<p>In this thesis time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopyis presented as a powerful tool to study the carrier dynamicsin various self-assembled quantum dot (QD) structures, whichare potentially attractive for device applications.</p><p>The experiments reveal the impact of proton irradiation onInGaAs QDs and comparable quantum wells. Nonradiativerecombination at defects–an important material parameterand“measure”of the structure optical quality–is found to play a much less important role for the QD samples.The superior radiation hardness can be explained as a result ofthe three-dimensional carrier confinement in QDs. Comparisonsbetween the structures show a decrease of photoluminescenceintensity for quantum wells but a slight increase for QDsirradiated at low to intermediate doses. This somewhatunexpected characteristic is described by an enhanced carriertransfer into the dots via the defects introduced in thematerial by the protons.</p><p>In a different structure carrier dynamics in spatiallyaligned of InAs QDs are investigated. Alignment along lines isachieved by misfit dislocations deliberately introduced in thesubstrate. Photoluminescence spectra of the dots exhibit muchsmaller inhomogeneous broadening than for the reference sampleas a result of an improved QD uniformity. Samples with varyingbuffer layer thicknesses were grown to study the influence ofdislocation related traps on the observed fastphotoluminescence decay. It is found that the fast carriertrapping is predominantly caused by point defects close to theQDs or at the QD/barrier interfaces.</p><p>Additional numerical simulations confirm the roles of thetwo independently acting traps in nonradiativerecombination.</p>

No description available.

GaN is a III-V semiconductor that is a promising material used in production of light emitting devices and high power/high frequency electronics. The electronic and optical properties of GaN are subdued by defects that occur during the growth processes of this material. The emitted photoluminescence (PL) from optically excited GaN gives insight into the origins and effects of point defects within the crystal lattice structure of GaN. In this study, PL spectroscopy is used to examine and analyze the point defects that occur in Zn-doped GaN. The blue luminescence band seen in undoped and Zn-doped GaN have identical fine structure and properties. This band is attributed to a ZnGa acceptor. In Zn-doped, the PL intensity quenches abruptly at certain temperatures, which increase with increasing excitation intensity. This behavior is different from the PL quenching in undoped GaN. The PL behavior was simulated with a phenomenological model based on rate equations. A program created with mathematical modeling software, in conjunction with the basic rate equations, was used to explain the unusual behavior of the abrupt thermal quenching observed in Zn-doped GaN.

Photoluminescence (PL) has been studied from different types of bulk GaN samples grown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy technique at Kyma Technologies. Point defects in bulk and at the surface affect the electrical and optical properties of GaN and could be analyzed by PL. The surface of the samples was polished with different techniques: one is chemical mechanical polish (CMP) and another is mechanical polish (MP). PL data from MP and CMP surfaces show that PL intensity from the CMP-treated surface is much higher than that from the MP-treated surface. This can be explained by defects formed during the process of MP polish. However, after the MP-treated surface is etched with RIE method, the optical quality of the MP-treated surface improves. In particular, as the depth of etching increases from 50 nm to 700 nm, the PL intensity increases by a factor of 1000. PL from the CMP surfaces of undoped bulk GaN samples contains a broad red luminescence (RL) band and a broad green luminescence (GL) band. However, PL from the CMP surfaces of Fe-doped GaN samples contained a blue luminescence band (labeled as BL2 in literature) and the yellow luminescence (YL) band. PL from MP-treated surfaces (both undoped and Fe-doped) was very weak and it contained relatively narrow red and green bands. These bands, labeled RL2 and GL2, respectively, are quenched at relatively low temperatures, in contrast to the RL and GL bands which are almost independent of temperature in the range from 15 to 300 K.

