Photocurrent detection of radially polarized optical vortex with hot electrons in Au/GaN

We report a GaN based metal–semiconductor–metal (MSM) infrared photodetector enabled with azimuthally distributed sub-wavelength gratings fabricated on one of the working electrodes. Under illumination, hot electron transfer is introduced by the plasmonic resonance in the infrared waveband formed at the interface of Au/GaN. Without the help of using any external optical polarizers, the device is able to detect radial polarization vortices in the form of photocurrents with a prescribed response spectrum. The detector exhibits a 10%–90% rise and fall time of 0.9 ms under modulated light, much faster than that of conventional ultraviolet GaN MSM photodetectors based on the band edge absorption. This work provides a viable way to measure spatially variant polarization beams with a compact plasmonic photodetectors fabricated from wide bandgap semiconductors

The thermal stability of epitaxial GeSn layers

We report on the direct observation of lattice relaxation and Sn segregation of GeSn/Ge/Si heterostructures under annealing. We investigated strained and partially relaxed epi-layers with Sn content in the 5 at. %-12 at. % range. In relaxed samples, we observe a further strain relaxation followed by a sudden Sn segregation, resulting in the separation of a β-Sn phase. In pseudomorphic samples, a slower segregation process progressively leads to the accumulation of Sn at the surface only. The different behaviors are explained by the role of dislocations in the Sn diffusion process. The positive impact of annealing on optical emission is also discussed

Microstructure investigation of semi-polar (11-22) GaN overgrown on differently designed micro-rod array templates

In order to realize semi-polar (11-22) GaN based laser diodes grown on sapphire, it is necessary to further improve the crystal quality of the (11-22) GaN obtained by using our overgrowth approach developed on regularly arrayed micro-rod templates [T. Wang, Semicond. Sci. Technol. 31, 093003 (2016)]. This can be achieved by carefully designing micro-rod templates. Based on transmission electron microscopy and photoluminescence measurements, it has been found that the micro-rod diameter plays a vital role in effectively reducing both the dislocation density and the basal staking fault (BSF) density of the overgrown (11-22) GaN, but in different manners. The BSF density reduces monotonically with increasing the micro-rod diameter from 2 to 5 μm, and then starts to be saturated when the micro-rod diameter further increases. In contrast, the dislocation density reduces significantly when the micro-rod diameter increases from 2 to 4 μm, and then starts to increase when the diameter further increases to 5 μm. Furthermore, employing shorter micro-rods is useful for removing additional BSFs, leading to further improvement in crystal quality. The results presented provide a very promising approach to eventually achieving (11-22) semi-polar III-nitride laser diodes

Surface/interface engineering of InAs quantum dot edge-emitting diodes toward III-V/SiN photonic integration

We investigate the surface and interface engineering on InAs quantum dot (QD) emitters, by fabricating and measuring a series of edge-emitting light-emitting diodes. These diodes are encapsulated with non-stoichiometric silicon nitride (SiN) layers with various refractive indices. By analysing the optical and electrical characteristics, it is concluded that Si-rich SiN is an excellent candidate for both electrical and optical passisvations with reduced surface recombination. While the N-rich SiN deposited by the same method shows an improved device performance under optical pumping, the passivation does not appear to be as effective under electrical injection. Our findings provide important information related to the surface engineering of the interface between InAs QD stacks and non-stoichiometric SiN materials, which is arguably one of the crucial steps required to establish monolithic integration of InAs QD emitters with CMOS photonics components

A Review of Capabilities and Scope for Hybrid Integration Offered by Silicon-Nitride-Based Photonic Integrated Circuits

In this review we present some of the recent advances in the field of silicon nitride photonic integrated circuits. The review focuses on the material deposition techniques currently available, illustrating the capabilities of each technique. The review then expands on the functionalisation of the platform to achieve nonlinear processing, optical modulation, nonvolatile optical memories and integration with III-V materials to obtain lasing or gain capabilities

