Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 127-136).

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 227-233).

Thesis (M.Phil.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in electronic version.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2006. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-137). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Neste trabalho, estudamos o crescimento epitaxial por feixe molecular assim como as propriedades ópticas e estruturais de camadas de InGaAs depositadas sobre substratos de GaAs(001) com diferentes ângulos e direções de corte. Um ênfase foi dada à investigação da segregação dos átomos de Índio que modifica consideravelmente o perfil de potencial das heteroestruturas e influencia as características dos dispositivos contendo este tipo de camadas. Um novo método experimental baseado em medidas de difração de elétrons de alta energia (RHEED) possibilitou a determinação in situ e em tempo real do coeficiente de segregação dos átomos de Índio e, conseqüentemente, do perfil de composição das camadas de InGaAs. Medidas de raios X e de fotoluminescência em baixa temperatura foram realizadas em amostras de poços quânticos de InGaAs e confirmaram, a posteriori, os resultados obtidos pela técnica RHEED. Foi também demonstrado que o uso de substratos desorientados podia reduzir levemente o efeito de segregação e melhorar as propriedades ópticas das camadas em baixa temperatura. / In this work, we investigated the molecular-beam-epitaxy growth as well as the optical and structural properties of InGaAs layers deposited on top of GaAs (001) substrates with different miscut angles and directions. We emphasized the investigation of the segregation of In atoms that considerably modifies the potential profile of the heterostructures and influences the characteristics of the devices based on this type of layers. A new experimental method involving the diffraction of high-energy electrons (RHEED) allowed the in-situ and real-time determination of the segregation coefficient of the In atoms and, consequently, of the compositional profile of the InGaAs layers. X-rays and low-temperature photoluminescence measurements were carried out InGaAs quantum wells and confirmed, a posterior, the results obtained by the RHEED method. It was also demonstrated that the use of vicinal substrates slight reduces the segregation effect and improves the optical properties of the layers at low temperature.

No description available.

Group- III nitride based semiconductors have emerged as the leading material for short wavelength optoelectronic devices. The InGaN alloy system forms a continuous and direct bandgap semiconductor spanning ultraviolet (UV) to blue/green wavelengths. An ideal and highly efficient light-emitting device can be designed by enhancing the spontaneous emission rate. This thesis deals with the design and fabrication of a visible light-emitting device using GaN/InGaN single quantum well (SQW) system with enhanced spontaneous emission. To increase the emission efficiency, layers of different metals, usually noble metals like silver, gold and aluminum are deposited on GaN/InGaN SQWs using metal evaporator. Surface characterization of metal-coated GaN/InGaN SQW samples was carried out using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Photoluminescence is used as a tool for optical characterization to study the enhancement in the light emitting structures. This thesis also compares characteristics of different metals on GaN/InGaN SQW system thus allowing selection of the most appropriate material for a particular application. It was found out that photons from the light emitter couple more to the surface plasmons if the bandgap of former is close to the surface plasmon resonant energy of particular metal. Absorption of light due to gold reduces the effective mean path of light emitted from the light emitter and hence quenches the quantum well emission peak compared to the uncoated sample.

In this work, ordered all-binary short-period strained InAs/GaAs superlattice quantum wells were studied as an alternative to strained ternary alloy InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells. InGaAs quantum wells QWs have been of great interest in recent years due to the great potential applications of these materials in future generations of electronic and optoelectronic devices. The all binary structures are expected to have all the advantages of their ternary counterparts, plus several additional benefits related to growth, to the elimination of alloy disorder scattering and to the presence of a higher average indium content.

<p>Asymmetric multiple quantum wells (AMQWs) can provide broad and flat gain spectra. Broadly tunable diode lasers can be realized with AMQW active regions and without the need for antireflection coatings on cleaved facets.</p> <p> This thesis reports the application of AMQW broadly tunable lasers with uncoated facets for Fourier domain and synthesized optical coherence tomography (OCT). A depth resolution of 13 μm in air was obtained with a test bed OCT system that used diffractive optical elements, short external cavities, and AMQW InGaAsP/InP broadly tunable lasers as the light sources for the Fourier domain and the synthesized OCT measurements. The centre wavelengths of the broadly tunable sources were 1550 nm and the tunable ranges were ≤ 117 nm.</p> <p>The features of broad and flat gain spectra of AMQWs also make AMQWs ideal candidates for broad spectral width superluminescent diodes (SLDs). 1300 nm AMQW InGaAsP/InP SLDs were designed and fabricated for application to time domain OCT. For the design of the active region, it was found by simulation of gain and the comparison of two growths that the transition carrier density (TCD) has to be reasonably high to achieve high power SLDs. A transfer matrix method was used to solve for the modes of planar optical waveguides with arbitrary layers and the thicknesses of these layers were optimized with a Marquardt nonlinear fitting method. With the optimization of the optical waveguide and with AMQWs with high TCDs, the output power of SLDs could reach 2 mW with > 90 nm spectral width. It is shown by time domain OCT measurements that the depth resolution of the OCT measurements could reach 7.85 μmin air with double section SLDs.</p> <p>Two dimensional OCT images of a glass cover slip were built with the imageSC function in Matlab™. Image enhancement with blind/not-blind deconvolution was performed based on the measured point spread function (PSF) of the OCT setup. A Richardson-Lucy algorithm was used as the blind deconvolution method and a not-blind version of a Jansson-Van Cittert method was used.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)