<p dir="ltr">With climate change creating the need for renewable energy to replace fossil fuels, solar energy technologies are primed to dominate the energy sector. And while photovoltaics have improved significantly in recent decades, continued evolution of this technology requires research into new fabrication techniques and new materials. The solution processing of metal chalcogenide semiconductors offers an opportunity to fabricate photovoltaics in a low-cost and high-throughput way. However, for this methodology to make a commercial impact a variety of challenges around the fundamental chemistry and materials science need to be addressed. Furthermore, while solution processing has been applied heavily to the Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)₂ family of materials, these techniques can also open doors for emerging materials like Cu₂ZnSnSe₄, Ag₂ZnSnSe₄, and the chalcogenide perovskites.</p><p dir="ltr">In solution processed Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)₂ devices, researcher have generally started with a Cu(In,Ga)S₂ film that is then selenized to form the final Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)₂ material. However, this process has been connected to the formation of a problematic “fine-grain” layer. To solve this issue, the molecular precursors from amine-thiol chemistry were modified to produce soluble molecules with metal selenium bonding. This enabled direct solution deposition of CuInSe₂ films that could be processed without forming a fine grain layer.</p><p dir="ltr">Reactive dissolution chemistry (or “alkahest” chemistry) is useful for solution processing because it can enable the direct use of metal or metal chalcogenide precursors, bypassing the potential impurities from metal salt precursors. However, the commonly used amine-thiol reactive solvent system is better suited to making metal sulfides than metal selenides because the thiol acts as a sulfur source. To address this limitation, a new alkahest based on alkylammonium polyselenide solutions was developed which could reactively dissolve a wide range of metals, metal chalcogenides, and metal oxides. This generalizable chemistry enabled the synthesis of a wide range of binary and multinary metal chalcogenides including Cu(In,Ga)Se₂, Cu₂ZnSnSe₄, and Ag₂ZnSnSe₄.</p><p dir="ltr">Emerging metal chalcogenide semiconductors composed of earth-abundant and non-toxic elements that can exhibit strong optoelectronic properties and high stability are a target of significant interest. Chalcogenide perovskites like BaZrS₃ and BaHfS₃ are an intriguing option to satisfy these requirements but have rarely been studied because of synthesis difficulties, historically being made by solid-state reactions or the sulfurization of oxides around 1000 °C. Here a solution-based approach that only requires moderate temperatures of 550-575 °C was developed utilizing a hybrid ink containing soluble metal thiolates and nanoparticulate metal hydrides.</p><p dir="ltr">The hybrid ink was an important proof of concept that chalcogenide perovskites could be synthesized at these moderate temperatures. However, it relies on complex and difficult to handle precursors. A simpler route would be to use air-stable precursors to make an oxide perovskite and subsequently sulfurize the material. However, this route has historically used excessively high temperatures. Therefore, a new sulfurization step was conceived based on thermodynamic arguments that includes both sulfur and hafnium sulfide as an oxygen sink. This redesigned sulfurization enabled the conversion of BaZrO₃ into BaZrS₃ at temperatures around 575 °C.</p><p dir="ltr">Finally, an energy systems and economic analysis was performed to consider how photovoltaics might be incorporated into agricultural lands. This work showed that when compared with traditional photovoltaics or a PV Aglectric concept, using corn for ethanol is an inefficient way to generate both food and energy from a given unit of land.</p>

M. Tech. Digital Technology. / This dissertation reports on an optical-based two-dimensional position sensor for use in Active Magnetic Bearings (AMB) to measure the position of the levitated rotor. The motivation for the deployment of optical technology is the well-known advantage of high precision contactless displacement measurement. The radial and axial edges of the rotor are illuminated by red and green laser beams respectively. The position of the rotor is determined from its image projected on a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) sensor. The measuring principle is demonstrated as a position sampler in the closed loop control of an active magnetic bearing model. The image representing the position is processed with a real-time algorithm on a Field Programmable Logic Gate Array. The principle of operation of a CCD as a position sensor is analysed in order to establish how the image captured by the CCD can be processed to determine the position of the rotor. A simple AMB is modelled in which the sensor acts as a feedback position device. The main objective of the model is to evaluate the accuracy of the system. The purpose of the overall sensing technique to be used is to achieve highly accurate and precise measurements with CCD-based optical metrology.