Porosity-enhanced solar powered hydrogen generation in GaN photoelectrodes

Two types of GaN based photoelectrodes using either horizontally aligned or vertically aligned nanopores have been fabricated by means of using an electrochemical etching approach. The photoelectrodes based on such nanostructures have demonstrated an up to 5-fold enhancement in applied bias photon-to-current efficiency and incident photon-to-current efficiency in comparison with their planar counterpart, leading to a high Faradaic conversion efficiency which approaches 1. The GaN photoelectrodes with these nanopores also show excellent chemical stability in HBr solution as an electrolyte. The results presented reveal that the gas diffusion in the nanopores plays an important role in water splitting processes, which should be taken into account when designing a GaN photoelectrode with a nanopore structure

GaN nano-pyramid arrays as an efficient photoelectrode for solar water splitting

A prototype photoelectrode has been fabricated using a GaN nano-pyramid array structure grown on a cost-effective Si (111) substrate, demonstrating a significant improvement in performance of solar-powered water splitting compared with any planar GaN photoelectrode. Such a nano-pyramid structure leads to enhanced optical absorption as a result of a multi-scattering process which can effectively produce a reduction in reflectance. A simulation based on a finite-difference time-domain approach indicates that the nano-pyramid architecture enables incident light to be concentrated within the nano-pyramids as a result of micro-cavity effects, further enhancing optical absorption. Furthermore, the shape of the nano-pyramid further facilitates the photo-generated carrier transportation by enhancing a hole-transfer efficiency. All these features as a result of the nano-pyramid configuration lead to a large photocurrent of 1 mA cm−2 under an illumination density of 200 mW cm−2, with a peak incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency of 46.5% at ∼365 nm, around the band edge emission wavelength of GaN. The results presented are expected to pave the way for the fabrication of GaN based photoelectrodes with a high energy conversion efficiency of solar powered water splitting

Supertoroidal light pulses as electromagnetic skyrmions propagating in free space

Topological complex transient electromagnetic fields give access to nontrivial light-matter interactions and provide additional degrees of freedom for information transfer. An important example of such electromagnetic excitations are space-time non-separable single-cycle pulses of toroidal topology, the exact solutions of Maxwell’s equations described by Hellwarth and Nouchi in 1996 and recently observed experimentally. Here we introduce an extended family of electromagnetic excitation, the supertoroidal electromagnetic pulses, in which the Hellwarth-Nouchi pulse is just the simplest member. The supertoroidal pulses exhibit skyrmionic structure of the electromagnetic fields, multiple singularities in the Poynting vector maps and fractal-like distributions of energy backflow. They are of interest for transient light-matter interactions, ultrafast optics, spectroscopy, and toroidal electrodynamics

Spatially and spectrally resolved multicore optical fiber sensor with polarization sensitivity

We design and fabricate a multicore fiber sensor with the end facets of cores patterned with one-dimensional sub-wavelength Au wire grid polarizers, which are aligned either radially or azimuthally on the cross section of the fiber. With a fan-out device bridging the individual cores and external single core fibers followed by a compact spectrometer, it is able to spatially detect the light intensity, spectrum, and polarization states of the incident light in a highly integrated format. These multicore fiber sensors offer a new opportunity to simultaneously measure multiple optical parameters by a single operation

A thermally erasable silicon oxide layer for molecular beam epitaxy

We present a systematic study of the oxidation and deoxidation behaviours of several kinds of ultrathin silicon oxide layers frequently used in silicon (Si) technology, which in this work serve as surface protecting layers for molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). With various characterization techniques, we demonstrate that a chemically grown silicon oxide layer is the most promising candidate for subsequent removal in an ultra-high vacuum chamber at a temperature of 1000 ∘C, without making use of a reducing agent. As a demonstration, a tensile-strained Ge(100) layer is epitaxially grown on the deoxidised wafer with an atomically flat surface and a low threading dislocation density of 3.33 × 108 cm−2. Our findings reveal that the ultra-thin oxide layer grown using a chemical approach is able to protect Si surfaces for subsequent MBE growth of Ge. This approach is promising for the growth of III/V-on-Si (using Ge as a buffer) and all group-IV related epitaxy for integration on the Si photonics platforms