Orientador: José Arana Varela / Coorientador: Sergio Mazurek Tebcherani / Banca: Alexandre Zirpoli simões / Banca: Laudemir Carlos Varanda / Banca: Evaldo Toniolo Kubaski / Banca: Tania Regina Giraldi / Resumo: Este trabalho consistiu na síntese do titanato de cálcio e cobre (CCTO) a partir do método dos precursores poliméricos (método Pechini). Em seguida o material foi depositado na forma de filmes finos através de dois métodos (spin coating e elevada pressão) sobre substrato de silício/LaNiO3. O método de deposições de solução química pelo spin coating foi utilizado para deposição de 10 camadas, variando as temperaturas de calcinação em 500, 600 e 700 °C. Para o método de deposição por elevada pressão partiu dos pós de CCTO na fase cristalina, obtido pela calcinação da resina Pechini. Neste método o sistema pó de CCTO/substrato foi tratado a 340 °C por 32 horas usando 2 MPa de pressão em ar. Para identificar a menor temperatura de cristalização de CCTO, quando os filmes foram tratados por pressão durante um determinado tempo, utilizou-se das técnicas de caracterização de difração de raios X e de microscopia eletrônica de varredura. Os filmes obtidos e tratados por pressão apresentaram-se mais densos e homogêneos em relação aos filmes via spin coating. Quando investigadas as propriedades óticas de fotoluminescência observou-se a desordem dos clusters TiO5 após tratamento a pressão. Nas caracterizações elétricas e dielétricas ficou evidente a influência da pressão no deslocamento dos clusters TiO6, levando a troca de cargas com o cluster TiO5 . Nesta análise percebeu-se o surgimentos de polarons entre as vacâncias de oxigênio e os elétrons desemparelhados do Cu'Cu, o que resultou no aumento da permissividade dielétrica para o filme Si/LNO/CCTO / Abstract: This project consists in the calcium and copper titanate (CCTO) synthesis by chemistry method (Pechini's method). After that, physical and chemical deposition methods were used to obtain CCTO thin films on Si/LNO substrate. CCTO chemical route (Pechini's method) used spin coating to deposit 10 layers and, different thermal annealing at 500, 600 and 700 °C was evaluated. In the other hand, physical deposition used the CCTO powder, and the CCTO/substrate system had treatment at 340 °C for 32 hours and 2 MPa of pressure in air. Both films obtained by chemical and physical methods were characterized by XRD and FEG-SEM. Pressure treatment decreases the CCTO chemical film crystallization temperature to 500 °C, showing more dense and homogeneous films too. Photoluminescence analysis reveals a higher emission signal at intense green light to pressure films, leading to disorder the TiO5 cluster. Electric measurement confirms the TiO6 clusters displacement from pressure treatment, leading the charge transfers to TiO5 clusters, favoring the polaron origins between the oxygen vacancies and unpaired electrons from the Cu'Cu, increasing the dielectric constant to the Si/LNO/CCTO thin films / Doutor

Ce travail de thèse, essentiellement expérimental, porte sur l'étude par photoluminescence résolue spatialement, temporellement et en polarisation des propriétés de spin des boîtes quantiques uniques de GaAs/Al GaAs formées par épitaxie par gouttelettes. Les travaux présentés sont organisés autour de trois parties.Une première partie dédiée à l'étude expérimentale de la corrélation temporelle des photons émis par les boîtes quantiques incorporées dans une membrane bidimensionnelle de cristaux photoniques. Une dépendance en puissance de la probabilité de coïncidence lors de la corrélation croisée entre les transitions excitonique et biexcitonique de la même boîte est observée et modélisée en fonction du taux d'occupation de la boîte.Une deuxième partie porte sur les règles de sélection optique dans ces structures, pointde départ pour des expériences de pompage optique. L'observation de l'orientation de la polarisation des photons émis par les différentes transitions de la boîte quantique nous permet de mettre en évidence un couplage entre les états de trous lourds et de trous légers.Ce couplage est modélisé en fonction de la forme et de l'orientation de la boîte quantique par rapport aux axes cristallographiques.La dernière partie porte sur des expériences de polarisation du spin des noyaux de la boîte quantique par transfert de la polarisation du spin de l'électron. Ce transfert de polarisation, dû à l'interaction hyperfine entre électron et noyaux, dépend de différents paramètres temporels que nous pouvons ajuster avec notre modèle. Nous présentons également une mesure directe du temps de construction de cette polarisation nucléaire / This thesis present experimental studies of spin properties in GaAs/AlGaAs quantumdots grown by droplet epitaxy by spatially and temporally resolved photoluminescence measurements. This studies are presented in three different parts. The first part is dedicated to the study of the temporal correlation of the photons emitted by a quantumdot embdedded in two-dimensional photonic crystal membrane. We observe the power dependanceof the coincidence probability by cross-correlation measurements between the biexcitonic and the excitonic transitions into a single quantum dot. Our findings are qualitatively understood with a statistic model. The second part focuses on optical selection rules in these structures, starting point for spin injection experiments. We evidence the mixing between heavy holes and light holes states by analysing the polarisation direction of the luminescence from a single quantum dot. We explain the states mixing by a model that takes into account the shape and the tilting of the quantum dot with respect to the crystallographic axes. The last part presents optical pumping experiments. We inject spinpolarised electrons and observe the creation of a dynamical nuclear polarisation. This polarisation transfert, due to hyperfine interaction, depends on caracteristic times that we can extract thanks to our model. We also present a direct measurement of the creation time of the nuclear spins polarisation

