Growth,characterization,and transport calculation of Ge/SiGe heterojunction:strategy for the growth of undoped Ge quantum wells

Ge/SiGe heterostructure quantum wells play a pivotal role in the pursuit of scalable silicon-based qubits.The varying compressive strains within these quantum wells profoundly influence the physical characteristics of the qubits,yet this factor remains largely unexplored,driving our research endeavor.In this study,we utilized RP-CVD(Reduced Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition)to grow Ge quantum wells with varied compressive strain,proposing growth schemes for lightly-strained(ε∥=-0.43%)QW(quantum well),standard-strained(ε∥=-0.61%)QW,and heavily-strained(ε∥=-1.19%)QW.Through comprehen-sive material characterization,particularly employing the low-temperature magneto-transport measurements,we derived the percolation densities ranging from 4.7×10^(10) to 14.2×10^(10) cm^(-2) and mobilities from 3.382×10^(5) to 7.301×10^(5) cm^(2)∙V^(-1)∙s^(-1).Combined with the first-principles calculations,our analysis delves into the trends in effective mass and percolation density at low temperatures,shedding light on the impact of quantum effects on band structures and the interplay between structural components and wave functions.This research offers a comprehensive investigation into the intrinsic mechanisms governing complex multi-strained quantum wells,spanning growth,characterization,and computational perspectives,thereby establish-ing a strategy for the growth of high-quality strained quantum wells.

Quantum confinement of carriers in the type-I quantum wells structure

Quantum confinement is recognized to be an inherent property in low-dimensional structures.Traditionally,it is believed that the carriers trapped within the well cannot escape due to the discrete energy levels.However,our previous research has revealed efficient carrier escape in low-dimensional structures,contradicting this conventional understanding.In this study,we review the energy band structure of quantum wells along the growth direction considering it as a superposition of the bulk material dispersion and quantization energy dispersion resulting from the quantum confinement across the whole Brillouin zone.By accounting for all wave vectors,we obtain a certain distribution of carrier energy at each quantized energy level,giving rise to the energy subbands.These results enable carriers to escape from the well under the influence of an electric field.Additionally,we have compiled a comprehensive summary of various energy band scenarios in quantum well structures relevant to carrier transport.Such a new interpretation holds significant value in deepening our comprehension of low-dimensional energy bands,discovering new physical phenomena,and designing novel devices with superior performance.

Bose–Einstein distribution temperature features of quasiparticles around magnetopolaron in Gaussian quantum wells of alkali halogen ions

We have applied strong coupling unitary transformation method combined with Bose–Einstein statistical law to investigate magnetopolaron energy level temperature effects in halogen ion crystal quantum wells.The obtained results showed that under magnetic field effect,magnetopolaron quasiparticle was formed through the interaction of electrons and surrounding phonons.At the same time,magnetopolaron was influenced by phonon temperature statistical law and important energy level shifts down and binding energy increases.This revealed that lattice temperature and magnetic field could easily affect magnetopolaron and the above results could play key roles in exploring thermoelectric conversion and conductivity of crystal materials.

Erratum:“Study of quantum well mixing induced by impurity-free vacancy in the primary epitaxial wafers of a 915 nm semiconductor laser”[J.Semicond.,2023,44(10),102302]

The thickness and composition of the external laminae contain errors,leading to inaccuracies in the theoretical calculations and simulations associated with Fig.3,Fig.4,and Fig.5.However,as these theoretical calculations merely illustrate a trend and do not contradict the experimental results,a request for modification has been submitted.

Reanalysis of energy band structure in the type-II quantum wells

Band structure analysis holds significant importance for understanding the optoelectronic characteristics of semiconductor structures and exploring their potential applications in practice. For quantum well structures, the energy of carriers in the well splits into discrete energy levels due to the confinement of barriers in the growth direction. However, the discrete energy levels obtained at a fixed wave vector cannot accurately reflect the actual energy band structure. In this work, the band structure of the type-II quantum wells is reanalyzed. When the wave vectors of the entire Brillouin region(corresponding to the growth direction) are taken into account, the quantized energy levels of the carriers in the well are replaced by subbands with certain energy distributions. This new understanding of the energy bands of low-dimensional structures not only helps us to have a deeper cognition of the structure, but also may overturn many viewpoints in traditional band theories and serve as supplementary to the band theory of low-dimensional systems.

Physico−mathematical model of the voltage−current characteristics of light-emitting diodes with quantum wells based on the Sah−Noyce−Shockley recombination mechanism

Herein,a physical and mathematical model of the voltage−current characteristics of a p−n heterostructure with quantum wells(QWs)is prepared using the Sah−Noyce−Shockley(SNS)recombination mechanism to show the SNS recombination rate of the correction function of the distribution of QWs in the space charge region of diode configuration.A comparison of the model voltage−current characteristics(VCCs)with the experimental ones reveals their adequacy.The technological parameters of the structure of the VCC model are determined experimentally using a nondestructive capacitive approach for determining the impurity distribution profile in the active region of the diode structure with a profile depth resolution of up to 10Å.The correction function in the expression of the recombination rate shows the possibility of determining the derivative of the VCCs of structures with QWs with a nonideality factor of up to 4.

