An uncooled mid-wave infrared detector based on optical response of laser-doped silicon carbide.

This dissertation focuses on an uncooled Mid-Wave Infra-Red (MWIR) detector was developed by doping an n-type 4H-SiC with Ga using the laser doping technique. 4H-SiC is one of the polytypes of crystalline silicon carbide, a wide bandgap semiconductor. The dopant creates an energy level of 0.30 eV, which was confirmed by optical spectroscopy of the doped sample. This energy level corresponds to the MWIR wavelength of 4.21 µm. The detection mechanism is based on the photoexcitation of electrons by the photons of this wavelength absorbed in the semiconductor. This process modifies the electron density, which changes the refraction index and, therefore, the reflectance of the semiconductor is also changed. The change in the reflectance, which is the optical response of the detector, can be measured remotely with a laser beam such as a He-Ne laser. This capability of measuring the detector response remotely makes it a wireless optical detector. The variation of refraction index was calculated as a function of absorbed irradiance based on the reflectance data for the as-received and doped samples. A distinct change was observed for the refraction index of the doped sample, indicating that the detector is suitable for applications at 4.21 µm wavelength. The Ga dopant energy level in the substrate was confirmed by optical absorption spectroscopy. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) of the doped samples revealed an enhancement in the solid solubility of Ga in the substrate when doping is carried out by increasing the number of laser scans. Higher dopant concentration increases the number of holes in the dopant energy level, enabling photoexcitation of more electrons from the valence band by the incident MWIR photons. The detector performance improves as the dopant concentration increases from 1.15×1019 to 6.25×1020 cm-3. The detectivity of the optical photodetector is found to be 1.07×1010 cm·Hz1/2/W for the case of doping with 4 laser passes. The noise mechanisms in the probe laser, silicon carbide MWIR detector and laser power meter affect the performance of the detector such as the responsivity, noise equivalent temperature difference (NETD) and detectivity. For the MWIR wavelength 4.21 and 4.63 µm, the experimental detectivity of the optical photodetector of this study is found to be 1.07×1010 cm·Hz1/2/W, while the theoretical value is 2.39×1010 cm·Hz1/2/W. The values of NETD are found to be 404.03 and 15.48 mK based on experimental data for an MWIR radiation source of temperature 25°C and theoretical calculation respectively. The doped SiC also has a capability of gas detection since gas emission spectra are in infrared range. Similarly, the sensor is based on the semiconductor optics principle, i.e., an energy gap is created in a semiconductor by doping it with an appropriate dopant to ensure that the energy gap matches with an emission spectral line of the gas of interest. Specifically four sensors have been fabricated by laser doping four quadrants of a 6H-SiC substrate with Ga, Al, Sc and P atoms to detect CO2, NO, CO and NO2 gases respectively. The photons, which are emitted by the gas, excite the electrons in the doped sample and consequently change the electron density in various energy states. This phenomenon affects the refraction index of the semiconductor and, therefore, the reflectivity of the semiconductor is altered by the gas. The optical response of this semiconductor sensor is the reflected power of a probe beam, which is a He-Ne laser beam in this study. The CO2, NO, CO and NO2 gases change the refraction indices of Ga-, Al-, Sc- and Al-doped 6H-SiC, respectively, more prominently than the other gases tested in this study. Hence these doped 6H-SiC samples can be used as CO2, NO, CO and NO2 gas sensors respectively

Silicon Carbide Novel Optical Sensor For Combustion Systems And Nuclear Reactors

Crystalline silicon carbide is a wide bandgap semiconductor material with excellent optical properties, chemical inertness, radiation hardness and high mechanical strength at high temperatures. It is an excellent material platform for sensor applications in harsh environments such as combustion systems and nuclear reactors. A laser doping technique is used to fabricate SiC sensors for different combustion gases such as CO2, CO, NO and NO2. The sensor operates based on the principle of semiconductor optics, producing optical signal in contrast to conventional electrical sensors that produces electrical signal. The sensor response is measured with a low power He-Ne or diode laser

Wireless Chemical Sensor For Combustion Species At High Temperatures Using 4H-Sic

