrowest bound exciton emission peak with a full width at half maximum of 15 meV. ZnTe/GaSb DBR structures show excellent reflectivity properties in the mid-infrared range. A peak reflectance of 99% with a wide stopband of 480 nm centered at 2.5 um is measured from a ZnTe/GaSb DBR sample of only 7 quarter-wavelength pairs.
ContributorsFan, Jin (Author) / Zhang, Yong-Hang (Thesis advisor) / Smith, David (Committee member) / Yu, Hongbin (Committee member) / Menéndez, Jose (Committee member) / Johnson, Shane (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
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Description
In this dissertation, various characterization techniques have been used to investigate many aspects of the properties of III-nitride materials and devices for optoelectronic applications.

The first part of this work is focused on the evolution of microstructures of BAlN thin films. The films were grown by flow-modulated epitaxy at 1010

In this dissertation, various characterization techniques have been used to investigate many aspects of the properties of III-nitride materials and devices for optoelectronic applications.

The first part of this work is focused on the evolution of microstructures of BAlN thin films. The films were grown by flow-modulated epitaxy at 1010 oC, with B/(B+Al) gas-flow ratios ranging from 0.06 to 0.18. The boron content obtained from X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns ranges from x = 0.02 to 0.09, while Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) measures x = 0.06 to 0.16. Transmission electron microscopy indicates the sole presence of the wurtzite crystal structure in the BAlN films, and a tendency towards twin formation and finer microstructure for B/(B+Al) gas-flow ratios greater than 0.15. The RBS data suggest that the incorporation of B is highly efficient, while the XRD data indicate that the epitaxial growth may be limited by a solubility limit in the crystal phase at about 9%. Electron energy loss spectroscopy has been used to profile spatial variations in the composition of the films. It has also located point defects in the films with nanometer resolution. The defects are identified as B and Al interstitials and N vacancies by comparison of the observed energy thresholds with results of density functional theory calculations.

The second part of this work investigates dislocation clusters observed in thick InxGa1-xN films with 0.07 ≤ x ≤ 0.12. The clusters resemble baskets with a higher indium content at their interior. Threading dislocations at the basket boundaries are of the misfit edge type, and their separation is consistent with misfit strain relaxation due the difference in indium content between the baskets and the surrounding matrix. The base of the baskets exhibits no observable misfit dislocations connected to the threading dislocations, and often no net displacements like those due to stacking faults. It is argued that the origin of these threading dislocation arrays is associated with misfit dislocations at the basal plane that dissociate, forming stacking faults. When the stacking faults form simultaneously satisfying the crystal symmetry, the sum of their translation vectors does add up to zero, consistent with our experimental observations.
ContributorsWang, Shuo, Ph.D (Author) / Ponce, Fernando A. (Thesis advisor) / Menéndez, Jose (Committee member) / Rez, Peter (Committee member) / McCartney, Martha (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
The larger tolerance to lattice mismatch in growth of semiconductor nanowires (NWs) offers much more flexibility for achieving a wide range of compositions and bandgaps via alloying within a single substrate. The bandgap of III-V InGaAsP alloy NWs can be tuned to cover a wide range of (0.4, 2.25) eV,

The larger tolerance to lattice mismatch in growth of semiconductor nanowires (NWs) offers much more flexibility for achieving a wide range of compositions and bandgaps via alloying within a single substrate. The bandgap of III-V InGaAsP alloy NWs can be tuned to cover a wide range of (0.4, 2.25) eV, appealing for various optoelectronic applications such as photodetectors, solar cells, Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), lasers, etc., given the existing rich knowledge in device fabrication based on these materials.

This dissertation explores the growth of InGaAsP alloys using a low-cost method that could be potentially important especially for III-V NW-based solar cells. The NWs were grown by Vapor-Liquid-Solid (VLS) and Vapor-Solid (VS) mechanisms using a Low-Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition (LPCVD) technique. The concept of supersaturation was employed to control the morphology of NWs through the interplay between VLS and VS growth mechanisms. Comprehensive optical and material characterizations were carried out to evaluate the quality of the grown materials.