9μm Cutoff 128×128 AlGaAs/GaAs Quantum Well Infrared Photodetector Focal Plane Arrays

We design and fabricate a 128 × 128 AlGaAs/GaAs quantum well infrared photodetector focal plane array （FPA）. The device is achieved by metal organic chemical vapor deposition and GaAs integrated circuit processing technology. A test structure of the photodetector with a mesa size of 300μm × 300μm is also made in order to obtain the device parameters. The measured dark current density at 77K is 1.5 × 10^-3A/cm^2 with a bias voltage of 2V. The peak of the responsivity spectrum is at 8.4μm,with a cutoff wavelength of 9μm. The blackbody detectivity is shown to be 3.95 × 10^8 （cm · Hz^1/2）/W. The final FPA is flip-chip bonded on a CMOS read-out integrated circuit. The infrared thermal images of some targets at room temperature background are successfully demonstrated at 80K operating temperature with a ratio of dead pixels of less than 1%.

Binding Energies of Screened Excitons in a Strained(111)-Oriented Zinc-Blende GaN/AlGaN Quantum Well Under Hydrostatic Pressure

We investigate the binding energies of excitons in a strained （111）-oriented zinc-blende GaN/Al0.3 Ga0.7 N quantum well screened by the electron-hole （e-h） gas under hydrostatic pressure by combining a variational method and a selfconsistent procedure. A built-in electric field produced by the strain-induced piezoelectric polarization is considered in our calculations. The result indicates that the binding energies of excitons increase nearly linearly with pressure,even though the modification of strain with hydrostatic pressure is considered, and the influence of pressure is more apparent under higher e-h densities. It is also found that as the density of an e-h gas increases,the binding energies first increase slowly to a maximum and then decrease rapidly when the e-h density is larger than about 1 ×10^11 cm^-2. The excitonic binding energies increase obviously as the barrier thickness decreases due to the decrease of the built-in electric field.

Bound Polaron in a Quantum Well Under an Electric Field

We conduct a theoretical study on the properties of a bound polaron in a quantum well under an electric field using linear combination operator and unitary transformation methods, which are valid in the whole range of electron-LO phonon coupling. The changing relations between the ground-state energy of the bound polaron in the quantum well and the Coulomb bound potential, the electric field strength, and the well width are derived. The numerical results show that the ground-state energy increases with the increase of the electric field strength and the Coulomb bound potential and decreases as the well width increases.

Influence of the Electric Field on the Properties of the Bound Magnetopolaron in GaAs Semiconductor Quantum Wells

The influence of the electric field on the properties of the bound magnetopolaron in an infinite-depth GaAs semiconductor quantum well is investigated using the linear-combination operator and the unitary transformation method. The relationships between the polaron＇s ground state energy and the Coulomb bound potential, electric field, magnetic field, and well-width are derived and discussed. Our numerical results show that the absolute value of the polaron＇s ground state energy increases as the electric field and the Coulomb bound potential increase, and decreases as the well-width and the magnetic field strength increase. When the well-width is small,the quantum size effect is significant.

High Power 808nm AlGaAs/GaAs Quantum Well Laser Diodes with Broad Waveguide

The 808nm laser diodes with a broad waveguide are designed and fabricated.The thickness of the Al_ 0.35 - Ga_ 0.65 As waveguide is increased to 0.9μm.In order to suppress the super modes,the thickness of the Al_ 0.55 Ga_ 0.45 As cladding layers is reduced to only 0.7μm while keeping the transverse radiation losses of the fundamental mode below 0.2cm -1 .The structures are grown by metal organic chemical vapour deposition.The devices show excellent performances.The maximum output power of 10.2W in the 100μm broad-area laser diodes is obtained.

Compressively Strained InGaAs/InGaAsP Quantum Well Distributed Feedback Laser at 1.74μm

The compressively strained InGaAs/InGaAsP quantum well distributed feedback laser with ridge-wave- guide is fabricated at 1.74μm. It is grown by low-pressure metal organic chemical vapor deposition（MOCVD）. A strain buffer layer is used to avoid indium segregation. The threshold current of the device uncoated with length of 300μm is 11.5mA. The maximum output power is 14mW at 100mA. A side mode suppression ratio of 35.5dB is obtained.

Binding Energy and Photoionization of Hydrogenic Impurities in GaAs/Ga_(1-x)Al_xAs Quantum Well Wires

The binding energy and the photon energy dependence of the photoionization cross-section are calculated for a hydrogenic impurity in GaAs/Ga 1-xAl xAs quantum well wires.The correlation between confined and non-confined direction of the wire in the variational wave function is taken into account.The results show that the photoionization cross-sections are affected by the width of the wire and that their magnitudes are larger than those in infinite potential quantum well wires.In comparison with previous's results,the variational wave function improves the binding energy and decreases the value of photoionization cross-sections of the hydrogenic impurities,which makes the results more reasonable.

