Low-resistance ohmic contacts on AlGaN/GaN HEMT devices presently require annealing at temperatures up to 850°C, which can adversely affect material properties. Here we investigate contacts with the metal directly contacting the 2DEG in the GaN, about 20 nm below the top surface. For convenience, we employed a 10-mm × 10-mm sample composed of 3-nm-GaN/16-nm-Al0.27Ga0.73N/1-nm-AlN/1.8-μm-GaN (Fe-doped). Four, 2-mm-long, 2-μm deep lines were scribed near the corners of the sample and filled with indium metal from a soldering iron. Hall measurements were then performed from 10 to 320 K at a current of 1 mA and with a magnetic field strength of 10 kG. At 10K (300K) the mobility was 1.96 × 104 (1.88 × 103) cm2·V-1·s-1; the sheet concentration, 9.39 × 1012 (9.35 × 1012) cm-2, and the sheet resistance, 33.9 (353) Ω/sq = rs. The contact resistance Rc was calculated from the average total resistance Rtot across each pair of contacts: Rtot = 2Rc + rs. At 10 K (300 K), Rc ≈ 1 (2) kΩ. Also, Rc has a much smaller temperature dependence than rs, implying tunneling, rather than thermionic current. From a Schrödinger-Poisson calculation, the peak volume carrier concentration in the 2DEG is n ≈ 3.7 × 1019 cm-3. The tunneling probability is P = exp[e(V – Vbi)/ε00] and for ε = 9.9εvac and m* = 0.22m0, ε00 = 0.077 eV = 894 K; thus, ε00 < kT, further suggesting the dominance of tunneling current. This technique is immediately applicable to any HEMT-type structure, including AlScN/GaN.
A novel plasmonic modulator-switch for the long-wave infrared (LWIR) region is presented. The device consists of a thin metal film, an underlying photoconductive substrate, input and output reflection gratings located on top of the film on opposite ends of the device, and a limited aperture detector located over the out-couple grating. LWIR incident at a given angle is in-coupled, generating surface plasmons (SPs). Since the underlying metal film is thinner than the SP penetration depth, the SPs are couple on both the top and the bottom of the thin film and propagate on both sides of the metal film toward the out-coupling grating. When free carriers in the photoconductive substrate are excited by laser illumination, the electrical properties of the substrate are changed. This change in substrate electrical properties is sensed by the propagating SPs and thus changes the wavevector of the SPs. The SP wavevector change will cause the out-coupled radiation magnitude and angle to change. Thus, the radiation incident on the detector is modulated implementing a plasmonic modulator-switch.
Full-wave electromagnetic simulations were performed on the device. The reflected power at various angles was calculated for a fixed incident angle at λ = 10 μm using various geometries and substrate materials. The substrate materials modelled include III-V compound semiconductors and Si. The dielectric functions for these materials were computed as functions their free carrier concentration to simulate excited and unexcited states. This paper reports on how device performance was affected by variation of these geometric and material parameters.
The metal wire-grid polarizer is a venerable device that is used on radiation throughout the electromagnetic spectrum. It usually consists of a 1D-periodic array of subwavelength metallic wires in free space or mounted on a low-loss dielectric substrate, the plane of the grid being oriented perpendicular to the propagation direction. Herein is presented a new structure, a subwavelength wire-grid polarizer for the terahertz region that acts not only as a wideband polarizer but also as a transparent electrode. This function is achieved by the addition of periodically placed metallic bridges that connect the parallel metal wires of the polarizer. The bridges allow for the uniform distribution of an electrostatic potential over all wires while maintaining the polarizing functionality of the metal wire grid polarizer.
Full-wave electromagnetic simulations were performed on the device. The transmittance was computed in both perpendicular polarization and parallel polarization from 100 to 4000 GHz, and the extinction ratio was calculated across the same range. Furthermore, fill-factor studies were performed to understand how device performance is affected by varying slot width and bridge length, as well as bridge offset. The simulation results showed extraordinary optical transmission through the device for perpendicular polarization, creating excellent transmittance and extinction ratios over the frequency range. The perpendicular polarization transmittance and extinction ratio at 1 THz was calculated to be -1 dB and -36 dB respectively. Meanwhile, the bridges allow the device to behave like a DC electrode.
Millimeter-wave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) technology is now widely recognized as a key to many modern applications in safety and security, ranging from near and far-field imaging and sensing to non-invasive material inspection. In this paper, we apply our
state-of-the-art MMIC technology to the analysis of gaseous media by spectroscopic techniques. The paper presents recent developments of amplifying and frequency-translating MMICs based on metamorphic HEMT technology and their application to the spectroscopic analysis of the frequency range from 250 to 330 GHz, including the important absorption line of water around 321 GHz.
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