High-performance GaSb planar PN junction detector

This paper examines GaSb short-wavelength infrared detectors employing planar PN junctions. The fabrication was based on the Zn diffusion process and the diffusion temperature was optimized. Characterization revealed a 50% cut-off wavelength of 1.73 μm, a maximum detectivity of 8.73 × 10^(10) cm·Hz^(1/2)/W, and a minimum dark current density of 1.02 × 10^(-5) A/cm^(2).Additionally, a maximum quantum efficiency of 60.3% was achieved. Subsequent optimization of fabrication enabled the realization of a 320 × 256 focal plane array that exhibited satisfactory imaging results. Remarkably, the GaSb planar detectors demonstrated potential in low-cost short wavelength infrared imaging, without requiring material epitaxy or deposition.

Effects of growth temperature and metamorphic buffer on electron mobility of InAs film grown on Si substrate by molecular beam epitaxy

The growth of the InAs film directly on the Si substrate deflected from the plane(100) at 4° towards(110) has been performed using a two-step procedure. The effect of the growth and annealing temperature on the electron mobility and surface topography has been investigated for a set of samples. The results show that the highest electron mobility is4640 cm^2/V·s in the sample, in which the 10-nm InAs nucleation layer is grown at a low temperature of 320 ℃ followed by ramping up to 560 ℃, and the nucleation layer was annealed for 15 min and the second layer of InAs is grown at 520 ℃.The influence of different buffer layers on the electron mobility of the samples has also been investigated, which shows that the highest electron mobility of 9222 cm^2/V·s at 300 K is obtained in the sample grown on a thick and linearly graded InGaAlAs metamorphic buffer layer deposited at 420 ℃.

Quantum light source devices of In(Ga)As semiconductor self-assembled quantum dots

A brief introduction of semiconductor self-assembled quantum dots (QDs) applied in single-photon sources is given. Single QDs in confined quantum optical microcavity systems are reviewed along with their optical properties and coupling characteristics. Subsequently, the recent progresses in In(Ga)As QDs systems are summarized including the preparation of quantum light sources, multiple methods for embedding single QDs into different microcavities and the scalability of single-photon emitting wavelength. Particularly, several In(Ga)As QD single-photon devices are surveyed including In(Ga)As QDs coupling with nanowires, InAs QDs coupling with distributed Bragg reflection microcavity and the In(Ga)As QDs coupling with micropillar microcavities. Furthermore, applications in the field of single QDs technology are illustrated, such as the entangled photon emission by spontaneous parametric down conversion, the single-photon quantum storage, the chip preparation of single-photon sources as well as the single-photon resonance-fluorescence measurements.

Terahertz phononic crystal in plasmonic nanocavity

Interaction between photons and phonons in cavity optomechanical systems provides a new toolbox for quantum information technologies.A GaAs/AlAs pillar multi-optical mode microcavity optomechanical structure can obtain phonons with ultra-high frequency(~THz).However,the optical field cannot be effectively restricted when the diameter of the GaAs/AlAs pillar microcavity decreases below the diffraction limit of light.Here,we design a system that combines Ag nanocav-ity with GaAs/AlAs phononic superlattices,where phonons with the frequency of 4.2 THz can be confined in a pillar with~4 nm diameter.The Q_(c)/V reaches 0.22 nm^(-3),which is~80 times that of the photonic crystal(PhC)nanobeam and~100 times that of the hybrid point-defect PhC bowtie plasmonic nanocavity,where Q_(c) is optical quality factor and V is mode volume.The optome-chanical single-photon coupling strength can reach 12 MHz,which is an order of magnitude larger than that of the PhC nanobeam.In addition,the mechanical zero-point fluctuation amplitude is 85 fm and the efficient mass is 0.27 zg,which is much smaller than the PhC nanobeam.The phononic superlattice-Ag nanocavity optomechanical devices hold great potential for applications in the field of integrated quantum optomechanics,quantum information,and terahertz-light transducer.

Exciton emission dynamics in single InAs/GaAs quantum dots due to the existence of plasmon-field-induced metastable states in the wetting layer

A very long lifetime exciton emission with non-single exponential decay characteristics has been reported for single InA-s/GaAs quantum dot(QD)samples,in which there exists a long-lived metastable state in the wetting layer(WL)through radiative field coupling between the exciton emissions in the WL and the dipole field of metal islands.In this article we have proposed a new three-level model to simulate the exciton emission decay curve.In this model,assuming that the excitons in a metastable state will diffuse and be trapped by QDs,and then emit fluorescence in QDs,a stretchedlike exponential decay formula is derived as I(t)=At^(β−1)e^(−(rt)^(β)),which can describe well the long lifetime decay curve with an analytical expression of average lifetime(τ)=1/rГ(1/β+1),where G is the Gamma function.Furthermore,based on the proposed three-level model,an expression of the second-order auto-correlation function g^(2)(t)which can fit the measured g^(2)(t)curve well,is also obtained.

