This paper presents the recent achievements of ZnO/GaN heteroepitaxy. The general controlling method and mechanism for the polarity of heteroepitaxial ZnO and GaN films by interface engineering via Plasma-assisted Molecular beam epitaxy(P-MBE) are introduced in a viewpoint of principle for polarity control. We propose the principle of crystal polarity: Crystal polarity can succeed at the heterointerface when no interface layer is formed, while an interface layer with inversion symmetry is formed, the crystal polarity is inverted at the heterointerfae. The effects of polarity on the interface, surface and bulk structure, and the structural and optical properties of ZnO/GaN epitaxy are also included. The polarity of GaN on ZnO is successfully controlled based on the proposed principle for control of crystal polarity. Additionally, the electronic characteristics such as electron concentration, band-line-up, and C-V characteristics of ZnO/GaN heterointerface are dicussed.

Beam induced lateral epitaxy (BILE) on truncated ridges was applied to the heteroepitaxial growth of GaAs on a Si substrate. A GaAs buffer layer was formed on the Si substrate, and then this GaAs/Si template was used as a substrate for the BILE process. As a result, overgrown regions of GaAs of widths as large as 6.5 μm were grown laterally from the sides of the truncated ridges. The growth regions had a flat, smooth top surface consisting of a (111) facet. Although stacking faults from the GaAs/Si template remained in the growth region, which are unfavorable for device applications, the lateral grown region has no dislocations. Thus, the BILE method is useful for reducing dislocations in heteroepitaxy.

Significant germanium incorporation into HfO2 gate dielectrics has been found after thermal annealing in germanium MOS device. The dependences of germanium incorporation in HfO2 with dielectric deposition method, annealing temperature and annealing ambient were extensively studied by means of physical analytical methods such as SIMS and XPS. MOCVD (metal organic chemical vapor deposition) technique shows stronger germanium incorporation than PVD (physics vapor deposition) while surface nitridation of germanium can effectively suppress the Ge-incorporation. In addition, the results indicate that a thermal budget higher than 500°C in device fabrication results in apparent Ge out-diffusion. And the germanium out-diffusion is found to be enhanced under oxygen environment.

Lattice dynamical and electronic transition changes due to V and Co doped ZnO have been investigated using optical techniques. Vanadium and Co doped ZnO pellets were prepared using conventional ceramic processing route and thin films were fabricated by pulsed laser deposition. Raman spectra of Zn1-xVxO targets showed many additional peaks in the range of 230 to 350 cm-1 and 750 to 900 cm-1. Integrated intensities of these additional modes decreased with increase of temperature as similar to the host ZnO modes, which precludes electronic Raman scattering to be the origin. Raman peaks for stoichiometric Zn3(VO4)2 and Zn2V2O7 compounds also had additional peaks that can be attributed to the secondary phases formed in the compositions of Zn1-xVxO. Raman spectra of Zn1-xCoxO showed no additional modes besides ZnO modes, however, the intensity of the second order peak at 540 cm-1 was increased due to Co doping. Thin films of Zn1-xCoxO exhibited highly c-axis orientation deposited on (001)Al2O3 substrates. The optical absorption of the films showed that the band gap decreased with increase of Co concentrations at room temperature along with the sub bandgap absorptions due to d-d transitions of Co2+.

High-quality GaSb substrates with minimal surface roughness and thin, uniform oxide layers are critical for developing low-power, epitaxy-based, electronic and optoelectronic devices. Ion-beam processing techniques of gas-cluster ion beam (GCIB) and bromine ion-beam assisted etching (Br-IBAE) were investigated as to their potential for improving the suitability of substrate surfaces for molecular beam epitaxial (MBE) growth. Statistical analysis of the residual surface roughness provides insight into ion-beam processing and its impact on epitaxial growth. Images of episurfaces grown on chemical mechanical polished (CMP), Br-IBAE, and GCIB finished substrates were obtained using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and these were statistically analyzed to characterize their surface roughness properties. Autocorrelation analysis of the first two types of episurfaces showed a quick loss of correlation within ∼100 nm. The episurface with Br-IBAE also showed isotropic mound roughness with sharp point-like protrusions. The GCIB prepared episurfaces exhibited the formation of uniform step-terrace patterns with monatomic steps and wide terraces as indicated by the strong, long range (>0.5 μm) correlations. Statistical analysis of the GCIB episurfaces showed self-similar random fractal behavior over eight orders of magnitude in the power spectral density (PSD) with a fractal dimension of ∼2.5.