Crystalline silicon carbide (SiC) is an attractive wide bandgap semiconductor material for gas sensor applications in harsh environments because of its high mechanical strength and chemical inertness at elevated temperatures. The optical properties of 4H-SiC can be changed by doping it with appropriate dopant elements to create a dopant energy level that matches with the characteristic emission spectral line of the combustion gas. The radiation emitted by the gas of interest changes the electron density in the semiconductor by the photoexcitation and, thereby, alters the refractive index of the sensor. Since the 4H-SiC substrate inherently acts as a Fabry-pérot interferometer, the experimental data yield an inteferrometric pattern for the reflected power of a He-Ne laser of wavelength 632.8 nm as a function of temperature. The variation of the refractive index has been obtained from this pattern up to 650°C, which provides a mechanism for constructing wireless chemical sensors. A gallium-doped 4H-SiC sensor with dopant energy level E v + 0.30 eV showed a distinct refractive index curve for CO 2, which was different from the curves obtained for NO and NO 2 gases. The dopant energy level is confirmed from optical absorption measurements in the wavelength range of 0.2 to 25 m. The selective changes in the refractive index due to CO2 indicate that the Ga-doped 4H-SiC substrate can be used as a wireless CO2 gas sensor

Modeling Of Thermal Barrier Coating Temperature Due To Transmissive Radiative Heating

Thermal barrier coatings are generally designed to possess very low thermal conductivity to reduce the conduction heat transfer from the coating surface to the metal turbine blade beneath the coating. In high-temperature power generation systems, however, a considerable amount of radiative heat is produced during the combustion of fuels. This radiative heat can propagate through the coating and heat up the metal blade, and thereby reduce the effectiveness of the coating in lowering the thermal load on the blade. Therefore, radiative properties are essential parameters to design radiative barrier coatings. This article presents a combined radiation and conduction heat transfer model for the steady-state temperature distribution in semitransparent yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) coatings. The results of the model show a temperature reduction up to 45 K for YSZ of high reflectance (80%) compared to the YSZ of low reflectance (20%). The reflectivities of YSZ and metal blade affect the temperature distribution significantly. Additionally, the absorption and scattering coefficients of YSZ, the thickness of the coating, and the thermal conductivities of YSZ and metal blade affect the temperature distribution. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

Radiative Properties Of Thermal Barrier Coatings At High Temperatures

Surface radiation represents an important mechanism for heat loss at high temperatures. Thermal control may require improved heat dissipation of highly emitting surfaces in order to keep the maximum temperature below a certain critical value in high-temperature turbine systems. Emissivity allows determining the surface temperature based on thermal spectra measurement or thermal imaging of the turbine blades. In this study, the emissivities of different coating samples including the metal substrate have been measured over a wavelength range 0.4-1.08 μm in the temperature range 400-1150 °C and high values of emissivities are observed. The data are also compared with the theoretical values of emissivity. The comparison between the theory and experiment are, however, poor because the experimental data are obtained at high temperatures, while the theoretical values are calculated using the values of refraction and absorption indices at room temperature in the Fresnel reflection formula. The optical constants of the samples are computed by the Lorentz elastically bound electron theory of insulator and the Drude free-electron theory of metals. © 2009 IOP Publishing Ltd

Effects Of Laser Scans On The Diffusion Depth And Diffusivity Of Gallium In N-Type 4H-Sic During Laser Doping

An n-type 4H-SiC substrate has been doped with gallium using a continuous wave Nd:YAG laser to heat the sample to high temperatures but below the peritectic temperature of SiC. Mathematical models have been presented for the temperature and Ga concentration distributions in the sample. The Ga atoms, which are produced due to the thermal decomposition of a metallorganic precursor, diffuse into the sample by the solid-phase diffusion process at high temperatures. This process is modeled by considering the temperature-dependent diffusion coefficient and the Ga concentration profile was measured by the secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). The concentration of Ga (6.25 × 1020 cm-3) at the substrate surface was found to exceed the solid solubility limit (1.8 × 1019 cm-3) of Ga in SiC. Comparing the SIMS data to the results of the diffusion model, the activation energy, pre-exponential factor and diffusion coefficient of Ga were determined for different doping conditions. Four doped samples were produced by scanning the samples with a laser beam for different number of passes. The sample prepared with four passes showed the highest diffusion coefficient of 5.53 × 10-7 cm2/s with activation energy 1.84 eV and pre-exponential factor 1.05 × 10-2 cm2/s. The diffusion coefficient is five orders of magnitude higher than the typical diffusion coefficient of Ga in SiC. This indicates that the laser doping process enhances the diffusion coefficient of dopant significantly. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved