Passivation of GaAs surfaces and fabrication of self-assembled In(Ga)As/GaAs quantum ring structures

This work concentrates on two topics: (i) GaAs surface passivation methods using different materials and (ii) formation of InAs islands on GaAs and transformation of InAs islands into quantum rings (QRs). All the samples are fabricated by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy and characterized by optical spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. InGaAs/GaAs near-surface quantum well (NSQW) structures were used in the GaAs surface passivation studies because of their sensitivity to surface states. Ultra-thin InP, GaP, GaN layers were grown in-situ on top of the NSQW structure as the passivation layer. As-P and As-N exchange on the GaAs surface were also applied for passivation. In all the passivation methods, the photoluminescence (PL) intensities and carrier lifetimes of the NSQWs were significantly increased. The enhancement factor of the PL intensity was up to two orders of magnitude. The study of time durability of the passivation after keeping the samples for months in air ambient showed that those passivation methods protect the samples against oxidation while the unpassivated samples degrade severely. The passivation effects of these materials were also studied using NSQWs fabricated on (110)-oriented GaAs substrates. The suitability of atomic layer deposited (ALD) titanium nitride layer on GaAs surface as an ex-situ passivation layer was also investigated. Although the enhancement factor of the PL intensity is smaller than that obtained by in-situ methods, smooth surface morphology and notable extension of carrier lifetime were observed in the ALD passivated samples. It is known that island formation is severely suppressed on the GaAs (110) surface. This limitation can be overcome by using a thin strain reducing layer, e.g., an InGaAs layer. Relatively uniform InAs islands with an average areal density of 109 cm-2 were obtained on GaAs (110) substrate at 400 °C using a thin InGaAs strain reducing layer. Transformation of InAs islands into rings was realized by partially capping the InAs islands and annealing under tertiarybutylarsine flow. Effects of growth conditions on ring evolution were studied by varying the thickness of the partial capping layer, annealing time and annealing temperature. It was concluded that the temperature dependence of the diffusion anisotropy of the indium atoms plays an important role in the ring evolution. The annealing process of the partially capped islands affects significantly the ring shape and the optical properties of the QR structure

Temperature dependence of droop onset in optically pumped intrinsic InGaAs/InP heterostructures

Although conventional III-V compound semiconductors are often considered not to exhibit an efficiency droop, a pronounced low temperature droop was recently measured in AlGaInP/GaAs multi-quantum well structures. In this work, we investigate the efficiency droop in simple optically pumped lattice matched InGaAs/InP single well heterostructures to exclude charge transport related effects from the measurements. The results show that droop is present in this very simplistic setup and, furthermore, starts approximately at the same carrier density as in typical III-N structures. Our results suggest that in its most fundamental form, droop can be explained by Auger-like processes.Peer reviewe

Yield and leakage currents of large area lattice matched InP/InGaAs heterostructures

Demonstrating and harnessing electroluminescent cooling at technologically viable cooling powers requires the ability to routinely fabricate large area high quality light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Detailed information on the performance and yield of relevant large area devices is not available, however. Here, we report extensive information on the yield and related large area scaling of InP/InGaAs LEDs and discuss the origin of the failure mechanisms based on lock-in thermographic imaging. The studied LEDs were fabricated as mesa structures of various sizes on epistructures grown at five different facilities specialized in the growth of III-V compound semiconductors. While the smaller mesas generally showed relatively good electrical characteristics and low leakage current densities, some of them also exhibited unusually large leakage current densities. The provided information is critical for the development and design of the optical cooling technologies relying on large area devices.Peer reviewe

Comparison of epitaxial thin layer GaN and InP passivations on InGaAs near-surface quantum wells

The optical properties of the in situ epitaxial GaN and InP passivated InGaAs∕GaAs near-surface quantum wells, which were fabricated by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy, are investigated. Low-temperature photoluminescence (PL), time-resolved photoluminescence, and photoreflectance are used to study the passivation effect. Both GaN and InP passivations are observed to significantly enhance the PL intensity and carrier lifetime and to reduce the surface electrical fields. Comparison of the methods shows that the epitaxial InP passivation is more effective. However, epitaxial GaN and nitridation methods are comparable with InP passivation.Peer reviewe

Triethylsilane introduced precursor engineering towards efficient and stable perovskite solar cells

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are believed to be optimistic for commercial deployment soon since the power conversion efficiency of PSCs presently reaches up to 26.10 % due to the intensive efforts these years. The two-step method is comparatively more suitable for scalable perovskite films, where lead halides and ammonium salts are prepared in separate precursors and deposited sequentially. Therefore, the reactivity between these two precursors governs the quality of final perovskite films and the intrinsic non-radiative recombination (NRR) at the perovskite's interfaces. Herein, we empowered both types of precursors, one by one and then simultaneously, with triethylsilane (TES) to investigate its effect on the (FAPbI3)1-x (MAPbBr3)x perovskite's morphological and optoelectronic properties. TES, with ethyl moieties and metalloid center, in ammonium salts delivers homogeneous perovskites' crystals and inhibits the NRR of perovskite films by reducing the defects and trap states. As a result, the optimized devices exhibit not only improved device performance (particularly for the increased fill factors and open circuit voltages) but also enhanced stabilities