In this work , impurity free vacancy diffusion (IFVD) quantum well intermixing(QWI) technology by high thermal-expansion-induced stress is used to perform bandgap engineering. In this paper, 1530nm InGaAsP multiple QWs sandwiched by p-InP (2£gm thickeneess, top) and n-InP (bottom) material is used as testing material structure also laser fabrication material, where contact materials (InGaAs and InP) on p-InP are used for comparison. By the difference between thermal expansion coefficients of SiO2 on the different material (InGaAs, InP), large different behaviors of QWI are observed, while low different dependence on defects created by ion-implantation is found. Above 70nm photo luminance (PL) wavelength shift of InGaAsP MQW below 2£gm thick InP is realized in this method. Further more, CW in-plane laser structures are also successfully fabricated and demonstrated by such QWI, giving the same shift as PL. It shows that good qualify of material can be obtained in such QWI method. Using local deposition of SiO2 causes different bandgap materials, re-growth free processing for monolithic integration can be expected, offering a powerful scheme of QWI for bandgap engineering.

In this work, a quantum well intermixing(QWI) technology, called impurity free vacancy diffusion(IFVD), is used to do the bandgap engineering in an optoelectronic monolithic integration. The monolithic integration of SOAs and EAMs is taken as an example. By IFVD, the transition energy levels of EAM quantum wells can be shifted to shorter wavelength region, while SOA quantum wells are kept the same. Therefore, the overall SOA-integrated EAM efficiency can be improved. We use dielectric film¡XSiO2 and Si3N4 to control the impurity free vacancy diffusion, both of these two dielectric layer will induce stress on the wafer, but they will come to the totally different result base on the difference atom chemistry with the substrate. Using Ga atom diffusion into SiO2 to relax stress, the IFVD will be operated to enhance quantum well intermixing, leading to energy bang transition change. On the other hand, with Si3N4 film, no significant intermixing is observed, implying atom chemistry dominates the whole process. Also, a super critical fluid technique by H2O2 is also employed to further improving SiO2 quality, a as large as 180nm blue shift is obtained, further improving such mechanism. Through difference properties between SiO2 and Si3N4 dielectric layers, different bandgap transitions in one single chip can be controlled in an area of 30£gm¡Ñ50£gm, leading to a planar bandgap engineering. Use these techniques, an EAM-SOA integration is designed and fabricated, obtaining an wavelength offset of 40nm with good quality of material structure. In the future, we can use this technique on large scale chip, tuning the bandgap to make photonic integration circuit without re-growth.

Quantum Well Infrared Photodetectors (QWIPs) are strong competitors to other detector technologies for future third generation thermal imagers. QWIPs have inherent advantages of mature III-V material system and well settled fabrication technology, as well as narrow band photo-response which is an important property facilitating the development of dual-band imagers with low crosstalk. This thesis focuses on the development of long/mid wavelength dual band QWIP focal plane arrays (FPAs) based on the AlGaAs/GaAs material system. Apart from traditional single band QWIPs, the dual-band operation is achieved by proper design of a bias tunable quantum well structure which has two responsivity peaks at 4.8 and 8.4 um for midwave infrared (MWIR) and longwave infrared (LWIR) atmospheric windows, respectively. The fabricated large format (640x512) FPA has MWIR and LWIR cut-off wavelengths of 5.1 and 8.9 um, and it provides noise equivalent temperature differences (NETDs) of ~ 20 and 32 mK (f/1.5 at 65 K) in these bands, respectively. The employed bias tuning approach for the dual-band operation requires the same fabrication steps established for single band QWIP FPAs, which is an important advantage of the selected method resulting in high-yield, high-uniformity and low-cost. Results are encouraging for fabrication of low cost, large format, and high performance dual band FPAs, making QWIP a stronger candidate in the competition for third generation thermal imagers

We have studied the electronic properties of AlxGa1-xN/GaN heterostructures by using Shubnikov¡Vde Haas(SdH) measurement. Two SdH oscillations were detected on the samples of x=0.35 and 0.31, due to the population of the first two subbands with the energy separations of 128 and 109 meV, respectively. For the sample of x=0.25, two SdH oscillations beat each other, probably due to a finite zero-field spin splitting. The spin-splitting energy is equal to 9.0 meV. The samples also showed a persistent photoconductivity effect after illuminating by blue light-emitting diode. For the part of experiment , we installed a "Regulator" on low temperature and high magnetic field system, in order to control the temperature of sample from 0.3K to 10K accurately. For the convenience of SdH measurements at different tempertures.