Zinc oxide is a very attractive material for a range of optoelectronic devices including blue light-emitting diodes and laser diodes. Though n-type doping has been successfully achieved, p-type doing of ZnO is still a challenge that must be overcome before p-n junction devices can be realized. Ion implantation is widely used in the microelectronics industry for selective area doping and device isolation. Understanding damage accumulation and recrystallization processes is important for achieving selective area doping. In this study, As (potential p-type dopant) ion implantation and annealing studies were carried out. ZnO samples were implanted with high dose (1.4 × 1017 ions/cm2) 300 keV As ions at room temperature. Furnace annealing of samples in the range of 900°C to 1200°C was employed to achieve recrystallization of amorphous layers and electrical activation of the dopant. Rutherford backscattering/channeling spectrometry, transmission electron microscopy and cathodolumiescence spectroscopy were used to monitor damage accumulation and annihilation behavior in ZnO. Results of this study have significant implications for p-type doing of ZnO by ion implantation.

We present the recent progress in the intermixing of InGaAs/GaAs quantum dot (QD) material. Quantum dot intermixing (QDI) allows the tuning of the energy bandgap in selected areas of the wafer or optoelectronic device, thus modifying its emission or absorption properties, in much the same way as in quantum well (QW) material. QDI has recently received increasing interest, as it combines bandgap engineering with the predicted advantages that quantum dots offer, such as low temperature-sensitivity of threshold current, high modulation frequency and low chirp.

We have applied the dielectric-cap-based techniques that were originally developed for QW structures, to the intermixing of InGaAs/GaAs/AlGaAs QD material with an emission wavelength of 1280 nm. Intermixing was achieved by sputtering a QDI-enhancing cap in some areas, and a QDI-suppressing cap in other areas, followed by a high-temperature anneal cycle. Extremely large bandgap blue-shifts of up to 280 nm have been obtained with an anneal temperature of 800 °C. The shifts were inferred from the photoluminescence (PL) spectra measured at 77 K under red-laser excitation.

To be of use in many applications, QDI must be able to provide a multiplicity of bandgaps on a single substrate. Multiple bandgaps can be created by varying the thickness of the QDI-enhancing cap, repeating the anneal cycle several times, or varying the coverage density of QDI-enhancing features over that of QDI-suppressing ones. The latter approach, termed selective intermixing in selected areas (SISA), involves the deposition of QDI-enhancing patterns of various area fill factors, which, upon annealing, will cause different degrees of intermixing in the underlying regions.

To demonstrate the SISA process in the QD material, we defined patterns containing lines and squares of various sizes (3 - 100 μm) and area fill factors (5% - 95%). The wafer was then annealed at 725 °C for 1 minute. As expected, the observed bandgap shifts were commensurate with the fill factor, with a 5% coverage providing a minimum shift (0 - 10 nm) and ∼40% a maximum one (∼ 120 nm). At fill factors above 40%, the shifts appeared to saturate and even decrease slightly. The effect of the feature size and shape was not very pronounced, with smaller features generating somewhat larger shifts. This may be due to the fabrication-related size bias that will have the strongest effect on the fill factor of smaller features. The PL spectra measured from patterns of large-size features (20 μm or more) often had a lopsided shape and broader peak width, which may be attributed to the limited spatial resolution of the measurement probe.

Heterojunction field effect transistors (HFET) for high-frequency and high-power electronics have been an area of active research in recent years as a key enabling technology for applications ranging from wireless communications to power distribution. III-Nitride semiconductors are a leading candidate for fulfilling the material requirements of these devices based on the combination of large bandgap energy, high thermal conductivity, high electron mobility and saturated electron velocity. While III-Nitride HFETs have demonstrated remarkable advances, serious materials related limitations still exist, primarily related to charge states and trapping effects at the semiconductor surface. Several groups have investigated solutions such as the deposition of dielectric passivation layers and asymmetric field-plate gate geometries for controlling the influence of trap states near the metal/semiconductor FET interface. We have demonstrated a metal-oxide semiconductor FET (MOSFET) with a substantially unpinned interface which is capable of establishing substantial charge accumulation under the gate. These III-Nitride MOSFETs may be designed to operate in either depletion mode or enhancement mode. GaN/InGaN heterojunction MOSFETs exhibit enhancement mode peak transconductance at gate voltages Vg>+5V, corresponding to energy greater than the bandgap of the underlying semiconductor which provides strong evidence of an unpinned MOS interface. Additionally III-Nitride MOSFETs eliminate the need for field plate gate structures as the electric field geometry in the gate-drain region changes limiting the tunneling of charge to unfilled surface states. In depletion mode, low-rf dispersion InGaN/GaN MOSFETs exhibit excellent microwave with ft = 8GHz for optically defined gates dimensions.