The growth of exceptionally high quality III-V phosphide NWs of InP and GaP was studied with an emphasis on the effects of vastly different sublimation rates of the associated III and V elements. The incorporation of defects exerted by deviation from stoichiometry was examined for GaP NWs, with an aim towards maximization of bandedge-to-defect emission ratio. In addition, a VLS-VS assisted growth of highly stoichiometric InP thin films and nano-networks with a wide temperature window from 560◦C to 720◦C was demonstrated. Such growth is shown to be insensitive to the type of substrates such as silicon, InP, and fused quartz. The dual gradient method was exploited to grow composition-graded ternary alloy NWs of InGaP, InGaAs, and GaAsP with different bandgaps ranging from 0.6 eV to 2.2 eV, to be used for making laterally-arrayed multiple bandgap (LAMB) solar cells. Furthermore, a template-based growth of the NWs was attempted based on the Si/SiO2 substrate. Such platform can be used to grow a wide range of alloy nanopillar materials, without being limited by typical lattice mismatch, providing a low cost universal platform for future PV solar cells.
ContributorsHashemi Amiri, Seyed Ebrahim (Author) / Ning, Cun-Zheng (Thesis advisor) / Petuskey, William (Committee member) / Yu, Hongbin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
Wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductors GaN (3.4 eV), Ga2O3 (4.8 eV) and AlN (6.2 eV), have gained considerable interests for energy-efficient optoelectronic and electronic applications in solid-state lighting, photovoltaics, power conversion, and so on. They can offer unique device performance compared with traditional semiconductors such as Si. Efficient GaN based light-emitting

Wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductors GaN (3.4 eV), Ga2O3 (4.8 eV) and AlN (6.2 eV), have gained considerable interests for energy-efficient optoelectronic and electronic applications in solid-state lighting, photovoltaics, power conversion, and so on. They can offer unique device performance compared with traditional semiconductors such as Si. Efficient GaN based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have increasingly displaced incandescent and fluorescent bulbs as the new major light sources for lighting and display. In addition, due to their large bandgap and high critical electrical field, WBG semiconductors are also ideal candidates for efficient power conversion.

In this dissertation, two types of devices are demonstrated: optoelectronic and electronic devices. Commercial polar c-plane LEDs suffer from reduced efficiency with increasing current densities, knowns as “efficiency droop”, while nonpolar/semipolar LEDs exhibit a very low efficiency droop. A modified ABC model with weak phase space filling effects is proposed to explain the low droop performance, providing insights for designing droop-free LEDs. The other emerging optoelectronics is nonpolar/semipolar III-nitride intersubband transition (ISBT) based photodetectors in terahertz and far infrared regime due to the large optical phonon energy and band offset, and the potential of room-temperature operation. ISBT properties are systematically studied for devices with different structures parameters.

In terms of electronic devices, vertical GaN p-n diodes and Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) with high breakdown voltages are homoepitaxially grown on GaN bulk substrates with much reduced defect densities and improved device performance. The advantages of the vertical structure over the lateral structure are multifold: smaller chip area, larger current, less sensitivity to surface states, better scalability, and smaller current dispersion. Three methods are proposed to boost the device performances: thick buffer layer design, hydrogen-plasma based edge termination technique, and multiple drift layer design. In addition, newly emerged Ga2O3 and AlN power electronics may outperform GaN devices. Because of the highly anisotropic crystal structure of Ga2O3, anisotropic electrical properties have been observed in Ga2O3 electronics. The first 1-kV-class AlN SBDs are demonstrated on cost-effective sapphire substrates. Several future topics are also proposed including selective-area doping in GaN power devices, vertical AlN power devices, and (Al,Ga,In)2O3 materials and devices.
ContributorsFu, Houqiang (Author) / Zhao, Yuji (Thesis advisor) / Vasileska, Dragica (Committee member) / Goodnick, Stephen (Committee member) / Yu, Hongbin (Committee member) / Wang, Liping (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
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Description
The object of this body of work is to study the properties and suitability of zinc oxide thin films with a view to engineering them for optoelectronics applications, making them a cheap and effective alternative to indium tin oxide (ITO), the most used transparent conducting oxides in the industry. Initially,

The object of this body of work is to study the properties and suitability of zinc oxide thin films with a view to engineering them for optoelectronics applications, making them a cheap and effective alternative to indium tin oxide (ITO), the most used transparent conducting oxides in the industry. Initially, a study was undertaken to examine the behavior of silver contacts to ZnO and ITO during thermal processing, a step frequently used in materials processing in optoelectronics. The second study involved an attempt to improve the conductivity of ZnO films by inserting a thin copper layer between two ZnO layers. The Hall resistivity of the films was as low as 6.9×10-5 -cm with a carrier concentration of 1.2×1022 cm-3 at the optimum copper layer thickness. The physics of conduction in the films has been examined. In order to improve the average visible transmittance, we replaced the copper layer with gold. The films were then found to undergo a seven orders of magnitude drop in effective resistivity from 200 -cm to 5.2×10-5 -cm The films have an average transmittance between 75% and 85% depending upon the gold thickness, and a peak transmittance of up to 93%. The best Haacke figure of merit was 15.1×10-3 . Finally, to test the multilayer transparent electrodes on a device, ZnO/Au/ZnO (ZAZ) electrodes were evaluated as transparent electrodes for organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs). The electrodes exhibited substantially enhanced conductivity (about 8×10-5 -cm) over conventional indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes (about 3.2×10-5 -cm). OLEDs fabricated with the ZAZ electrodes showed reduced leakage compared to control OLEDs on ITO and reduced ohmic losses at high current densities. At a luminance of 25000 cd/m2, the lum/W efficiency of the ZAZ electrode based device improved by 5% compared to the device on ITO. A normalized intensity graph of the colour output from the green OLEDs shows that ZAZ electrodes allow for a broader spectral output in the green wavelength region of peak photopic sensitivity compared to ITO. The results have implications for electrode choice in display technology.
ContributorsSivaramakrishnan, Karthik (Author) / Alford, Terry L. (Thesis advisor) / Schroder, Dieter K. (Committee member) / Newman, Nathan (Committee member) / Theodore, David N (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010
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Description
Wurtzite (In, Ga, Al) N semiconductors, especially InGaN material systems, demonstrate immense promises for the high efficiency thin film photovoltaic (PV) applications for future generation. Their unique and intriguing merits include continuously tunable wide band gap from 0.70 eV to 3.4 eV, strong absorption coefficient on the order of ∼105

Wurtzite (In, Ga, Al) N semiconductors, especially InGaN material systems, demonstrate immense promises for the high efficiency thin film photovoltaic (PV) applications for future generation. Their unique and intriguing merits include continuously tunable wide band gap from 0.70 eV to 3.4 eV, strong absorption coefficient on the order of ∼105 cm−1, superior radiation resistance under harsh environment, and high saturation velocities and high mobility. Calculation from the detailed balance model also revealed that in multi-junction (MJ) solar cell device, materials with band gaps higher than 2.4 eV are required to achieve PV efficiencies greater than 50%, which is practically and easily feasible for InGaN materials. Other state-of-art modeling on InGaN solar cells also demonstrate great potential for applications of III-nitride solar cells in four-junction solar cell devices as well as in the integration with a non-III-nitride junction in multi-junction devices.

This dissertation first theoretically analyzed loss mechanisms and studied the theoretical limit of PV performance of InGaN solar cells with a semi-analytical model. Then three device design strategies are proposed to study and improve PV performance: band polarization engineering, structural design and band engineering. Moreover, three physical mechanisms related to high temperature performance of InGaN solar cells have been thoroughly investigated: thermal reliability issue, enhanced external quantum efficiency (EQE) and conversion efficiency with rising temperatures and carrier dynamics and localization effects inside nonpolar m-plane InGaN quantum wells (QWs) at high temperatures. In the end several future work will also be proposed.

Although still in its infancy, past and projected future progress of device design will ultimately achieve this very goal that III-nitride based solar cells will be indispensable for today and future’s society, technologies and society.
ContributorsHuang, Xuanqi (Author) / Zhao, Yuji (Thesis advisor) / Goodnick, Stephen M. (Committee member) / King, Richard R. (Committee member) / Vasileska, Dragica (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
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Description
Optical metasurfaces, i.e. artificially engineered arrays of subwavelength building blocks supporting abrupt and substantial light confinement, was employed to demonstrate a novel generation of devices for circularly polarized detection, full-Stokes polarimetry and all-optical modulation with ultra-compact footprint and chip-integrability.

Optical chirality is essential for generation, manipulation and detection of circularly polarized

Optical metasurfaces, i.e. artificially engineered arrays of subwavelength building blocks supporting abrupt and substantial light confinement, was employed to demonstrate a novel generation of devices for circularly polarized detection, full-Stokes polarimetry and all-optical modulation with ultra-compact footprint and chip-integrability.

Optical chirality is essential for generation, manipulation and detection of circularly polarized light (CPL), thus finds many applications in quantum computing, communication, spectroscopy, biomedical diagnosis, imaging and sensing. Compared to natural chiral materials, chiral metamaterials and metasurfaces enable much stronger chirality on subwavelength scale; therefore, they are ideal for device miniaturization and system integration. However, they are usually associated with low performance due to limited fabrication tolerance and high dissipation mainly caused by plasmonic materials. Here, a bio-inspired submicron-thick chiral metamaterial structure was designed and demonstrated experimentally with high contrast (extinction ratio >35) detection of CPL with different handedness and high efficiency (>80%) of the overall device. Furthermore, integration of left- and right-handed CPL detection units with nanograting linear polarization filters enabled full-Stokes polarimetry of arbitrarily input polarization states with high accuracy and very low insertion loss, all on a submillimeter single chip. These unprecedented highly efficient and high extinction ratio devices pave the way for on-chip polarimetric measurements.

