A conductive atomic force microscopy (c-AFM) investigation of GaN nanostructures is reported for strain engineering optoelectronic and piezotronic devices. The use of AFM enables the simultaneous correlation between the surface morphology and charge carrier transport through the nanostructures. The samples under investigation are molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) grown InGaN/GaN nanowires on Ti coated Mo substrate and GaN nanowires on ITO. The metal-semiconductor interface between the metallic substrates and the GaN nanostructures form the bottom contact. A Pt-Ir coated AFM probe is used to create a Schottky top nano-contact. The two interfaces form a metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) structure. Force and temperature-dependent IV curves are obtained and analyzed, and the MSM structure parameters are extracted. Modulation of both the conductivity and Schottky barrier height (SBH) is revealed. Drastic reduction of the barrier is observed to drive the junctions to ideal MSM under a combination of force and temperature, revealing a dynamic and controlled two-way switching of the devices from rectifying to ideal linear IV properties. Through compressive force modulation by AFM tip, a symmetric 80 meV reduction in SBH at ±0.7 V is realized for the sample grown on Mo. By a combination of temperature and force modulation, a 40 meV increase in SBH is achieved at 0.53 V for the sample on ITO. These results show that the formed structure is ideal for applications in optoelectronics, sensing, piezotronic, piezo-phototronic, and nano-energy harvesting devices.

The presented thesis deals with preparation of GaN nanocrystals with a metal core. In the theoretical part of the thesis GaN with its properties and applications is introduced. Further, some of the preparation methods of GaN are presented, mainly focusing on MBE growth. Deposition of metal NPs from colloidal solution and the state of the art approaches to enhance luminescence of GaN based structures is discussed. The experimental part follows three steps of preparation of GaN crystals with the Ag core. In the first step the Ag NPs are deposited on the Si(111) substrate. In the second step the Ga deposition process is optimized and in the third step the deposited Ga is transformed into GaN. After the Ga deposition the samples were analyzed by SEM/EDX and SAM/AES. The properties of prepared GaN crystals with the Ag core were studied by XPS, photoluminescence and Raman spectroscopy.

The thesis is focused on the study of properties of GaN nanocrystals and Ga structures on the surface of silicon and graphene substrate. In the theoretical part of this thesis, the basic properties of Ga/GaN and graphene are described, as well as their applications or connection of both structures together in different devices. The ability of metal nanoparticles to enhance not only photoluminescence, due to the interaction of the material with surface plasmons, is also shown in several examples. The experimental part of the work first deals with the production and characterization of graphene sheets prepared by Chemical Vapor Deposition. Ga/GaN growth on both types of substrates was performed in a UHV chamber using an effusion cell for Ga deposition and an atomic ion source for nitridation. Prepared structures were characterized using various methods (XPS, SEM, AFM, Raman spectroscopy or photoluminescence). In the last step, GaN nanocrystals were coated with Ga islands to study the photoluminescence enhancement.

There are many potential areas for the utilization of GaN-based nitride materials, including ultraviolet photodetectors. Ultraviolet photodetectors are used in the military for missile plume detection and space communications. Medically, ultraviolet photodiodes are used in monitoring skin cancer. Schottky barrier metal-semiconductor contacts are choice devices for the manufacture of ultraviolet photodiodes due to higher short wavelength sensitivity and fast response. They also require simple fabrication technology; suffer lower breakdown voltages, and record larger leakage currents at lower voltages as compared to p-n structures of the same semiconductor material. Thus the formation of a Schottky contact with high barrier height, low leakage current, and good thermal stability in order to withstand high temperature processing and operation are some of the most important factors in improving the performance of Schottky barrier photodiodes to be used for ultraviolet detection. The first stage of this study was to establish a chemical cleaning and etching technique. It was found that KOH was suitable in reducing C from the surface and that (NH4)2S further reduced the surface oxides. The next phase of the work was to select a metal that will allow UV light to pass through at a high transmission percentage: a combination of annealed Ni/Au was found to be ideal. The transmission percentage of this alloy was found to be above 80%. The next phase was the fabrication of Ni/Au Schottky barrier diodes on GaN to study the electrical characteristics of the diodes. Electrical characterization of the diodes showed that the dominant current transport mechanism was thermionic emission, masked by the effects of series resistance, which resulted from the condition of the GaN surface. Finally, we fabricated GaN UV photodiodes and characterized them in the optoelectronic station designed and produced during this research. Device responsivity as high as 31.8 mA/W for GaN and 3.8 mA/W for AlGaN were recorded. The calculated quantum efficiencies of the photodiodes were 11 % for GaN and 1.7 % for AlGaN respectively. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Physics / unrestricted