Temperature dependence on the electrical and physical performance of InAs/AlSb heterojunction and high electron mobility transistors

In this report, the effect of temperature on the In As/Al Sb heterojunction and high-electron-mobility transistors（HEMTs） with a gate length of 2 μm are discussed comprehensively. The results indicate that device performance is greatly improved at cryogenic temperatures. It is also observed that the device performance at 90 K is significantly improved with 27% lower gate leakage current, 12% higher maximum drain current, and 22.5% higher peak transconductance compared to 300 K. The temperature dependence of mobility and the two-dimensional electron gas concentration in the In As/Al Sb heterojunction for the temperature range 90 K-300 K is also investigated. The electron mobility at 90 K（42560 cm2/V·s）is 2.5 times higher than its value at 300 K（16911 cm^2/V·s） because of the weaker lattice vibration and the impurity ionization at cryogenic temperatures, which corresponds to a reduced scattering rate and higher mobility. We also noted that the two-dimensional electron gas concentration decreases slightly from 1.99 × 10^（12） cm^（-2） at 300 K to 1.7 × 10^（12） cm^（-2） at 90 K with a decrease in temperature due to the lower ionization at cryogenic temperature and the nearly constant ？Ec.

The measurement of responsivity of infrared photodetectors using a cavity blackbody

For the measurement of responsivity of an infrared photodetector,the most-used radiation source is a blackbody.In such a measurement system,distance between the blackbody,the photodetector and the aperture diameter are two parameters that contribute most measurement errors.In this work,we describe the configuration of our responsivity measurement system in great detail and present a method to calibrate the distance and aperture diameter.The core of this calibration method is to transfer direct measurements of these two parameters into an extraction procedure by fitting the experiment data to the calculated results.The calibration method is proved experimentally with a commercially extended InGaAs detector at a wide range of blackbody temperature,aperture diameter and distance.Then proof procedures are further extended into a detector fabricated in our laboratory and consistent results were obtained.

Fiber coupled high count-rate single-photon generated from InAs quantum dots

In this work,we achieve high count-rate single-photon output in single-mode(SM)optical fiber.Epitaxial and dilute InAs/GaAs quantum dots(QDs)are embedded in a GaAs/AlGaAs distributed Bragg reflector(DBR)with a micro-pillar cavity,so as to improve their light emission extraction in the vertical direction,thereby enhancing the optical SM fiber’s collection capabil-ity(numerical aperture:0.13).By tuning the temperature precisely to make the quantum dot exciton emission resonant to the micro-pillar cavity mode(Q~1800),we achieve a fiber-output single-photon count rate as high as 4.73×10^(6) counts per second,with the second-order auto-correlation g2(0)remaining at 0.08.

Precise mode control of mid-infrared high-power laser diodes using on-chip advanced sawtooth waveguide designs

Power scaling in conventional broad-area(BA)lasers often leads to the operation of higher-order lateral modes,resulting in a multiple-lobe far-field profile with large divergence.Here,we report an advanced sawtooth waveguide(ASW)structure integrated onto a wide ridge waveguide.It strategically enhances the loss difference between higher-order modes and the fundamental mode,thereby facilitating high-power narrow-beam emission.Both optical simulations and experimental results illustrate the significant increase in additional scattering loss of the higher-order modes.The optimized ASW lasers achieve an impressive output power of 1.1 W at 4.6 A at room temperature,accompanied by a minimal full width at half maximum lateral divergence angle of 4.91°.Notably,the far-field divergence is reduced from19.61° to 11.39° at the saturation current,showcasing a remarkable 42%improvement compared to conventional BA lasers.Moreover,the current dependence of divergence has been effectively improved by 38%,further confirming the consistent and effective lateral mode control capability offered by our design.

Low-threshold topological nanolasers based on the second-order corner state

Topological lasers are immune to imperfections and disorder.They have been recently demonstrated based on many kinds of robust edge states,which are mostly at the microscale.The realization of 2D on-chip topological nanolasers with a small footprint,a low threshold and high energy efficiency has yet to be explored.Here,we report the first experimental demonstration of a topological nanolaser with high performance in a 2D photonic crystal slab.A topological nanocavity is formed utilizing the Wannier-type 0D corner state.Lasing behaviour with a low threshold of approximately 1μW and a high spontaneous emission coupling factor of 0.25 is observed with quantum dots as the active material.Such performance is much better than that of topological edge lasers and comparable to that of conventional photonic crystal nanolasers.Our experimental demonstration of a low-threshold topological nanolaser will be of great significance to the development of topological nanophotonic circuitry for the manipulation of photons in classical and quantum regimes.

