Ce mémoire est consacré à l'étude du couplage lumière-matière dans des structures à base de GaN (semiconducteur à bande interdite directe). L'objectif de ce travail est la mise en évidence expérimentale du couplage fort exciton-photon dans des microcavités à base de GaN. Des difficultés liées à l'élaboration des nitrures nous ont contraint à effectuer deux études préliminaires : tout d'abord, la détermination des indices de réfraction d'AlN, GaN et AlGaN par ellipsométrie spectroscopique et par réflectivité, puis la caractérisation de miroirs de Bragg AlN/GaN et AlN/AlGaN. A partir des résultats obtenus, nous avons imaginé puis effectué le design de plusieurs structures de microcavités pour lesquelles le couplage fort lumière-matière était atteint théoriquement. Les microcavités ont ensuite été élaborées par épitaxie sous jets moléculaires sur substrat de silicium et nous les avons caractérisées par spectroscopie optique : réflectivité et photoluminescence à basse température, en fonction de l'angle d'incidence et de la position. Les expériences de réflectivité résolues en angle nous ont permis de mettre en évidence pour la première fois le régime de couplage fort dans une microcavité à base de GaN. La structure étudiée est une microcavité massive à base de GaN encastrée entre 4 alternances de couches diélectriques SiO2/Si3N4 formant le miroir haut et le substrat de silicium jouant le rôle du miroir bas. Le régime de couplage fort atteint dans cette structure est caractérisé par un dédoublement de Rabi de 31 meV persistant à une température de 77K, mais ne subsistant pas à température ambiante, à cause des élargissements induits par l'augmentation de la température. Finalement, nous avons proposé des microcavités massives ou à puits quantiques permettant théoriquement l'observation du régime de couplage fort à température ambiante. Ainsi, des dispositifs tels que le laser à polaritons, laser à très faible seuil, pourrait être envisagé.

<p>During the last decade, AlGaN High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs) have been intensively studied because their fundamental electrical properties make them attractive for highpower microwave device applications. Despite much progress, AlGaN HEMTs are far from fully understood and judged by the number of published papers the understanding of advanced structures is even poorer. This work is an exploration of the electrical and structural properties of advanced HEMT structure containing AlN exclusionlayer and double heterojunctions. These small modifications had great impact on the electrical properties.</p><p>In this work, AlGaN HEMT structures grown on SiC substrates by a hot-wall MOCVD have been characterized for their properties using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, capacitance/voltage, eddy-current resistivity, and by homebuilt epi-thickness mapping equipment.</p><p>A high electron mobility of 1700 [cm2/Vs] was achieved in an AlN exclusion-layer HEMT. A similar electron mobility of 1650 [cm2/Vs] was achieved in a combination of a double heterojunction and exclusion-layer structure. The samples had approximately the same electron mobility but with a great difference: the exclusion-layer version gave a sheet carrier density of 1.58*1013 [electrons/cm2] while the combination of double heterojunction and exclusion-layer gave 1.07*1013 [electrons/cm2]. A second 2DEG was observed in most structures, but not all, but was not stable with time.</p><p>The structures we grew during this work were also simulated using a one-dimensional Poisson-Schrödinger solver and the simulated electron densities were in fairly good agreement with the experimentally obtained. III-nitride materials, the CVD concept, and the onedimensional solver are shortly explained.</p>

Capacitance-voltage-frequency measurements on n+-GaN/AlxGa1−xN UV/IR dual-band detectors are reported. The presence of shallow Si-donor, deep Si-donor, and C-donor/N-vacancy defect states were found to significantly alter the electrical characteristics of the detectors. The barrier Al fraction was found to change the position of the interface defect states relative to the Fermi level. The sample with Al fraction of 0.1 shows a distinct capacitance-step and hysteresis, which is attributed to C-donor/N-vacancy electron trap states located above the Fermi level (200 meV) at the heterointerface; whereas, the sample with Al fraction of 0.026 shows negative capacitance and dispersion, indicating C-donor/N-vacancy and deep Si-donor defect states located below the Fermi level (88 meV). When an i-GaN buffer layer was added to the structure, an anomalous high-frequency capacitance peak was observed and attributed to resonance scattering due to hybridization of localized Si-donor states in the band gap with conduction band states at the i-GaN/n+-GaN interface.