Material Growth and Device Fabrication of GaAs Based 1.3μm GaInNAs Quantum Well Laser Diodes

Material growth and device fabrication of the first 1.3μm quantum well （QW） edge emitting laser diodes in China are reported. Through the optimization of the molecular beam epitaxy （MBE） growth conditions and the tuning of the indium and nitrogen composition of the GalnNAs QWs, the emission wavelengths of the QWs can be tuned to 1.3μm. Ridge geometry waveguide laser diodes are fabricated. The lasing wavelength is 1.3μm under continuous current injection at room temperature with threshold current of 1kA/cm^2 for the laser diode structures with the cleaved facet mirrors. The output light power over 30mW is obtained.

GSMBE-Grown InGaAs/InGaAsP Strained Quantum Well Lasers at 1.84 Micron Wavelength

GSMBE grown 1 84 micron wavelength InGaAs/InGaAsP/InP strained quantum well lasers are reported. Lasers with 800 micron long cavity and 40 micron wide planar electrical stripe have been operated under the pulsed regime at room temperature. At 20℃, the threshold current density is 3 8kA/cm 2 and the external different quantum efficiency is 9 3%.

Polar Quasi-Confined Optical Phonon Modes in Wurtzite Quasi-One-Dimensional GaN/Al_xGa_(1-x)N Quantum Well Wires

Based on the dielectric continuum model and Loudon＇s uniaxial crystal model,quasi-confined （QC） optical phonon modes and electron-QC phonon coupling functions in quasi-one-dimensional （QID） wurtzite quantum well wires （QWWs） are deduced and analyzed. Numerical calculations on an AIN/GaN/AIN wurtzite QWW are performed. The results reveal that the dispersions of the QC modes are quite obvious only when the free wavenumber kz in the z-direction and the azimuthal quantum number m are small. The reduced behavior of the QC modes in wurtzite quantum systems is clearly observed. Through the discussion of the electron-QC mode coupling functions,it is found that the lower-frequency QC modes in the high-frequency region play a more important role in the electron-QC phonon interactions. Moreover,our computations also prove that kz and m have a similar influence on the electron-QC phonon coupling properties.

Growth and Optical Properties of ZnO Films and Quantum Wells

The growth characteristics during metalorganic chemical vapor deposition and optical properties of ZnO films on sapphire （Al2O3） （0001） and （1120） substrates are studied. For the former,the effects of two important growth parameters,i, e. temperature and pressure, are investigated in detail. Due to the large lattice mismatch between the film and the substrate, ZnO nanocrystals are usually obtained. The growth behavior at the film-substrate interface is found to be strongly dependent on the growth temperature,while the growth pressure determines the shape of the nanostructures as they grow. It is difficult to obtain ZnO films that have good quality and a smooth surface simultaneously. Due to the smaller lattice mismatch,the critical thickness of ZnO on the Al2O3 （1120） surface is found to be much larger than that on the Al2O3 （0001） surface. ZnO/MgZnO quantum wells with graded well thicknesses are grown on the Al2O3 （1120） surfaces,and their optical properties are studied. The built-in electric field in the well layer, generated by the piezoelectric effect, is estimated to be 3 × 10^5 V/cm. It is found that growth at low temperatures and low pressures may facilitate the incorporation of acceptor impurities in ZnO.

Highly-Strained InGaAs/GaAs Single-Quantum-Well Lasers Grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy

Highly stained InGaAs/GaAs Quantum Wells (QW) are grown by using molecular beam epitaxy.The room-temperature photoluminescence (PL) peak wavelength as long as 1160nm is obtained from QW with the In composition of 38% and the well width of 6 8nm.The full-width at half-maximum of the PL peak is 22meV,indicating a good quality.InGaAs/GaAs QW ridge-waveguide lasers with emission wavelength of 1120nm are demonstrated.For 100-μm-wide ridge-waveguide lasers with a cavity length of 800μm,the kink-free output power up to 200mW is achieved with the slope efficiency of 0 84mW/mA under the continue-wave operation.For 10μm-wide ridge-waveguide lasers,the lowest threshold current density of 450A/cm2 and the characteristic temperature of 90K are obtained.

A Single Mode980 nm In Ga As/Ga As/Al Ga As Large Optical Cavity Quantum Well Laser with Low Vertical Divergence Angle

To achieve high optical power as well as low vertical divergence angle,a new kind of optim ized large opti- cal cavity (L OC) structure is applied to a ridge waveguide 980 nm In Ga As/ Ga As/ Al Ga As m ulti- quantum well laser.The optical power density in the waveguide is successfully reduced.The maxim um output power is more than 40 0 m W with a slope efficiency of 0 .89W/ A and the far- field vertical divergence angle is lowered to 2 3°.

An Integratable Distributed Bragg Reflector Laser by Low-Energy Ion Implantation Induced Quantum Well Intermixing

An integratable distributed Bragg reflector laser is fabricated by low energy ion implantation induced quantum well intermixing.A 4 6nm quasi continuous wavelength tuning range is achieved by controlling phase current and grating current simultaneously,and side mode suppression ratio maintains over 30dB throughout the tuning range except a few mode jump points.