No description available.

Les systèmes composés de nanocristaux de silicium (NCs-Si) et d'argent (NCs-Ag) sont très intéressants pour leur application aux dispositifs photovoltaïques de troisième génération, notamment dans les cellules solaires intégrant des couches de conversion de lumière. En effet, les propriétés plasmoniques des NCs-Ag permettent d'augmenter fortement, jusqu'à un facteur 10, l'intensité de photoluminescence des NCs-Si et par conséquent de résoudre le problème du faible rendement de PL qui en limite l'utilisation dans les cellules solaires à conversion photonique (conversion par déplacement photonique ou " down shifting "). L'optimisation du couplage dans ces systèmes dépend de plusieurs facteurs tels que la distance réciproque entre les deux types de particules, la taille, la forme et la distribution spatiale des NCs-Ag. Pour cette raison le contrôle de leur nanofabrication est fondamental. Ce travail de thèse a contribué à mettre au point une méthode originale basée sur la synthèse ionique à très basse énergie (ULE-IBS, Ultra Low Energy - Ion Beam Synthesis) afin d'obtenir la fabrication contrôlée dans la même matrice, de NCs-Si et de NCs-Ag. Pour cela, nous avons profité de l'expérience acquise dans le passé dans la fabrication par ULE-IBS de réseaux 2D de NCs-Si et plus récemment de NCs-Ag, avec des distances et des tailles parfaitement contrôlées, et nous avons effectué de simulations en utilisant le code SRIM afin de pouvoir estimer la localisation et la densité des défauts enduits par l'implantation et le code TRIDYN pour évaluer les profils des implantés lors des doubles implantations. Les NCs-Si sont toujours synthétisés avant les NCs-Ag à cause des différents bilans thermiques nécessaires à leur nucléation. Les propriétés structurales et optiques des systèmes obtenus ont été étudiées par des méthodes de microscopie électronique en transmission (HREM, EFTEM) et par spectroscopie de photoluminescence (PL), en fonction des conditions d'élaboration. Les résultats expérimentaux ont montré qu'il est possible de synthétiser dans la même matrice de réseaux de NCs-Si et de NCs-Ag et d'en contrôler les propriétés, mais que plusieurs phénomènes physiques sont mis en jeu lors de ce type de synthèse et doivent être pris en compte afin de maitriser les caractéristiques structurales et optiques de ces systèmes. Nous avons pu mettre en évidence l'effet du mixage ionique et du dommage lorsque les ions d'Ag sont implantés dans la matrice qui contient les NCs-Si : la population des NCs-Si est modifiée et celle des NCs-Ag est à son tour dépendante de la présence des NCs-Si, de leurs caractéristiques et de leurs modifications dues au mixage ionique. Des configurations et des propriétés optiques très différentes peuvent être obtenues en fonction des paramètres d'implantation (dose et énergie d'implantation de Si et d'Ag). Nous avons démontré que l'intégrité de la matrice joue un rôle clé sur la synthèse des bicouches via son influence sur les mécanismes de diffusion des espèces implantés et de nucléation des nanocristaux. Un recuit oxydant après la synthèse des NCs-Si permet d'une part de guérir la matrice des défauts induits par l'implantation et de maitriser la distribution en taille des NCs-Si et d'autre part d'obtenir un gonflement de l'oxyde qui nous permet de contrôler les distances entre les NCs-Si et les NCs-Ag ainsi que les phénomènes de mixage ionique. Le contrôle de la synthèse par ULE-IBS des bicouches de nanocristaux de Si et d'Ag peut donc être obtenu en choisissant les conditions d'implantation appropriées pour les deux espèces et en optimisant le recuit oxydant intermédiaire. / Systems composed of silicon and silver nanocrystals (Si-NCs and Ag-NCs respectively) are very interesting for their applications in third generation photovoltaic devices, especially