Mechanisms of nanodot formation under focused ion beam irradiation in compound semiconductors

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98704/1/JApplPhys_109_014319.pd

Electrical transport in ion beam created InAs nanospikes

Ion beam irradiation has previously been demonstrated as a method for creating nanowire-like semiconductor nanostructures, but no previous studies have reported on the electrical properties of those structures. In this work we describe the creation and in situ transmission electron microscopy electrical characterization of nanoscale InAs spike structures on both InAs and InP substrates fabricated using a focused ion beam erosion method. Those InAs ‘nanospikes’ are found to possess internal structures with varying amounts of ion damaged and single crystalline material. Nanospike electrical behavior is analyzed with respect to model electronic structures and is similar to cases of barrier limited conduction in nanowires. The different electrical responses of each nanospike are found to be the result of variation in their structure, with the conductivity of InAs nanospikes formed on InAs substrates found to increase with the degree of nanospike core crystallinity. The conductivity of InAs nanospikes formed on InP substrates does not show a dependence on core crystallinity, and may be controlled by the other internal barriers to conduction inherent in that system.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98603/1/0957-4484_23_31_315301.pd

Lateral patterning of multilayer InAs/GaAs(001) quantum dot structures by in-vacuo focused ion beam

We report on the effects of patterning and layering on multilayer InAs/GaAs(001) quantum dot structures laterally ordered using an in vacuo focused ion beam. The patterned hole size and lateral pattern spacing affected the quantum dot size and the fidelity of the quantum dots with respect to the lateral patterns. 100% pattern fidelity was retained after six layers of dots for a 9.0 ms focused ion beam dwell time and 2.0 µm lateral pattern spacing. Analysis of the change in quantum dot size as a function of pattern spacing provided a means of estimating the maximum average adatom surface diffusion length to be approximately 500 nm, and demonstrated the ability to alter the wetting layer thickness via pattern spacing. Increasing the number of layers from six to 26 resulted in mound formation, which destroyed the pattern fidelity at close pattern spacings and led to a bimodal quantum dot size distribution as measured by atomic force microscopy. The bimodal size distribution also affected the optical properties of the dots, causing a split quantum dot photoluminescence peak where the separation between the split peaks increased with increasing pattern spacing.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98602/1/0957-4484_23_13_135401.pd

Influence of a Bi surfactant on Sb incorporation in InAsSb alloys

The influence of using a Bi surfactant during the growth of InAsSb on the composition was examined, and it was found that increasing Bi flux on the surface during growth inhibits the incorporation of Sb. Analysis of the data via a kinetic model of anion incorporation shows that surface Bi acts as a catalyst for InAs formation, thus inhibiting Sb incorporation

Detection of lateral composition modulation by magnetoexciton spectroscopy

An experimental signature for detecting spontaneous lateral composition modulation in a (InAs){sub n}/(GaAs){sub m} short period superlattice on an InP substrate based on magnetoexciton spectroscopy described. The authors find by aligning the magnetic field in three crystallographic directions, one parallel to and the other two perpendicular to the composition modulation direction, that the magnetoexciton shifts are anisotropic and are a good indicator for the presence of composition modulation

Microstructure of compositionally modulated InAlAs

The authors have observed spontaneous, lateral composition modulation in tensile InAlAs alloy films grown as short-period superlattices on InP (001). They have analyzed these films using transmission electron microscopy, x-ray reciprocal space mapping, and polarized photoluminescence spectroscopy. They find the growth front is nonplanar, exhibiting {approximately} 2 nm deep cusps aligned with the In-rich regions of the compositionally modulated films. In addition to the measured 15 nm wavelength modulation in the [110] direction, a modulation of 30 nm wavelength is seen in the orthogonal [1{bar 1}0] direction. The photoluminescence from the modulated layer is strongly polarized and red shifted by 0.22 eV

Photoluminescence Studies of Lateral Composition Modulated Short-Period AlAs/InAs Superlattices

We present low temperature photoluminescence data for a series of spontaneous lateral composition modulation in (AlAs){sub m}/(InAs){sub n} short period superlattices on InP with differing average lattice constants, i.e., varying global strain. The low temperature photoluminescence peak energies were found to be much lower than the corresponding energy expected for the equivalent In{sub x}Al{sub 1{minus}x}As alloy. The bandgap energy reductions are found to approach 500 meV and this reduction is found to correlated with the strength of the composition modulation wave amplitude

Lateral superlattice solar cells

A novel structure which comprises of a lateral superlattice as the active layer of a solar cell is proposed. If the alternating regions A and B of a lateral superlattice ABABAB... are chosen to have a Type-II band offset, it is shown that the performance of the active absorbing region of the solar cell is optimized. In essence, the Type-II lateral superlattice region can satisfy the material requirements for an ideal solar cells active absorbing region, i.e. simultaneously having a very high transition probability for photogeneration and a very long minority carrier recombination lifetime