We review the history of compound semiconductor MOSFET development and overlaying these developments with recent advances in the III-Nitride materials and device research. Differences in chemistry of III-Nitrides relative to all other compound semiconductors and the epitaxial deposition of gate-oxides such as Gadolinium Gallium Oxide (GGO), opens the possibility for dramatically improved devices at microwave and mm-wave frequencies as well as power MOSFET rectifiers. Initial III-Nitride MOSFETs results are presented as well as a quaternary thermodynamic framework for the stability of gate-oxide on nitride semiconductors. We also identify key materials related research challenges expected to impact the ongoing development of III-Nitride MOSFETs.

InAsSb quantum dot (QD) lasers are promising light sources with emission wavelengths beyond 2μm as recently demonstrated. We report the first detailed atomic force microscope (AFM) characterization of uncapped InAsSb quantum dots self-assembled on GaAs/In0.53Ga0.47As layers. These quantum dot structures are grown on (100) InP substrates by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). Growth conditions are chosen to maximize photoluminescence intensity and to obtain high output powers from Fabry-Perot lasers with one stack of InAsSb QDs. Conductive AFM is employed to simultaneously study topography, current image, and current-voltage (I-V) characteristics from various InAs1-ySby QDs with y varied between 0 and 0.25. Typical dot density is 4–5×1010/cm2 and dots are estimated to have a lateral dimension at the base of ∼40nm and a height of 2–5nm. I-V characteristics measured from individual InAsSb QDs are compared to those from InAs QDs. Also reported are electronic properties including energy band gaps of InAs and InAsSb QDs.

We present state of the art fist-principles calculations for the optical spectra and the loss functions of bulk boron nitride in the cubic (c-BN) and in the hexagonal (h-BN) phases. We start from a DFT-LDA density functional Khon-Sham bandstructure to investigate the influence of many-body effects beyond the Random Phase Approximation (RPA) on the optical spectra through the inclusion of self-energy and excitonic effects by a GW calculation and the solution of the Bethe-Salpeter equation. For the loss function we only perform RPA calculations. We show to which extent the description of many-body effects is important for a meaningiful comparison with experiment, and when they can be neglected.

Time resolved cyclotron resonance measurements are used to investigate more in further detail the effective mass of electrons and holes in InGaAsN epitaxial layers. The In and N content in the alloy are adjusted to yield the latticematching of the epilayers (200 nm thick) to GaAs. A continuous increase of the effective mass of electron and an increase of the resonance associated with holes is observed. Through the evolution of the imaginary part of conductivity as a function of the elapsed time we show that this observation is a coupled cyclotron resonance that may have maxima in the real part of conductivity but should not be necessarily correlated with the “increase” of the effective mass.

Tm3+ -doped glasses with the composition of (1-x)TeO2-xPbF2, where x=10, 15, 20, 25 mol.% were synthesized and, their thermal and absorption measurements were investigated. All the glasses were transparent. The absorption bands corresponding to the absorption of the 1G4, 3F2, 3F3, 3F4, 3H5, and 3H4 levels from the 3H6 ground level of the Tm3+ ion were observed in the optical UV/VIS/NIR absorption measurements. We calculated the integrated absorption cross sections of each band except that of 3H5 level was found to vary with composition of the PbF2. The absorption measurements were first made to determine the spontaneous emission probabilities of the 4f-4f transitions of the Tm3+ ions. The calculations were made by using the Judd - Ofelt theory. The Ω2 parameter shows the strongest dependence on the host composition and it increases with the increasing PbF2 amount. The values Ω4 increases rather slowly while the value of Ω6 is practically independent of the composition. The strong dependence of the parameter Ω2 indicates that this parameter is related to the structural change and symmetry of the local environment of the Tm3+ ions in this glass.

CdSe and CdTe nanoparticles dispersed in silicon dioxide films have been grown by magnetron sputtering technique followed by thermal annealing. Effect of thermal annealing conditions on the structural and optical properties of CdTe and CdSe nanoparticles has been studied. Glancing angle x-ray diffraction (GAXRD), optical absorption (OA), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) techniques have been used to study the crystal structure, particle size and dielectric function spectra of nanoparticles. ε2 spectra of CdTe nanoparticles show a decrease in dielectric constant values in comparison to bulk CdTe. ε2″ spectrum of CdTe nanoparticles show four critical points in the electronic band structure of CdTe. Optical absorption studies in the case of CdTe and CdSe nanoparticles clearly show the blue shift of fundamental absorption edge due to quantum confinement effect.