in solar cells incorporating light conversion layers. Indeed, the plasmonic properties of Ag-NCs can increase strongly the photoluminescence intensity of Si-NCs, up to a factor of 10 and therefore solve the problem of low yield PL which limits their use in solar cells photonic conversion ("down-shifting"). The optimization of the coupling in these systems depends on several factors such as the distance between the two types of particles, the size of Ag-NCs, the shape and spatial distribution. For this reason the control of their nanofabrication is fundamental. We have developed an original method based on dual Ultra Low Energy Ion Beam Synthesis (ULE- IBS) for the controlled synthesis of Si-NCs and Ag-NCs in the same matrix. For this reason, we have taken advantage of the experience acquired in the past in our group in the synthesis of 2D layer of Si-NCs by ULE-IBS and more recently Ag-NCs with perfectly controlled distances and sizes, and we have performed simulations using the code SRIM in order to estimate the location and density of defects induced by implantation and TRIDYN code to evaluate the ion implanted profiles in double implantations. First, Si-NCs are synthesized by Si ion implantation followed by high temperature thermal annealing. Then, Ag ion implantation is performed. The structural and optical properties of the resulting systems were studied by transmission electron microscopy (HREM, EFTEM) and photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL). Experimental results showed that it is possible to synthesize two layers of Si-NCs and Ag-NCs in the same matrix and to control their properties, but several physical phenomena are involved in this type of synthesis and must be taken into account in order to control the structural and optical characteristics of these systems. We have demonstrated the effect of ion mixing and the damage of the matrix when the Ag ions are implanted in the same matrix containing Si-NCs. Therefore, the population of Si- NCs is modified and that of Ag-NCs also due to ion mixing. Different configurations and optical properties can be obtained depending on implantation parameters (dose and energy of Si and Ag ions). We have also demonstrated the role of the integrity of the matrix on the synthesis of two layers of nanocrystals and its influence on the diffusion and nucleation of the implanted species. In this work, we have investigated the role of an oxidant thermal annealing after Si ion implantation. This annealing allows a passivation of the Si-NCs and recovering the integrity of the oxide. This step allows to control the characteristics of Si-NCs (size and position) and obtain a swelling of the oxide which allows to control the distances between NCs-Si and Ag-NCs and prevent ion mixing. The control of the synthesis of bilayers of Si and Ag nanocrystals by ULE-IBS can be achieved by selecting the appropriate conditions of implantation for both species and optimizing the intermediate oxidant annealing.

The design methodology and realization of nanocomposite films aiming for mechanical (superhardness, toughness) and functional (optical, microelectronic) properties were discussed in this paper. Superhard TiCrCN and nc-TiN/a-SiNx films and super-tough nc-TiC/a-C(Al) films were prepared through co-sputtering method by optimal design of microstructure. The nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) passivated with a matrix of thermally grown silicon dioxide were prepared using implantation of Si into SiO₂ film, and showed improved photoluminescence and optical properties. Also discussed is the nano-composite design of thin film resistor with optimized temperature coefficient of resistivity. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 120 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 117-120).