The objective of the research was to develop high quality GaN epitaxial growth on alternative substrates that could result in higher external quantum efficiency devices. Typical GaN growth on sapphire results in high defect materials, typically 10⁸⁻¹⁰cm⁻², due to a large difference in lattice mismatch and thermal expansion coefficient. Therefore, it is useful to study epitaxial growth on alternative substrates to sapphire such as ZnO which offers the possibility of lattice matched growth. High-quality metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) of GaN on ZnO substrate is hard to grow due to the thermal stability of ZnO, out-diffusion of Zn, and H₂back etching into the sample. Preliminary growths of GaN on bare ZnO substrates showed multiple cracks and peeling of the surface. A multi-buffer layer of LT-AlN/GaN was found to solve the cracking and peeling-off issues and demonstrated the first successful GaN growth on ZnO substrates. Good quality InGaN films were also grown showing indium compositions of 17-27% with no indium droplets or phase separation. ZnO was found to to sustain a higher strain state than sapphire, and thereby incorporating higher indium concentrations, as high as 43%, without phase separation, compared to the same growth on sapphire with only 32%. Si doping of InGaN layers, a known inducer for phase separation, did induce phase separation on sapphire growths, but not for growths on ZnO. This higher strain state for ZnO substrates was correlated to its perfect lattice match with InGaN at 18% indium concentration. Transmission electron microscopy results revealed reduction of threading dislocation and perfectly matched crystals at the GaN buffer/ZnO interface showing coherent growth of GaN on ZnO. However, Zn diffusion into the epilayer was an issue. Therefore, an atomic layer deposition of Al₂O₃was grown as a transition layer prior to GaN and InGaN growth by MOCVD. X-ray and PL showed distinct GaN peaks on Al₂O₃/ZnO layers demonstrating the first GaN films grown on Al₂O₃/ZnO. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy showed a decrese in Zn diffusion into the epilayer, demonstrating that an ALD Al₂O₃layer was a promising transition layer for GaN growth on ZnO substrates by MOCVD.

This thesis describes the design, fabrication and characterization of AlGaN/GaN Heterostructure Field E ect Transistors (HFETs) grown by a Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) on sapphire substrates. The objective of this research is to develop AlGaN/GaN power devices with high breakdown voltage (greater than 1 kV) and low turn-on resistance. Various characteristics such as current drive (Idss), transconductance (gm) and threshold voltage (Vth) have also been measured and the results have been discussed. Two major challenges with the development of high breakdown voltage AlGaN/GaN HFETs in the past have been high material defect density and non-optimized fabrication technologies which gives rise to bu er leakage and surface leakage, respectively. In this thesis, mesa isolation, ohmic and gate metal contacts, and passivation techniques, have been discussed to improve the performance of these power transistors in terms of low contact resistance and low gate leakage. The relationship between breakdown voltage and Rds(ON)A with respect to the gate-drain length (Lgd) is also discussed. First, unit cell devices were designed (two-fingered cells with Wg = 100, 300, 400 m) and characterized, and then they were extended to form large area devices (upto Wg = 40 mm). The design goals were classied into three parts: - High Breakdown Voltage: This was achieved by designing devices with variations in Lgd, - Low turn-on resistance: This was achieved by optimizing the annealing temperatures as well as incorporating additional thick metal pads, as well as optimizing the passivation etch recipe, - Low Gate Leakage: The gate leakage was reduced signicantly by using a gate metal with a larger barrier height. All devices with Lgd larger than 10 m exhibited excellent breakdown voltage characteristics of over 800 V, and it progressed as the Lgd increased. The turn-on resistance was also reduced signicantly below 20 m-cm2, for devices with Lgd = 15, 25, and 20 m. The gate leakage was measured for all devices upto 200 V, and was in the range of 10-100 nA, which is one of the best values reported for multi-ngered devices with Lgd in the range of 2.4-5 mm. Some of the key challenges faced in fabrication were determining a better gate metal layer to reduce gate leakage, optimizing the passivation via etch recipe, and reducing surface leakage.

Piezoelectric materials are widely used for sensors, actuators and trasducers. Traditionally, piezoelectric applications are dominated by multicomponent oxide ferroelectrics such as lead zirconate titanate (PZT), which have the advantage of high piezoelectric coefficients. Recently, one-dimensional piezoelectric nanostructures such as nanowires of zinc oxide (ZnO) and gallium nitride (GaN) has gained a lot of attention due to their combined piezoelectric and semiconducting properties. The focus of this thesis is to study the processing and electric properties of such piezoelectric thin films and nanostructures for various applications. There is an increasing interest to form thin films of multicomponent ferroelectric oxides such as PZT on three-dimensional structures for charge storage and MEMS applications. Traditional vapor phase deposition techniques of PZT offer poor conformality over threedimensional surfaces due to their reactant transport mechanisms. As an alternative, solgel synthesis may provide new process possibilities to overcome this hurdle but the film quality is usually inferior, and the yield data was usually reported for small device areas. The first part of this study is dedicated to the characterization of the electric properties and yield of PZT thin film derived from the sol-gel process. PZT thin films with good electric property and high yield over a large area have been fabricated. La doping was found to double the breakdown field due to donor doping effect. LaNiO3 thin films that can be coated on a three-dimensional surface have been synthesized by an all-nitrate based sol-gel route, and the feasibility to form a conformal coating over a three-dimensional surface by solution coating techniques has been demonstrated. ZnO and GaN micro/nanowires are promising piezoelectric materials for energy harvesting and piezotronic device applications. The second part of this study is focused on the growth of ZnO and GaN micro/nanowires by physical vapor deposition techniques. The morphology and chemical compositions are revealed by electron microscopy. Utilizing the as-grown ZnO nanowires, single nanowire based photocell has been fabricated, and its performance was studied in terms of its response time, repeatability, excitation position and polarization dependence upon He-Cd UV-laser illumination. The excitation position dependence was attributed to the competition of two opposite photo- and thermoelectric currents originated from the two junctions. The excitation polarization dependence was attributed to the difference in optical properties due to crystallographic anisotropy. Employing the as-grown GaN nanowires, single nanowire based strain sensor is demonstrated, and its behavior is discussed in terms of the effect of strain-induced piezopotential on the Schottky barrier height.