This thesis deals with infrared studies of impurity states, ultrafast carrier dynamics as well as coherent intersubband polarizations in semiconductor quantum structures such as quantum wells and superlattices, based on the GaAs/AlGaAs material system. In the first part it is shown that the 2pz confined impurity state of a semiconductor quantum well develops into an excited impurity band in the case of a superlattice. This is studied by following theoretically the transition from a single to a multiple quantum well or superlattice by exactly diagonalizing the three-dimensional Hamiltonian for a quantum well system with random impurities. Intersubband absorption experiments, which can be nearly perfectly reproduced by the theory, corroborate this interpretation, showing that at low temperatures in the low doping density regime all optical transitions originate from impurity transitions. These results also require reinterpretation of previous experimental data. The relaxation dynamics of interminiband transitions in doped GaAs/AlGaAs superlattices in the mid-IR are studied. This involves single-color pump-probe measurements to explore the dynamics at different wavelengths, which is performed with the Rossendorf freeelectron laser (FEL), providing picosecond pulses in a range from 3-200 µm and are used for the first time within this thesis. In these experiments, a fast bleaching of the interminiband transition is observed followed by thermalization and subsequent relaxation, whose time constants are determined to be 1-2 picoseconds. This is followed by an additional component due to carrier cooling in the lower miniband. In the second part, two-color pump-probe measurements are performed, involving the FEL as the pump source and a table-top broad-band tunable THz source for probing the transmission changes. These measurements allow a separate specification of the cooling times after a strong excitation, exhibiting time constants from 230 ps to 3 ps for different excitation densities and miniband widths. In addition, the dynamics of excited electrons within the minibands is explored and their contribution quantitatively extracted from the measurements. Intersubband absorption experiments of photoexcited carriers in single quantum well structures, measured directly in the time-domain, i.e. probing coherently the polarization between the first and the second subband, are presented. From the data we can directly extract the density and temperature dependence of the intersubband dephasing time between the two lowest subbands, ranging from 50 up to 400 fs. This all optical approach gives us the ability to tune the carrier concentration over an extremely wide range which is not accessible in a doped quantum well sample. By varying the carrier density, many-body effects such as the depolarization and their influence on the spectral position as well as on the lineshape on the intersubband dephasing are studied. Also the difference of excitonic and free-carrier type excitation is discussed, and indication of an excitonic intersubband transition is found.

In this thesis we investigate experimentally certain aspects of the interaction of terahertz (THz) radiation with intersubband transitions and excitonic transitions in semiconductor quantum wells. The first part deals with a more fundamental view on an intersubband transition in a symmetric, undoped GaAs/AlGaAs multiple quantum well. After optical excitation of carriers, the considered electronic conduction intersubband transition is probed in the low-intensity linear regime using broadband THz pulses. These pulses are detected via field-resolved electro-optic sampling. While the sample’s terahertz absorption shows the expected single peak of the resonant intersubband transition, the differential transmission spectra, i.e. the photoexcitation-induced changes in transmission, display strong Fano signatures. On the basis of a microscopic theory, we show that they originate from a phase sensitive superposition of THz current and ponderomotive current. The latter one results from the wiggling motion of carriers induced by the accelerating THz field. Our findings demonstrate for the first time that the ponderomotive contribution has to be taken into account also at the lowest THz intensities. The following issues consider the interaction with THz pulses of higher intensity from the free-electron laser (FEL) of the Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf. In one experiment we investigate efficient second order sideband generation in the GaAs/AlGaAs multiple quantum well mentioned above. To this end a near-infrared laser tuned to excitonic interband transitions is mixed inside the sample with the inplane polarized FEL beam to create the sum- and difference-frequencies between them. We compare the sideband efficiencies for the THz beam tuned to the interexcitonic heavy-hole light-hole transition and to the intraexcitonic heavy-hole 1s-2p transition. In the latter case we achieve a ten times higher n=+2 low-temperature efficiency around 0.1%. This value is comparable to previous studies in the literature, but our approach involves different transitions in a much simpler geometry. At room temperature the efficiency drops only by a factor of 7 for low THz powers. The last part of this thesis addresses another fundamental quantum-mechanical phenomenon: the splitting of an absorption line in a strong THz field. In the same abovementioned quantum well sample the FEL wavelength is tuned near the intraexcitonic 1s-2p heavy-hole transition. The THz radiation induces a power-dependent splitting of the heavy-hole 1s exciton absorption line which manifests itself in the transmitted spectrum of a broadband near-infrared probe beam. The FEL-wavelength-dependent strength of this so-called Autler-Townes splitting is discussed on the basis of a simple two-level model.