Les composants HEMTs (High Electron Mobility Transistors) à base d’AlGaN/GaN sont à ce jour les candidats les plus prometteurs pour des applications hyperfréquences de puissance, dû essentiellement à leur forte densité de porteurs et des mobilités électroniques élevées. Cependant, la température générée en condition réelle est un paramètre capital à mesurer, afin d’estimer précisément la fiabilité des composants et leur durée de vie. Pour ces raisons, nous avons comparé les méthodes de caractérisation thermique par thermoréflectance et par spectroscopie Raman car elles sont non destructives et avec une résolution spatiale submicronique. Ces techniques ont déjà prouvé leur faisabilité pour la caractérisation thermique des transistors, en modes de fonctionnement continu et pulsé. Nous comparons dans cette étude leurs adaptabilité et performance dans le cadre de la réalisation d’un banc d’essai thermique dédié. Ces méthodes sont reconnues pour ne caractériser que certaines catégories de matériaux : les métaux pour la thermoréflectance et les semiconducteurs pour la spectroscopie Raman, ce qui nous a conduit à l’éventualité de les combiner. Nous avons confronté des résultats obtenus par thermoréflectance à partir des équipements de deux fabricants commercialisant cette méthode, nous permettant ainsi de mettre en évidence des résultats originaux sur des aspects et inconvénients qui ne sont pas relayés dans la littérature. Avec la spectroscopie Raman, nous avons identifié les paramètres de métrologie qui permettent de réaliser un protocole de mesure thermique le plus répétable possible, et nous présentons également une technique innovante pour sonder les matériaux en surface, à l'aide du même équipement, et notamment les métaux. / At the moment, AlGaN/GaN HEMTs (High Electron Mobility Transistors) are the most promising for high-power hyperfrequency applications, essentially due to their large carrier density and a high electronic mobility. However, the temperature generating during operational conditions is a crucial parameter to measure, in order to estimate the reliability and durability of components. For these reasons, we compared thermoreflectance and Raman spectroscopy, that are non-destructive and possessing a submicronic spatial resolution. These techniques have already proven their feasibility as thermal characterization methods in both continuous wave and pulsed operational modes. We compare here their adaptability and performance to the conception of a thermal test bench. These methods are known for characterizing specific types of material: metals for thermoreflectance and semiconductors for Raman spectroscopy, leading us to the eventuality to combine them. We compared several results measured by thermoreflectance method with equipment from two different manufacturers that commercialize this technology, so we could highlight some aspects and drawbacks that are note relayed in the literature. With Raman spectroscopy, we identified metrology parameters allowing to realize a thermal measurement setup as reproducible as possible, and we also present an innovative method to probe surface material, especially metals.

Modeling humans’ speech is a challenging task that originally required a coalition between phoneticians and speech engineers. Yet, the latter, disengaged from phoneticians, have strived for evermore natural speech synthesis in the absence of an awareness of speech modelling due to data- driven and ever-growing deep learning models. By virtue of decades of detachment between phoneticians and speech engineers, this thesis presents a deep learning architecture, alleged Wavebender GAN, that predicts mel- spectrograms that are processed by a vocoder, HiFi-GAN, to synthesize speech. Wavebender GAN pushes for progress in both speech science and technology, allowing phoneticians to manipulate stimuli and test phonological models supported by high-quality synthesized speeches generated through interpretable low-level signal properties. This work sets a new step of cooperation for phoneticians and speech engineers. / Att modellera mänskligt tal är en utmanande uppgift som ursprungligen krävde en samverkan mellan fonetiker och taltekniker. De senare har dock, utan att vara kopplade till fonetikerna, strävat efter en allt mer naturlig talsyntes i avsaknad av en djup medvetenhet om talmodellering på grund av datadrivna och ständigt växande modeller fördjupinlärning. Med anledning av decennier av distansering mellan fonetiker och taltekniker presenteras i denna avhandling en arkitektur för djupinlärning, som påstås vara Wavebender GAN, som förutsäger mel-spektrogram som tas emot av en vocoder, HiFi-GAN, för att syntetisera tal. Wavebender GAN driver på för framsteg inom både tal vetenskap och teknik, vilket gör det möjligt för fonetiker att manipulera stimulus och testa fonologiska modeller som stöds av högkvalitativa syntetiserade tal som genereras genom tolkningsbara signalegenskaper på lågnivå. Detta arbete inleder en ny era av samarbete för fonetiker och taltekniker.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Gopinath, Anoop. M.S.E.C.E., Purdue University, May 2018. Low-Power Hybrid TFET-CMOS Memory. Major Professor: Maher E. Rizkalla. The power consumption and the switching speed of the current CMOS technology have reached their limits. In contrast, architecture design within computer systems are continuously seeking more performance and e ciency. Advanced technologies that optimize the power consumption and switching speed may help deliver this e ciency. Indeed, beyond CMOS technology may be a viable approach to meeting the ever increasing need for low-power design. These technology includes devices such as Tunnel Field E ect Transistor (TFET), Graphene based devices such as GFET and GRNFET and FinFET. However, the low cross-sectional area of the channel asso- ciated with smaller technology nodes brings with it the challenges associated with leakage current below the threshold. Mitigating these challenges with devices such as TFETs may allow higher levels of integration, faster switching speed and lower power consumption. This thesis investigates the use of Gallium Nitride (GaN) TFET devices at 20nm for memory cells. These cells can be used in the L1 data cache of the Graphic Processing Units (GPU) thereby minimizing the static power and the dynamic power within these memory systems. The TFET technology was chosen since it has a low subthreshold slope of nearly 30mV/decade. This enables the TFET-based cells to function with a 0.6V supply voltage leading to reduced dynamic power consumption and leakage current when compared to the current CMOS technology. The results suggest that there are bene ts in pursuing an integrated TFET-based technology for Very Large Scale Integrated Circuit (VLSI) design. These bene ts are demonstrated using simulation at the schematic-level using Cadence Virtuoso.

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