Nous étudions les propriétés optiques de boîtes quantiques GaN/AlN élaborées par épitaxie par jets moléculaires sur substrats Si(111). La spectroscopie résolue en temps de l'émission collective de plans de boîtes quantiques nous conduit à une détermination appropriée de l'état fondamental des boîtes quantiques et du champ électrique interne le long de l'axe de croissance. Nous observons et modélisons une dynamique de recombinaison non conventionnelle des porteurs. Ces résultats préliminaires nous permettent de sélectionner les boîtes quantiques idéales pour l'étude individuelle en micro-photoluminescence. Nos mesures sur boîte unique révèlent des effets de diffusion spectrale que nous étudions en détails. En analysant la polarisation linéaire, nous observons des propriétés liées à la structure fine excitonique, très différentes de celles de boîtes quantiques étudiées auparavant, ce que nous expliquons à l'aide d'un modèle tenant compte des effets d'échange et d'anisotropie.

Les nitrures d'éléments III sont des semi-conducteurs dont l'émission optique suscite un grand intérêt en vue des applications optoélectroniques. Nous avons analysé leurs propriétés optiques, vibrationnelles, électroniques et cristallographiques, notamment par le biais de la spectroscopie Raman. Les systèmes typiques que nous avons examinés correspondent à l'état de l'art de la croissance des différents composés de la famille des nitrures d'éléments III : nous avons considéré des îlots et films micrométriques d'InN, ainsi que des hétérostructures (super-réseaux et boîtes quantiques) à base de GaN et d'AlN.<br />L'étude présentée porte en particulier sur les processus de relaxation des contraintes dans les îlots et les boîtes quantiques, ainsi que sur les mécanismes de diffusion inélastique de la lumière dans InN et la dynamique de réseau dans les nanostructures. Ce travail est fortement marqué par les aspects expérimentaux, et une part importante de ce manuscrit est consacrée aux résultats obtenus sous haute pression.

During the last decade, AlGaN High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs) have been intensively studied because their fundamental electrical properties make them attractive for highpower microwave device applications. Despite much progress, AlGaN HEMTs are far from fully understood and judged by the number of published papers the understanding of advanced structures is even poorer. This work is an exploration of the electrical and structural properties of advanced HEMT structure containing AlN exclusionlayer and double heterojunctions. These small modifications had great impact on the electrical properties. In this work, AlGaN HEMT structures grown on SiC substrates by a hot-wall MOCVD have been characterized for their properties using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, capacitance/voltage, eddy-current resistivity, and by homebuilt epi-thickness mapping equipment. A high electron mobility of 1700 [cm2/Vs] was achieved in an AlN exclusion-layer HEMT. A similar electron mobility of 1650 [cm2/Vs] was achieved in a combination of a double heterojunction and exclusion-layer structure. The samples had approximately the same electron mobility but with a great difference: the exclusion-layer version gave a sheet carrier density of 1.58*1013 [electrons/cm2] while the combination of double heterojunction and exclusion-layer gave 1.07*1013 [electrons/cm2]. A second 2DEG was observed in most structures, but not all, but was not stable with time. The structures we grew during this work were also simulated using a one-dimensional Poisson-Schrödinger solver and the simulated electron densities were in fairly good agreement with the experimentally obtained. III-nitride materials, the CVD concept, and the onedimensional solver are shortly explained.

This work describes multiband photon detection techniques based on novel semiconductor device concepts and detector designs with simultaneous detection of dierent wavelength radiation such as UV and IR. One aim of this investigation is to examine UV and IR detection concepts with a view to resolve some of the issues of existing IR detectors such as high dark current, non uniformity, and low operating temperature and to avoid having additional optical components such as filters in multiband detection. Structures were fabricated to demonstrate the UV and IR detection concepts and determine detector parameters: (i) UV/IR detection based on GaN/AlGaN heterostructures, (ii) Optical characterization of p-type InP thin films were carried out with the idea of developing InP based detectors, (iii) Intervalence band transitions in InGaAsP/InP heterojunction interfacial workfunction internal photoemission (HEIWIP) detectors. Device concepts, detector structures, and experimental results are discussed. In order to reduce reflection, TiO2 and SiO2 nanostructured thin film characterization and application of these as anti-reflection coatings on above mentioned detectors is also discussed.