Bragg reflection waveguides (BRW) or one-dimensional photonic bandgap structures have been demonstrated for phase-matching chi(2) nonlinearities in AlxGa1-xAs. The method exploits strong modal dispersion of a Bragg mode and total internal reflection modes co-propagating inside the waveguide. It is shown that phase-matching is attained among the lowest order modes of interacting harmonics, which allows maximizing the utilization of harmonics powers for nonlinear interactions. As our first demonstration, we report second-harmonic generation (SHG) of a 2-ps telecommunication pump in a 2.4 mm long slab BRW. The conversion efficiency is estimated as 2.0 %/W.cm^2 with a generated SH power of 729 nW. This efficiency has been considerably improved by introducing lateral confinement of optical modes in ridge structures. Characterizations denote that efficiency of SHG in ridge BRWs can increase by over an order of magnitude in comparison to that of the slab device. Also, we report continuous-wave SHG in BRWs. Using a telecommunication pump with a power of 98 mW, the continuous-wave SH power of 23 nW is measured in a 2.0 mm long device. Significant enhancements of chi(2) interactions is obtained in the modified design of matching-layer enhanced BRW (ML-BRW). For the first time, we report type-II SHG in ML-BRW, where the second-harmonic power of 60 µW is measured for a pump power of 3.3 mW in a 2.2 mm long sample. Also, we demonstrate the existence of type-0 SHG, where both pump and SH signal have an identical TM polarization state. It is shown that the efficiency of the type-0 process is comparable to type-I and type-II processes with the phase-matching wavelengths of all three interactions lying within a spectral window as small as 17 nm. ML-BRW is further reported for sum-frequency and difference-frequency generations. For applications requiring high pump power, a generalized ML-BRW design is proposed and demonstrated. The proposed structure offsets the destructive effects of third-order nonlinearities on chi(2) processes when high power harmonics are involved. This is carried out through incorporation of larger bandgap materials by using high aluminum content AlxGa1-xAs layers without undermining the nonlinear conversion efficiency. Theoretical investigations of BRWs as integrated sources of photon-pairs with frequency correlation properties are discussed. It is shown that the versatile dispersion properties in BRWs enables generation of telecommunication anti-correlated photon-pairs with bandwidth tunablity between 1 nm and 450 nm.

Bragg reflection waveguides (BRW) or one-dimensional photonic bandgap structures have been demonstrated for phase-matching chi(2) nonlinearities in AlxGa1-xAs. The method exploits strong modal dispersion of a Bragg mode and total internal reflection modes co-propagating inside the waveguide. It is shown that phase-matching is attained among the lowest order modes of interacting harmonics, which allows maximizing the utilization of harmonics powers for nonlinear interactions. As our first demonstration, we report second-harmonic generation (SHG) of a 2-ps telecommunication pump in a 2.4 mm long slab BRW. The conversion efficiency is estimated as 2.0 %/W.cm^2 with a generated SH power of 729 nW. This efficiency has been considerably improved by introducing lateral confinement of optical modes in ridge structures. Characterizations denote that efficiency of SHG in ridge BRWs can increase by over an order of magnitude in comparison to that of the slab device. Also, we report continuous-wave SHG in BRWs. Using a telecommunication pump with a power of 98 mW, the continuous-wave SH power of 23 nW is measured in a 2.0 mm long device. Significant enhancements of chi(2) interactions is obtained in the modified design of matching-layer enhanced BRW (ML-BRW). For the first time, we report type-II SHG in ML-BRW, where the second-harmonic power of 60 µW is measured for a pump power of 3.3 mW in a 2.2 mm long sample. Also, we demonstrate the existence of type-0 SHG, where both pump and SH signal have an identical TM polarization state. It is shown that the efficiency of the type-0 process is comparable to type-I and type-II processes with the phase-matching wavelengths of all three interactions lying within a spectral window as small as 17 nm. ML-BRW is further reported for sum-frequency and difference-frequency generations. For applications requiring high pump power, a generalized ML-BRW design is proposed and demonstrated. The proposed structure offsets the destructive effects of third-order nonlinearities on chi(2) processes when high power harmonics are involved. This is carried out through incorporation of larger bandgap materials by using high aluminum content AlxGa1-xAs layers without undermining the nonlinear conversion efficiency. Theoretical investigations of BRWs as integrated sources of photon-pairs with frequency correlation properties are discussed. It is shown that the versatile dispersion properties in BRWs enables generation of telecommunication anti-correlated photon-pairs with bandwidth tunablity between 1 nm and 450 nm.

"1998"--T.p. / Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, School of Mathematics, Physics, Computing and Electronics, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references. / Introduction -- A Michelson interferometer for measurement of piezoelectric coefficients -- The piezoelectric coefficient of gallium arsenide -- Extensional piezoelectric coefficients of gallium nitrides and aluminium nitride -- Shear piezoelectric coefficients of gallium nitride and aluminium nitride -- Electrostriction in gallium nitride, aluminium nitride and gallium arsenide -- Summary and prognosis. / The present work represents the first use of the interferometric technique for determining the magnitude and sign of the piezoelectric coefficients of III-V compound semiconductors, in particular gallium arsenide (GaAs), gallium nitride (GaN), and aluminium nitride (AIN). The interferometer arrangement used in the present work was a Michelson interferometer, with the capability of achieving a resolution of 10⁻¹³ m. -- The samples used were of two types. The first were commercial wafers, with single crystal orientation. Both GaAs and GaN were obtained in this form. The second type of sample was polycrystalline thin films, grown in the semiconductor research laboratories at Macquarie University. GaN and AIN samples of this type were obtained. -- The d₁₄ coefficient of GaAs was measured by first measuring the d₃₃ value of a [111] oriented sample. This was then transformed to give the d₁₄ coefficient of the usual [001] oriented crystal. The value obtained for d₁₄ was (-2.7 ± 0.1) pmV⁻¹. This compares well with the most recent reported measurements of -2.69 pmV⁻¹. The significance of the measurement is that this represents the first time this coefficient has been measured using the inverse piezoelectric effect. -- For AIN and GaN samples, the present work also represents the first time their piezoelectric coefficients have been measured by interferometry. For GaN, this work presents the first reported measurements of the piezoelectric coefficients, and some of these results have recently been published by the (Muensit and Guy, 1998). The d₃₃ and d₃₁ coefficients for GaN were found to be (3.4 ± 0.1) pmV⁻¹ and (-1.7 ± 0.1) pmV⁻¹ respectively. Since these values were measured on a single crystal wafer and have been corrected for substrate clamping, the values should be a good measure of the true piezoelectric coefficients for bulk GaN. -- For AIN, the d₃₃ and d₃₁ coefficients were found to be (5.1 ± 0.2) pmV⁻¹, and (-2.6 ± 0.1) pmV⁻¹ respectively. Since these figures are measured on a polycrystalline sample it is quite probable that the values for bulk AIN would be somewhat higher. / The piezoelectric measurements indicate that the positive c axis in the nitride films points away from the substrate. The piezoelectric measurements provide a simple means for identifying the positive c axis direction. -- The interferometric technique has also been used to measure the shear piezoelectric coefficient d₁₅ for AIN and GaN. This work represents the first application of this technique to measure this particular coefficient. The d₁₅ coefficients for AIN and GaN were found to be (-3.6 ± 0.1) pmV⁻¹ and (-3.1 ± 0.1) pmV⁻¹ respectively. The value for AIN agrees reasonably well with the only reported value available in the literature of -4.08 pmV⁻¹. The value of this coefficient for GaN has not been measured. -- Some initial investigations into the phenomenon of electrostriction in the compound semiconductors were also performed. It appears that these materials have both a piezoelectric response and a significant electrostrictive response. For the polycrystalline GaN and AIN, the values of the M₃₃ coefficients are of the order of 10⁻¹⁸ m²V⁻². The commercial single crystal GaN and GaAs wafers display an asymmetric response which cannot be explained. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Various pagings ill

<div>With the transistor dimensions scaling down to a few atoms, quantum phenomena - like quantum tunneling and entanglement - will dictate the operation and performance of the next generation of electronic devices, post-CMOS era. While quantum tunneling limits the scaling of the conventional transistor, Tunneling Field Effect Transistor (TFET) employs band-to-band tunneling for the device operation. This mechanism can reduce the sub-threshold swing (S.S.) beyond the Boltzmann's limit, which is fundamentally limited to 60 mV/dec in a conventional Si-based metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET). A smaller S.S. ensures TFET operation at a lower supply voltage and, therefore, at lesser power compared to the conventional Si-based MOSFET.</div><div><br></div><div>However, the low transmission probability of the band-to-band tunneling mechanism limits the ON-current of a TFET. This can be improved by reducing the body thickness of the devices i.e., using 2-Dimensional (2D) materials or by utilizing heterojunction designs. In this thesis, two promising methods are proposed to increase the ON-current; one for the 2D material TFETs, and another for the III-V heterojunction TFETs.</div><div><br></div><div>Maximizing the ON-current in a 2D material TFET by determining an optimum channel thickness, using compact models, is presented. A compact model is derived from rigorous atomistic quantum transport simulations. A new doping profile is proposed for the III-V triple heterojunction TFET to achieve a high ON-current. The optimized ON-current is 325 uA/um at a supply voltage of 0.3 V. The device design is optimized by atomistic quantum transport simulations for a body thickness of 12 nm, which is experimentally feasible.</div><div> </div><div>However, increasing the device's body thickness increases the atomistic quantum transport simulation time. The simulation of a device with a body thickness of over 12 nm is computationally intensive. Therefore, approximate methods like the mode-space approach are employed to reduce the simulation time. In this thesis, the development of the mode-space approximation in modeling the triple heterojunction TFET is also documented.</div><div><br></div><div>In addition to the TFETs, quantum computing is an emerging field that utilizes quantum phenomena to facilitate information processing. An extra chapter is devoted to the electronic structure calculations of the Si:P delta-doped layer, using the empirical tight-binding method. The calculations agree with angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements. The Si:P delta-doped layer is extensively used as contacts in the Phosphorus donor-based quantum computing systems. Understanding its electronic structure paves the way towards the scaling of Phosphorus donor-based quantum computing devices in the future.</div>

The progress in device performance of modern microelectronic technology is mainly driven by down-scaling. In the near future, this road will probably reach a point where physical limits make even more down-scaling impossible. The substitution of single components materialwise over the last decades, like high-k dielectrics or metal gates, has been a suitable approach to foster performance improvements. In this scheme, the integration of high-mobility III-V compound semiconductors as channel materials into Si technology is a promising route to follow for the next one or two device generations. III-V integration, today, is conventionally performed by using techniques like molecular beam epitaxy or wafer bonding which utilize solid phase crystallization but suffer to strain due to the lattice mismatch between III-V compounds and Si. An alternative approach using sequential ion beam implantation in combination with a subsequent flash lamp annealing is presented in this work. Using this technique, nanocrystals from various III-V compounds have been successfully integrated into bulk Si and Ge as well as into thin Si layers which used either SOI substrates or were grown by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition. The III-V compounds which have been fabricated are GaP, GaAs, GaSb, InP, InAs, GaSb and InxGa1-xAs with variable composition. The structural properties of these nanocrystals have been investigated by Rutherford backscattering, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy, including bright-field, dark-field, high-resolution, high-angle annular dark-field and scanning mode imaging, electron-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy and energy-filtered element mapping. Furthermore, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction have been performed to characterise the nanocrystals optically. In Raman spectroscopy, the characteristic transversal and longitudinal optical phonon modes of the different III-V compounds have been observed. These signals proof that the nanocrystals have formed by the combination of ion implantation and flash lamp annealing. Additionally, the appearance of the typical phonon modes of the respective substrate materials verifies recrystallization of the substrate by the flash lamp after amorphisation during implantation. In the bulk Si samples, the nanocrystals have a circular or rectangular lateral shape and they are randomly distributed at the surface. Their cross-section has either a hemispherical or triangular shape. In bulk Ge, there are two types of precipitates: one at the surface with arbitrary shape and another one buried with circular shape. For the thin film samples, the lateral shape of the nanocrystals is more or less arbitrary and they feature a block-like cross-section which is limited in height by the Si layer thickness. Regarding crystalline quality, the nanocrystals in all samples are mainly single-crystalline with only a few number of stacking faults. However, the crystalline quality in the bulk samples is slightly better than in the thin films. The X-ray diffraction measurements display the (111), (220) and (311) Bragg peaks for InAs and GaAs as well as for the InxGa1-xAs where the peaks shift with increasing In content from GaAs towards InAs. The underlying formation mechanism is identified as liquid phase epitaxy. Hereby, the ion implantation leads to an amorphisation of the substrate material which is then molten by the subsequent flash lamp annealing. This yields a homogeneous distribution of the implanted elements within the melt due to their strongly increased diffusivity in the liquid phase. Afterwards, the substrate material starts to recrystallize at first and an enrichment of the melt with group-III and group-V elements takes place due to segregation. When the temperature is low enough, the III-V compound semiconductor starts to crystallize using the recrystallized substrate material as a template for epitaxial growth. In order to gain control over the lateral nanocrystal distribution, an implantation mask of either aluminium or nickel is introduced. Using this mask, only small areas of the samples are implanted. After flash lamp treatment, nanocrystals form only in these small areas, which allows precise positioning of them. An optimal implantation window size with an edge length of around 300nm has been determined to obtain one nanocrystal per implanted area. During an additional experiment, the preparation of Si nanowires using electron beam lithography and reactive ion etching has been conducted. Hereby, two different processes have been investigated; one using a ZEP resist, a lift-off step and a Ni hard mask and another one using a hydrogen silsesquioxane resist which is used directly as a mask for etching. The HSQ-based process turned out to yield Si nanowires of better quality. Combining both, the masked implantation and the Si nanowire fabrication, it might be possible to integrate a single III-V nanocrystal into a Si nanowire to produce a III-V-in-Si-nanowire structure for electrical testing. / Der Fortschritt in der Leistungsfähigkeit der Bauelemente moderner Mikroelektroniktechnologie wird hauptsächlich durch das Skalieren vorangetrieben. In naher Zukunft wird dieser Weg wahrscheinlich einen Punkt erreichen, an dem physikalische Grenzen weiteres Herunterskalieren unmöglich machen. Der Austausch einzelner Teile auf Materialebene, wie Hoch-Epsilon-Dielektrika oder Metall-Gate-Elektroden, war während der letzten Jahrzehnte ein geeigneter Ansatz, um die Leistungsverbesserung voranzubringen. Nach diesem Schema ist die Integration von III-V-Verbindungshalbleiter mit hoher Mobilität ein vielversprechender Weg, dem man für die nächsten ein oder zwei Bauelementgenerationen folgen kann. Heutzutage erfolgt die III-V-Integration konventionell mit Verfahren wie der Molekularstrahlepitaxie oder dem Waferbonden, welche die Festphasenkristallisation nutzen, die aber aufgrund der Gitterfehlanpassung zwischen III-V-Verbindungen und Silizium an Verspannungen leiden. In dieser Arbeit wird ein alternativer Ansatz präsentiert, welcher die sequenzielle Ionenstrahlimplantation in Verbindung mit einer darauffolgenden Blitzlampentemperung ausnutzt. Mit Hilfe dieses Verfahrens wurden Nanokristalle verschiedener III-V-Verbindungshalbleiter erfolgreich in Bulksilizium- und -germaniumsubstrate sowie in dünne Siliziumschichten integriert. Für die dünnen Schichten wurden hierbei entweder SOI-Substrate verwendet oder sie wurden mittels plasmagestützer chemischer Gasphasenabscheidung gewachsen. Die hergestellten III-V-Verbindungen umfassen GaP, GaAs, GaSb, InP, InAs, InSb und InxGa1-xAs mit veränderbarer Zusammensetzung. Die strukturellen Eigenschaften dieser Nanokristalle wurden mit Rutherford-Rückstreu-Spektroskopie, Rasterelektronenmikroskopie und Transmissionselektronenmikroskopie untersucht. Bei der Transmissionelektronenmikroskopie wurden die Hellfeld-, Dunkelfeld-, hochauflösenden, “high-angle annular dark-field” und Rasteraufnahmemodi sowie die energiedispersive Röntgenspektroskopie und die energiegefilterte Elementabbildung eingesetzt. Darüber hinaus wurden Ramanspektroskopie- und Röntgenbeugungsmessungen durchgeführt, um die Nanokristalle optisch zu charakterisieren. Mittels Ramanspektroskopie wurden die charakteristischen transversal- und longitudinal-optischen Phononenmoden der verschiedenen III-V-Verbindungen beobachtet. Diese Signale beweisen, dass sich unter Verwendung der Kombination von Ionenstrahlimplantation und Blitzlampentemperung Nanokristalle bilden. Weiterhin zeigt das Vorhandensein der typischen Phononenmoden der jeweiligen Substratmaterialien, dass die Substrate aufgrund der Blitzlampentemperung rekristallisiert sind, nachdem sie durch Ionenimplantation amorphisiert wurden. In den Bulksiliziumproben besitzen die Nanokristalle eine kreisförmige oder rechteckige Kontur und sind in zufälliger Anordnung an der Oberfläche verteilt. Ihr Querschnitt zeigt entweder eine Halbkugel- oder dreieckige Form. Im Bulkgermanium gibt es zwei Arten von Ausscheidungen: eine mit willkürlicher Form an der Oberfläche und eine andere, vergrabene mit sphärischer Form. Betrachtet man die Proben mit den dünnen Schichten, ist die laterale Form der Nanokristalle mehr oder weniger willkürlich und sie zeigen einen blockähnlichen Querschnitt, welcher in der Höhe durch die Siliziumschichtdicke begrenzt ist. Bezüglich der Kristallqualität sind die Nanokristalle in allen Proben mehrheitlich einkristallin und weisen nur eine geringe Anzahl an Stapelfehlern auf. Jedoch ist die Kristallqualität in den Bulkmaterialien ein wenig besser als in den dünnen Schichten. Die Röntgenbeugungsmessungen zeigen die (111), (220) und (311) Bragg-Reflexe des InAs und GaAs sowie des InxGa1-xAs, wobei sich hier die Signalpositionen mit steigendem Gehalt an Indium von GaAs zu InAs verschieben. Als zugrundeliegender Bildungsmechanismus wurde die Flüssigphasenepitaxie identifiziert. Hierbei führt die Ionenstrahlimplantation zu einer Amorphisierung des Substratmaterials, welches dann durch die anschließende Blitzlampentemperung aufgeschmolzen wird. Daraus resultiert eine homogene Verteilung der implantierten Elemente in der Schmelze, da diese eine stark erhöhte Diffusivität in der flüssigen Phase aufweisen. Danach beginnt zuerst das Substratmaterial zu rekristallisieren und es kommt aufgrund von Segregationseffekten zu einer Anreicherung der Schmelze mit den Gruppe-III- und Gruppe-V-Elementen. Wenn die Temperatur niedrig genug ist, beginnt auch der III-V-Verbindungshalbleiter zu kristallisieren, wobei er das rekristallisierte Substratmaterial als Grundlage für ein epitaktisches Wachstum nutzt. In der Absicht Kontrolle über die laterale Verteilung der Nanokristalle zu erhalten, wurde eine Implantationsmaske aus Aluminium beziehungsweise Nickel eingeführt. Durch die Benutzung einer solchen Maske wurden nur kleine Bereiche der Proben implantiert. Nach der Blitzlampentemperung werden nur in diesen kleinen Bereichen Nanokristalle gebildet, was eine genaue Positionierung dieser erlaubt. Es wurde eine optimale Implantationsfenstergröße mit einer Kantenlänge von ungefähr 300 nm ermittelt, damit sich nur ein Nanokristall pro implantierten Bereich bildet. Während eines zusätzlichen Experiments wurde die Präparation von Siliziumnanodrähten mit Hilfe von Elektronenstrahllithografie und reaktivem Ionenätzen durchgeführt. Hierbei wurden zwei verschiedene Prozesse getestet: einer, welcher einen ZEP-Lack, einen Lift-off-Schritt und eine Nickelhartmaske nutzt, und ein anderer, welcher einen HSQ-Lack verwendet, der wiederum direkt als Maske für die Ätzung dient. Es stellte sich heraus, dass der HSQ-basierte Prozess Siliziumnanodrähte von höherer Qualität liefert. Kombiniert man beides, die maskierte Implantation und die Siliziumnanodrahtherstellung, miteinander, sollte es möglich sein, einzelne III-V-Nanokristalle in einen Siliziumnanodraht zu integrieren, um eine III-V-in-Siliziumnanodrahtstruktur zu fertigen, welche für elektrische Messungen geeignet ist.

<p>As  thefundamentallimits  of  two-dimensional(2D)geometric  scaling  of  commercial transistors  are  being reached,  there  is  tremendous  demand  for  new  materials  and  process innovations  that  can  keep  delivering  performance  improvements  for  future  generations  of computing chips. One major avenue being explored istheincorporation ofan increasing degree of three-dimensionality   by   vertically   stacking   logic   and   memory   layerswith   high-density interconnections.In  this  dissertation,  high-performanceultra-thin  amorphousindium  oxide transistors  are  demonstrated as  an  excellent  candidate  for these  back-end-of-line  (BEOL)  and monolithic 3D (M3D) integration applications.</p> <p>A  major  pain-point  in the  development  of  BEOL  and  M3D  systems is  the  strict  thermal budget imposed –once the bottom layer of devices is fabricated, they can generally withstand no more  than  400 °C.  It  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  directly  deposit  single-crystal  material  at  these temperatures, and polycrystalline materials will have grain boundary instability issues. Amorphous materials  generally  have  low  carrier  mobilities,  which  would  seemingly  remove  them  from contention as well. Indium oxideand itsclass of related metal oxides are exceptions. Indium oxideis  a  wide  bandgap  semiconductor  with  high  electron  mobility  up  to  about  100  cm²/V∙s  in amorphous form. Ithas a strong preference for native degenerate n-type doping which has hindered prior  devices  fabricated  with it.  In  this  dissertation,  extremely  thin  layers  on  the  order  of  1  nm thick are used for which quantum confinement effects widen the bandgap further, reliably enabling gate-controllable  carrier  densitiesand  demonstration  of  excellent  transistor  performance  with  a low thermal budget of just 225 °C.</p> <p>Detailed characterization is performed down to 40 nm channel lengths revealing excellent transistor characteristics  includingenhancement-mode operation withon currents greater than 2 A/μm, low  subthreshold  swing,and  high  on/off  ratios  due  to  the  wide  bandgap.  Subsequent chaptersdemonstrate the fundamental lower limits of off current around 6 ×10^-20A/μmby a novel measurement  technique,  good  gate  bias  stress  stability  behaviorwith  small  parameter  drift  at silicon  complementary  metal  oxide  semiconductor  (CMOS)  logic  voltages,  and  high-frequency operationin the GHz regime enabling easy operation at CMOS clock frequencies.</p>

<p> </p> <p>Combating climate change requires society to shift to using clean, renewable sources of energy as quickly as possible. Photovoltaics (PVs) are a promising source of renewable energy due to the broad availability of solar radiation over the Earth’s surface and the low cost of PV modules. While silicon solar cells dominate the current PV market, some drawbacks motivate the search for other solar materials. Silicon’s indirect band gap necessitates using<br> thick (>100 μm) absorber layers which limits applications to rigid substrates, and manufacturing silicon wafers suitable for solar cell applications requires slow batch processes,<br> hindering the rapid deployment of PV technology.</p> <p><br> One opportunity for realizing rapid manufacturing of PV modules is solution processing, wherein a solar cell is deposited with the use of liquid solutions containing the necessary constituent elements. A solution processing approach could be done in a roll-to-roll format in which a flexible substrate is coated at high speed to create a thin, flexible PV device. Such an approach is expected to dramatically increase the throughput capability of a photovoltaic manufacturing line. To realize the benefits of solution processing, suitable liquid-phase chemistries must be developed to enable the deposition of the desired absorber material while minimizing the incorporation of undesirable contaminants. One such approach is the<br> amine-thiol solvent system which is notable for its ability to solubilize not only metal salts, but also metal sulfides, metal selenides, and pure metals. This makes the amine-thiol system a promising candidate for the deposition of metal chalcogenide absorber layer materials.</p> <p><br> In this work, the chemistry of the amine-thiol system is studied in detail and reaction mechanisms governing the interaction of amine-thiol solutions with precursors relevant to the Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)2 material system are investigated. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Mass Spectrometry, and X-Ray Absorption measurements are performed to study this system. Structures for the metal thiolate species that form in these reactions are proposed, along with the products of the pyrolysis reaction that converts the thiolate species to the desired metal sulfides. The utility of this understanding is discussed.</p> <p><br> The amine-thiol system is further applied to the synthesis of AgIn(S,Se)2, a material with some similarities to the more common metal chalcogenide CuInSe2 but studied far less<br> thoroughly. The material and optoelectronic properties of AgIn(S,Se)2 are characterized. X-Ray Diffraction, Hall Effect Measurements, Kelvin Probe Force Miscropscopy, and Quantitative Photoluminescence are all performed on AgIn(S,Se)2 thin films. AgIn(S,Se)2 films are found to exhibit high carrier mobility, benign grain boundaries, and strong photoluminescence emission, suggesting that AgIn(S,Se)2 may function as an effective absorber layer<br> material for thin-film solar cells. Challenges facing its successful adoption as a solar cell material as discussed.<br> </p> <p>In this work, a novel method is developed to calibrate photoluminescence spectrometers for absolute photon counts, enabling one to calculate the absolute number of photons leaving a photoluminescence sample. This enables an estimation of the Quasi-Fermi Level Splitting of an absorber layer (and hence open-circuit voltage of a solar cell) while only measuring a bare absorber layer film. The experimental method and required numerical analysis of the<br> data are described herein.</p>

<p>Management of incoming solar radiation and use of the sky as an ultimate heat sink are technological imperatives as climate change shifts our reliance from fossil fuels to sustainable sources.  Selective solar absorbers are a possible route for solar harvesting as they collect the incoming radiation for process heat or space heating.  Here, improvement in the performance of selective solar absorbers via photon recycling is investigated using a stepped index rugate filter.  The final proposed filter when integrated with a high vacuum selective solar absorber could see an improvment in solar-thermal conversion efficiency from 13% to 30.6%. Then, a frequency selective optical filter is fabricated with uses including improvement of radiative coolers.  The measured optical characteristics are compared with simulation data and found to match well.</p> <p><br></p> <p>The shift to sustainable sources of electricity will require an expansion of the electrical grid.  The backbone of the grid for converting high voltage AC to DC, and vice versa, is power electronics.  The current state-of-the-art technology is GaN HEMTs, but GaN MISHEMTs are poised to replace them since MISHEMTs reduce the gate leakage current; a deficiency of the GaN HEMT architecture.  First, time dependent dielectric breakdown in GaN MISHEMTs is investigated using concurrent electrical and thermoreflectance methods.  A susceptibility in the MISHEMT architecture is found and possible solutions are proposed.  Then, liquid cooling of GaN HEMT PAs is explored by demonstrating integration of an X-band front end module, printed circuit board, and fluid manifold.  The integration shows great promise as two-phase cooling performance improved with increasing power dissipated, while single-phase cooling performance degraded.</p>