All-optical modulation is widely used for optical interconnects, communication, information processing, and ultrafast spectroscopy. Yet, there’s deficiency of ultrafast, compact and energy-efficient solutions all in one device. Here, all-optical modulation of light in the near- and mid-infrared regimes were experimentally demonstrated based on a graphene-integrated plasmonic nanoantenna array. The remarkable feature of the device design is its simultaneous near-field enhancement for pump and probe (signal) beams, owing to the localized surface plasmon resonance excitation, while preserving the ultrafast photocarrier relaxation in graphene. Hence, a distinct modulation at 1560nm with record-low pump fluence (<8μJ/cm^2) was reported with ~1ps response time. Besides, relying on broadband interaction of graphene with incident light, a first-time demonstration of graphene-based all-optical modulation in mid-infrared spectral region (6-7μm) was reported based on the above double-enhancement design concept. Relying on the tunability of metasurface design, the proposed device can be used for ultrafast optical modulation from near-infrared to terahertz regime.
ContributorsBasiri, Ali (Author) / Yao, Yu (Thesis advisor) / Ning, Cun-Zheng (Committee member) / Palais, Joseph (Committee member) / Zhang, Yong-Hang (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
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Description
The molecular beam epitaxy growth of the III-V semiconductor alloy indium arsenide antimonide bismide (InAsSbBi) is investigated over a range of growth temperatures and V/III flux ratios. Bulk and quantum well structures grown on gallium antimonide (GaSb) substrates are examined. The relationships between Bi incorporation, surface morphology, growth temperature, and

The molecular beam epitaxy growth of the III-V semiconductor alloy indium arsenide antimonide bismide (InAsSbBi) is investigated over a range of growth temperatures and V/III flux ratios. Bulk and quantum well structures grown on gallium antimonide (GaSb) substrates are examined. The relationships between Bi incorporation, surface morphology, growth temperature, and group-V flux are explored. A growth model is developed based on the kinetics of atomic desorption, incorporation, surface accumulation, and droplet formation. The model is applied to InAsSbBi, where the various process are fit to the Bi, Sb, and As mole fractions. The model predicts a Bi incorporation limit for lattice matched InAsSbBi grown on GaSb.The optical performance and bandgap energy of InAsSbBi is examined using photoluminescence spectroscopy. Emission is observed from low to room temperature with peaks ranging from 3.7 to 4.6 μm. The bandgap as function of temperature is determined from the first derivative maxima of the spectra fit to an Einstein single oscillator model. The photoluminescence spectra is observed to significantly broaden with Bi content as a result of lateral composition variations and the highly mismatched nature of Bi atoms, pairs, and clusters in the group-V sublattice.
A bowing model is developed for the bandgap and band offsets of the quinary alloy GaInAsSbBi and its quaternary constituents InAsSbBi and GaAsSbBi. The band anticrossing interaction due to the highly mismatched Bi atoms is incorporated into the relevant bowing terms. An algorithm is developed for the design of mid infrared GaInAsSbBi
quantum wells, with three degrees freedom to independently tune transition energy, in plane strain, and band edge offsets for desired electron and hole confinement.
The physical characteristics of the fundamental absorption edge of the relevant III-V binaries GaAs, GaSb, InAs, and InSb are examined using spectroscopic ellipsometry. A five parameter model is developed that describes the key physical characteristics of the absorption edge, including the bandgap energy, the Urbach tail, and the absorption coefficient at the bandgap.
The quantum efficiency and recombination lifetimes of bulk InAs0.911Sb0.089 grown by molecular beam epitaxy is investigated using excitation and temperature dependent steady state photoluminescence. The Shockley-Read-Hall, radiative, and Auger recombination lifetimes are determined.
ContributorsSchaefer, Stephen Thomas (Author) / Johnson, Shane R (Thesis advisor) / Zhang, Yong-Hang (Committee member) / Goryll, Michael (Committee member) / King, Richard (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
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Description
Advanced and mature computer simulation methods exist in fluid dynamics, elec-

tromagnetics, semiconductors, chemical transport, and even chemical and material

electronic structure. However, few general or accurate methods have been developed

for quantum photonic devices. Here, a novel approach utilizing phase-space quantum

mechanics is developed to model photon transport in ring resonators, a form

Advanced and mature computer simulation methods exist in fluid dynamics, elec-

tromagnetics, semiconductors, chemical transport, and even chemical and material

electronic structure. However, few general or accurate methods have been developed

for quantum photonic devices. Here, a novel approach utilizing phase-space quantum

mechanics is developed to model photon transport in ring resonators, a form of en-

tangled pair source. The key features the model needs to illustrate are the emergence

of non-classicality and entanglement between photons due to nonlinear effects in the

ring. The quantum trajectory method is subsequently demonstrated on a sequence

of elementary models and multiple aspects of the ring resonator itself.
ContributorsWelland, Ian Matthew (Author) / Ferry, David K. (Thesis advisor) / Goodnick, Stephen (Thesis advisor) / Zhao, Yuji (Committee member) / Vasileska, Dragica (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020