Understanding the role of interface in advanced semiconductor nanostructure and its interplay with wave function overlap

As the proportion of interfaces increases rapidly in nanomaterials,properties and quality of interfaces hugely impact the performance of advanced semiconductors.Here,the effect of interfaces is explored by comparatively studying two InAs/AlSb superlattices with and without the thin InAsSb layers inserted inside each InAs layers.Through strain mapping,it indicates that the addition of interfaces leads to an increase of local strain both near interfaces and inside layers.Meantime,owing to the creation of hole potential wells within the original electron wells,the charge distribution undergoes an extra electron-hole alternating arrangement in the structure with inserted layers than the uninserted counterpart.Such a feature is verified to enhance electron-hole wave function overlap by theoretical simulations,which is a must for better optical performance.Furthermore,with an elaborate design of the inserted layers,the wave function overlap could be boosted without sacrificing other key device performances.

Dual strategy of modulating growth temperature and inserting ultrathin barrier to enhance the wave function overlap in type-Ⅱ superlattices

Maximizing wave function overlap(WFO)within type-II superlattices(T2SL)is demonstrated to be important for improving their photoelectric properties,such as optical transition strength and quantum efficiency,which,however,remains a great challenge for now.Herein,the dual strategy of modulating growth temperature and inserting ultrathin AlAs barrier into the AlSb layers is presented to enhance the WFO in InAs/AlSb T2SL.The charge distributions and strain states indicate that moderate growth temperature of 470°C promotes the As-Sb exchange at AlSb-on-InAs(AOI)interfaces,which would introduce skew of energy band structure towards InAs-on-AlSb(IOA)interface.Such band structure could drive electrons and holes to the IOA interfaces simultaneously,thus resulting in the enhanced WFO.On this basis,insertion of relatively thick(0.3 nm)AlAs layers is found to squeeze more holes towards adjacent interfaces,boosting the WFO further.The InAs/AlSb superlattices with optimized WFO reveal better optical performance,where the peak intensity shows 50%improvement in the PL spectra than the original one.Moreover,a dual-miniband radiative transition mechanism appears in the InAs/AlSb superlattice with relatively thick AlAs intercalation,which helps broaden the wavelength range of the superlattice.

High order DBR GaSb based single longitude mode diode lasers at 2 μm wavelength

The GaSb-based distributed Bragg reflection（DBR） diode laser with 23 rd-order gratings have been fabricated by conventional UV lithography and inductively coupled plasma（ICP） etching. The ICP etching conditions were optimized and the relationship among etching depth, duty ratio and side-mode suppression ratio（SMSR） was studied. The device with a ridge width of 100 μm, gratings period of 13 μm and etching depth of 1.55 μm as well as the duty ratio of 85% was fabricated, its maximum SMSR reached 22.52 dB with uncoated cavity facets under single longitudinal operation mode at room temperature.

Bright semiconductor single-photon sources pumped by heterogeneously integrated micropillar lasers with electrical injections

The emerging hybrid integrated quantum photonics combines the advantages of different functional components into a single chip to meet the stringent requirements for quantum information processing.Despite the tremendous progress in hybrid integrations of III-V quantum emitters with silicon-based photonic circuits and superconducting single-photon detectors,on-chip optical excitations of quantum emitters via miniaturized lasers towards single-photon sources(SPSs)with low power consumptions,small device footprints,and excellent coherence properties is highly desirable yet illusive.In this work,we present realizations of bright semiconductor SPSs heterogeneously integrated with on-chip electrically-injected microlasers.Different from previous one-by-one transfer printing technique implemented in hybrid quantum dot(QD)photonic devices,multiple deterministically coupled QD-circular Bragg Grating(CBG)SPSs were integrated with electrically-injected micropillar lasers at one time via a potentially scalable transfer printing process assisted by the wide-field photoluminescence(PL)imaging technique.Optically pumped by electrically-injected microlasers,pure single photons are generated with a high-brightness of a count rate of 3.8 M/s and an extraction efficiency of 25.44%.Such a high-brightness is due to the enhancement by the cavity mode of the CBG,which is confirmed by a Purcell factor of 2.5.Our work provides a powerful tool for advancing hybrid integrated quantum photonics in general and boosts the developments for realizing highly-compact,energy-efficient and coherent SPSs in particular.

Room-temperature optically pumped InAs/GaAs quantum dots microdisk lasers on SiO2/Si chip

We report on room temperature continuous-wave optically pumped InAs/GaAs quantum dot whispering gallery mode microdisk lasers, heterogeneously integrated on silica/silicon chips. The microdisks are fabricated by photolithography and inductively coupled plasma etching. The lasing wavelength is approximately 1200 nm and the obtained lowest laser threshold is approximately 28 μW. The experimental results show an approach of possible integrated Ⅲ–Ⅴ optical active materials on silica/silicon chip for low threshold WGM microdisk lasers.