Single probe infrared low coherence optical interferometry has been proven to be an effective tool for characterization of thin and ultra-thin semiconductor Si and compound materials wafers. Its application was however limited to wafers transparent at probing wavelength, and having relatively smooth surfaces. Purpose of this paper is to present an extension of low coherence interferometry to characterization of non-transparent wafers, and wafers with rough surfaces.

We present a novel scheme for generating high energy ultrashort pulses in modelocked semiconductor lasers using a fast saturable absorber based upon intersubband transitions (ISBT) in GaN/AlGaN superlattice. The fast electron relaxation time (∼100–300 fs) in this saturable absorber enables the generation of stable sub-100 fs pulses at the communication wavelength (1.55μm) with high pulse energies (5–10 pJ).

A new synthesis methodology is utilized to prepare ZnO nanoparticles with a narrow size distribution between 2 to 4 nm. The particle growth is found to be reaction time dependent. The dry powders of ZnO nanoparticles show a strong blue-shifted near-band-edge ultraviolet emission, and the size and size distribution of the particles did not exhibit noticeable change during solvent evaporation. Raman spectra show ZnO E22 (TO) phonon mode and other vibration modes that are attributed to the bound acetate group. The CO stretching mode in the Raman spectra is red-shifted to 1401 cm-1, indicating a strong adsorption of the acetate ligands onto ZnO surfaces.

Mid-gap work function (∼4.7eV) for mono-nickel-silicide (NiSi) was obtained by extrapolating flat band voltages of metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors with different gate oxide thickness. Both silicidation temperature and time can affect the nickel silicide work function as a result of different Ni:Si ratio close to the gate oxide interface. Arsenic implantation into the polysilicon before silicidation can shift the NiSi work function towards the silicon conduction band, which makes it suitable for high performance NMOS applications. The physical mechanism responsible for this work function shift is arsenic pile-up at the oxide interface during the nickel silicidation process. Therefore, dual work function metal gate can be obtained by using a single gate full silicidation process. Silicidation temperature and time also affect the work function shift from arsenic dopant, and the incomplete gate silicidation can have the maximum work function modification effect. Arsenic activation temperature before silicidation was found to have a significant effect on the work function shift. Un-annealed samples exhibit a minimum shift in work function due to the low dopant pile-up concentration at the oxide interface.

Ytterbium (Yb) ions were co-implanted into Al0.70Ga0.30As:Er substrates at room temperature. The photoluminescence (PL) and PL lifetime were characterized. Co-implanted Yb3+ enhanced PL intensity of Er3+-related emission. Er3+-related main peak (1538.2 nm), in addition to Yb3+ dose, was enhanced approximately twice. The energy transfers from 2F5/2 (the first excited state) → 2F7/2 (the grand excited state) of Yb3+ to 4I11/2 (the second excited state) → 4I15/2 (the grand excited state) and 4I15/2 → (the first excited state) 4I15/2 of Er3+ was observed.

Nominal PbSe nano-islands were grown in the Stranski-Krastanow mode on (111) oriented PbTe/BaF2 pseudo-substrates by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The number density and morphology of these islands were assessed by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was employed to determine the strain state and crystallographic structure of these islands. On the basis of both AFM and TEM analyses, we distinguish between different groups of tensibly strained islands. The suggestion is made to use such nano-islands as part of nanometrology standards for scanning probe microscopy.

Intersubband transitions (ISTs) in GaN/AlxGa1-xN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) were investigated using an optical absorption technique. Several samples were grown by either Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) or Metal-Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) and were investigated using both normal incident and waveguide configurations. The waveguides were fabricated by dicing each sample into 2 mm wide by 5 mm long pieces with two facets polished at 45 degrees with respect to the surface such that light propagates across the sample's width. Preliminary results indicate that ISTs are observable in Si-doped and undoped GaN/AlxGa1-xN MQWs. The source of these charge carriers in the undoped samples are explained as being due to the spontaneous polarization effect which exists at the GaN/AlxGa1-xN interfaces where the GaN surface has Ga-polarity. Scanning Electron Microscopy indicates that a sample containing what appeared to be a large number of cracks and or hexagonal voids lacked the presence of ISTs.