Hexagonal SiGe alloys offer a group IV direct bandgap for integrated photonics, addressing the limitations of traditional silicon-based electronics. We have synthesized coaxial nanowire shells comprising direct bandgap hex-Ge/SiGe and hex-SiGe/SiGe Quantum Wells (QWs) around a wurtzite GaAs core. Time-resolved photoluminescence measurements demonstrate a 1 nanosecond radiative lifetime, proving direct bandgap emission. Photoluminescence spectra show the QW emission in between the emission of the well and the barrier material, indicating type-I band alignment. Measurements as a function of QW thickness demonstrate clear quantum confinement with emission up to room temperature for thick QWs. By changing the QW-thickness and the well composition, the emission could be tuned between 2000-3400 nm. The experimentally observed direct bandgap SiGe QWs with type-I band alignment are expected to be pivotal for the development of novel low-dimensional devices based on hex-Ge and hex SiGe.
A lossless solar cell operating at the Shockley-Queisser (S-Q) limit generates an open-circuit voltage (VOC) equal to the radiative limit. At VOC, the highly directional beam of photons from the sun is absorbed and subsequently externally reemitted into a 4π solid angle, providing a large photon entropy loss. Moreover, due to many total internal reflections and low internal radiative efficiency, a lot of light is lost in nonradiative recombination events. In our research, we perform a nanophotonic optimization of a semiconductor nanowire geometry with a top microlens in order to decrease the photon entropy loss and to increase the photon escape probability for the nanowire, therefore increasing the output voltage. The optimization leads us to a maximum VOC of 1178 mV which is 141 mV higher than the radiative limit and 172 mV lower than the ultimate limit. The photon entropy loss is also studied fundamentally from the thermodynamics point of view to better understand where the entropy is generated during the absorption-emission processes.
Our previously reported 17.8 % efficiency InP nanowire solar cell1 showed a short-circuit current πΌπ π of 29.3 ππ΄ ππ2, which is not far from the theoretical maximum πΌπ π = 34.6 ππ΄ ππ2, but the loss in the open circuit voltage with respect to the radiative limit still amounted to 272 mV. To avoid this loss and reach the radiative limit we have to increase both the internal radiative efficiency πint PL and the photon escape probability πππ π towards unity, as shown by the last term in Eq. 1. πOC = πoc Ultimate β πBπ π |ππ πin πout |β πBπ π |ππ(πint PLπππ π)| (1) We report top-down etched InP nanowires intended to both optimize the amount of light outcoupling as well as the directionality of the emitted light. The photon entropy loss is governed by the ππ πin πout term, which is responsible for a 300 mV loss in the open circuit voltage. To circumvent this loss, we need to redirect all the emitted photoluminescence from the cell back to the sun (εππ = εππ’π‘), For this purpose, we have fabricated PMMA microlenses by using a reflow process, which can be precisely positioned with respect to the InP nanowires.
A lossless solar cell operating at the Shockley-Queisser (S-Q) limit generates an open-circuit voltage (VOC) equal to the radiative limit. At VOC, the highly directional beam of photons from the sun is absorbed and subsequently externally reemitted into a 4Ο solid angle, providing a large photon entropy loss. In our research we study the performance of a nanowire solar cell that can beat the S-Q limit and approach the 46.7% ultimate limit by placing a plano-convex lens on top of each nanowire. We have shown numerically that a 2 μm long InP tapered nanowire with the top radius of 83 nm and a tapering angle of 1.2 degrees shows a high photon escape probability of 42% due to an adiabatic expansion of the fundamental HE11 mode which is then collimated using a plano-convex lens with a diameter of 8 ΞΌm. Both effects cause the increase of the open-circuit voltage of the solar cell by 159 mV above the radiative limit which is just 154 mV below the ultimate limit. The lens concept is also studied for a planar solar cell from the thermodynamics point view in terms of local entropy generation within the cell due to absorption/emission processes and is planned to be extended to a nanowire geometry.
III/V semiconductor solar cells feature the highest photon conversion efficiencies (PCE), but they are still too expensive for terrestrial application. Conventional nanowire (NW) solar cells already partially resolve this issue since they can be grown on a silicon substrate and feature a low filling factor (the ratio of the 180 nm NW diameter to 500 nm NW pitch, squared). We take the next step by depositing PMMA micro-lenses with a diameter of 6 ΞΌm on top of a NW-array with the same 6 μm pitch, allowing to reduce the material consumption by more than 3 orders of magnitude. According to our FDTD simulations, the material consumption can even be further decreased by reducing the NW length with a factor of 2 down to 1 μm, since the lens is focusing the solar radiation near the top of the nanowires. We also expect a significantly increased Voc due to an increased internal radiative efficiency (IRE) at a higher excitation power. Preliminary measurement show an increase in Voc of at least 50 mV for randomly positioned microlenses on top of a dense NW array with 0.5 μm pitch.
Hexagonal SiGe has been theoretically shown to feature a tunable direct bandgap in the range 0.4-0.8eV. We study arrays of site-selectively grown Si_(1-x)-Ge_x nanowires (NWs) grown using the crystal transfer method in which wurtzite GaP core NWs are used as template for SiGe growth. Our approach opens up routes towards photonic band-edge lasers using group-IV NWs. Low-temperature Β΅PL studies of arrays of SiGe NW-arrays reveal strong emission at 0.395eV and linear power dependence for weak excitation levels (P_ex~0.01-1kW/cm^2). For P_ex>4kW/cm^2, a new peak emerges at 0.37eV with an intensity that increases according to ~(P_ex)^5, indicative of stimulated emission close to the photonic band-edge.
Commercially available light-emitting diodes (LEDs) suffer from low-efficiency in the green region of the visible
spectrum. In order to solve this issue III-V materials such as Gallium phosphide (GaP) can be investigated. GaP in the
zinc blende (ZB) crystal structure has an indirect band gap, limiting the efficiency of the green emission. However, when
the material is grown with wurtzite (WZ) crystal phase a direct band gap is predicted. Here, we show the fabrication and
the characterization of wurtzite GaP nanowires, together with the demonstration of the direct band gap. The strong
photoluminescence signal observed at 594 nm with a lifetime in the order of 1ns matches with the expectation for a
direct band gap material. Furthermore, the emission wavelength can be tuned across a wide range of the visible spectrum
(555β690 nm) by incorporating aluminum or arsenic in the WZ GaP nanowires.
We observe an anomalous exciton lifetime in columnar InAs/GaAs quantum rods by using the time-resolved differential reflectivity (TRDR) technique. At low excitation density, the decay time of the TRDR signal show a clear excitonic type of behavior. At increased excitation, a resonant radiative lifetime develops, which seems to be dependent on the excited QD density being resonant with the probe laser spectrum. We interpret the resonance behavior as due to electromagnetic coupling between the excited QDs resonant with the probe laser.
We study a set of low temperature (LT, 250Β°C) Stranski-Krastanow InAs/GaAs quantum dots (QDs) grown using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The QDs are studied by Photoluminescence (PL) and Time Resolved Differential Reflectivity (TRDR) for obtaining the carrier dynamics also. The LT-growth is expected to combine an ultrafast response time with a large QD optical nonlinearity, making it a good candidate for ultrafast all-optical switching devices. We observe a QD photoluminescence peak around 1200 nm on top of a background due to the AsGa-VAs center. We observe that the PL-efficiency is quenched above 30K. The PL-efficiency increases by a factor of 45 - 280 as a function of excitation wavelength around the GaAs bandgap, for different samples. This points towards good optical quality QDs, which are embedded in an LT-GaAs barrier with high trapping efficiency. In the TRDR measurements, we observe an initial fast decay (80ps) followed by a much slower decay of about 800ps. The strong temperature dependence of the PL-signal is not observed in the reflectivity signal. This leads us to conclude that the electrons tunnel out of the QD and are subsequently efficiently trapped by As antisite defects while the hole decay dynamics take place at a slower rate, which is monitored in TRDR. Our observations point towards QDs with good optical quality, embedded in a LT-GaAs barrier in which the carriers are efficiently trapped at anti-site defects.
We investigate whether the discrete energy levels and the high peak absorption in quantum dots (QDs) provide an opportunity for increasing the electro-optic and nonlinear optical properties. For this purpose we calculate the electrorefraction spectra of QDs starting from the Luttinger-Kohn Hamiltonian and using a plane-wave expansion for solving the eigenstates of the QD. For a pyramidal InAs/GaAs quantum dot, we find a high peak electrorefraction of 0.35 for TE-polarization, which is 35x larger than in a quantum well. In the tail of the quantum dot absorption spectrum, we find an electrorefraction of 1.3.10-2 at an absorption loss of 0.15 dB/cm. Finally we investigate the refractive index variation due to state filling in InAs/InP cylindrical quantum dots.
An InGaAs/InP coupled quantum well layer sequence specially designed for Mach-Zelmder interferometric space switching is presented. Each coupled quantum well consists of three 27A InGaAs strained quantum wells separated by 1 iA InP barriers. The structure shows a red shift of the absorption edge as high as 8Onm with 1OV applied bias. Using these coupled quantum wells, we realized a Mach-Zehnder interferometric space switch with low attenuation and a switching voltage of 3 .1V for 4mm long phase shifting sections. Furthermore, we realized full polarization independent switching using 0.85% tensile strained and coupled quantum wells. However, we found that the electrorefraction in this structure was not optimal since the red shift of the lowest confined level and the blue shift of higher confined levels yield opposite contributions to the electrorefraction. This compensation can be circumvented in asymmetrical coupled quantum wells resulting in a 1 0 times larger electrorefraction. Coupled quantum wells (CQW) increase the degree of freedom in material design. For instance, the value ofthe bandgap, the total CQW well width and the bias induced change in overlap between electron and hole envelope wavefunctions can be tuned. These tools can be used to optimize a material design for specific applications. In this paper we first present a MZI space switch using a CQW design with optimized Quantum Confined Stark Effect (QCSE) bandgap shift. Secondly we will introduce an improved layer design using asymmetric coupled quantum wells. These wells are optimized for large bias induced changes in the electron-hole envelope wavefunction overlap. The most important design constraints for a material for a Mach-Zehnder interferometric (MZI) space switch at 1 .55tm are waveguide transparency, physical length and polarization independence. When using QCSE tuning sections with InGaAs/InP quantum wells, the QW-thickness is limited to a maximum of 40A for preserving waveguide transparency. On the other hand, such a small QWthickness is far from ideal for an appreciable QCSE resulting in a small index ofrefraction change and thus in long switches. The bandgap shift due to the Quantum Confined Stark Effect increases rapidly with increasing quantum well width [1]. The QCSE in a CQW structure with three 27A InGaAs quantum wells and very thin 1 1A InP barriers is similar to the QCSE in a single 103A quantum well (3x27A InGaAs + 2x1 iA InP). This is due to the excellent coupling of the carrier wavefunctions between the neighboring 27A quantum wells. The inset in figure 1 shows such CQW structure with the envelope wavefunctions of electron and hole ground level. These CQW's combine a room temperature bandgap at 1 390nm, necessary for waveguide transparency at 1 550nm, with a total CQW well width of 103A required for an optimized QCSE red shift
At high electric fields negative differential resistance and oscillatory behavior of the current is observed in 2-dimensional electron gases in modulation doped heterostructures. We develop a model in which the understanding of these phenomena is provided by the ohmic contacts to the 2-dimensional electron gas. The key phenomenon is that at a high electric field, well below the threshold field for real space transfer across the interface between the GaAs and the AlxGa1-xAs, injection of electrons from the contacts into the AlxGa1-xAs layer opens a conductive channel in the AlxGa1-xAs parallel to the 2-dimensional electron gas in the GaAs layer. We show that avalanche ionization in the AlxGa1-xAs layer leads to current filamentation. We studied this behavior for various experimental conditions by means of a novel technique which we developed for this purpose: the technique of time resolved optical beam induced current.
We present an experimental and theoretical study of the carrier capture time into a semiconductor quantum well. The carrier capture time was obtained by measuring both the rise of the quantum well population using time-resolved luminescence measurements and the decay of the barrier population using pump-probe correlation experiments. In the first technique we compare the QW rise times after direct (below the barrier band gap) and indirect (above the barrier band gap) excitation, in order to eliminate the effects of relaxation and exciton formation in the quantum well. We report the first experimental observation of oscillations in the carrier capture time between 3 and 20 ps as a function of quantum well thickness, obtained from both techniques. The observed capture times are for the first time in agreement with theoretical predictions from an ambipolar capture model.
We present an experimental and theoretical study of the carrier capture time in a semiconductor quantum well. We observed for the first time the predicted oscillations of the phonon emission induced capture time experimentally and found good agreement with theory. Calculations show that not only the LO-phonon emission induced capture time (ph-capture) oscillates as a function of well width, but also the carrier-carrier scattering induced capture time (c-c capture) oscillates by more than an order of magnitude as a function of the active layer design. Moreover, the calculated amount of excess carrier heating also oscillates as a function of quantum well thickness. Recently, it has been shown that the carrier capture time is directly related to the nonlinear gain in a quantum well laser. As a result, the nonlinear gain can be tailored by optimizing the capture efficiency using a proper design of the active layer in a quantum well laser.
We have investigated the carrier capture mechanism in quantum well lasers and its relevance for device characteristics. It is demonstrated that the dependence of the threshold current on the structure parameters of the layers in the active region is highly correlated with the electron capture efficiency. From our calculations it appears that not only the LO-phonon induced capture process but also the carrier-carrier scattering induced capture process oscillate as a function of quantum well width. The predicted structure parameters for an optimum capture efficiency are equivalent for these scattering processes, because in both capture mechanisms these oscillations arise from oscillations in the wave function overlap. The carrier-carrier scattering starts to dominate the capture process for carrier densities larger than 1.1011 cm-2 in the quantum well. As a result an efficient capture process enhances the cooling of the carriers after injection, giving rise to the reduction of the carrier temperature and thus to a low threshold current. We find that a large capture efficiency improves the modulation response of a quantum well laser due to a smaller amount of carrier accumulation in the barrier. By maximizing the carrier capture efficiency in laser structures we for the first time are able to predict the structure parameters of the layers in the active region for an optimum laser performance.
The transport properties of the 2D electron gas produced by modulation doping of compound semiconductors are reviewed with attention given to the properties at high electric fields. Experimental studies are discussed in which the transport properties lead to insights into current instabilities and switching effects. The concept of electric-field-induced parallel conduction is set forth and shown to explain the current instabilities and current collapse at high electric fields. Delta doping is shown to be effective for electrooptic devices such as modulators. MQW modulators with delta-doped contacts can be used as waveguides in complicated coupler networks, or they can be optimized for a high on/off ratio by increasing device length without increasing propagation loss.
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