Ce travail traite de la croissance épitaxiale et de la caractérisation d’hétérostructures àbase de multi-puits quantiques (MPQ) pour des applications dans le photovoltaïque. Leséchantillons ont été obtenus par la technique d’épitaxie en phase vapeur aux organométalliques(EPVOM) sur des substrats de saphir (0001). La caractérisation structurale etoptique est réalisée par diffraction de rayons X, microscopie électronique en transmission,spectroscopie de photoluminescence et de transmission. Pour étudier la présence de l’effetphotovoltaïque et pour estimer la performance électrique des échantillons, les MPQ ont étéintégrés dans la géométrie de cellules solaires en utilisant de la photolithographie, desattaques réactives ioniques assistées par plasma inductif et des métallisations pour contacterles parties dopées n et p.Nous avons étudié l’influence de différents designs des régions actives InGaN/GaN surles propriétés optiques et électriques des échantillons, c’est-à-dire le nombre de puitsquantiques InGaN, les épaisseurs des puits et des barrières et la composition en indium dansles puits. Deux mécanismes principaux doivent être pris en compte pour une optimisationefficace de composants photovoltaïques: l’absorption des photons et la collections desporteurs. Nous avons montré qu’une augmentation du nombre de MPQ, de leur épaisseur etde la composition d’In améliorait l’absorption, mais causait aussi des pertes dans l’efficacitéde collection du fait de l’augmentation de l’épaisseur de la couche active (champ électriqueplus faible), de la difficulté des porteurs pour s’échapper de puits plus profonds et derelaxation des contraintes (création de défauts structuraux). La décroissance de l’épaisseur desbarrières peut résoudre les deux premiers points, mais le problème de la relaxation de lacontrainte reste entier. Pour notre meilleur design, nous obtenons une efficacité de conversionde 2 % pour des couches 15×In0.18Ga0.82N/GaN qui ont une réponse spectrale qui s’étendjusqu’à 465 nm. / In this work we report on epitaxial growth and characterization of InGaN/GaN multiquantumwells (MQWs) heterostructures for application in photovoltaic devices. The sampleswere grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) on (0001) sapphire substrate.The structural and optical characterization is performed by X-ray diffraction, transmissionelectron microscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy and transmission measurements. Toinvestigate the presence of photovoltaic effect and estimate the electrical performance of thesamples, they were processed into solar cells by means of the photolithography, inductivelycoupled plasma reactive-ion etching and metallization to manage n and p contacts.We studied the influence of different InGaN/GaN active region designs on thestructural, optical and electrical properties of the samples, i.e. number of InGaN quantumwells, QW and quantum barrier thicknesses and indium composition in the wells. Two mainmechanisms have to be taken into account for an efficient optimization of photovoltaicdevices: photon absorption and carrier collection. We showed that an increase of the MQWsnumber, their thickness and the In-content allows absorption improvement, but causes lossesin the carrier collection efficiency due to: the increase of the active region thickness (lowerelectric field), the difficulty of the carrier to escape from deeper QWs and the strain relaxation(structural defect creation). The decrease of the barrier thickness can solve the first two issues,but the problem with strain relaxation remains. In the best design, we report the value of2.00% of conversion efficiency for 15×In0.18Ga0.82N/GaN samples with spectral responseextending to 465 nm.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Die vorliegende Arbeit befasst sich mit dem vertieften Verständnis der Rekombinationsdynamik von polaren ZnO/MgZnO-Quantengraben(QW)-Strukturen zur exakten Bestimmung des unabgeschirmten Grundzustandes und der Analyse der zugrundeliegenden Emissionsprozesse. Dafür werden ausgehend von Beobachtungen an ZnO-Dünnschichten die Eigenschaften von mittels PLD hergestellten QWs unter dem Einfluss des internen elektrischen Feldes mit Hilfe der zeitintegrierten (TI-) und zeitaufgelösten (TR-) Photolumineszenz(PL)-Spektroskopie untersucht. Die Differenz der spontanen und piezoelektrischen Polarisation zwischen ZnO und MgZnO führt zur Ausbildung eines internen elektrischen Feldes und damit zum Auftreten des quantum-confined Stark effect (QCSE). Es wird gezeigt, dass der QCSE durch eine Durchmischung der Grenzflächen stark vermindert wird. Für QWs mit schwachem QCSE ist die Übergangsenergie und Zerfallszeit des Grundzustandes experimentell gut bestimmbar. Bei starkem QCSE müssen jedoch bereits bei geringen Anregungsdichten (1E10 /cm²) Abschirmeffekte berücksichtigt werden. Dadurch ist es sehr schwierig, den unabgeschirmten Grundzustand mittels herkömmlicher experimenteller Methoden mit einem aussagekräftigen Signal-Rausch-Verhältnis zu bestimmen. Es wird gezeigt, dass für QWs mit einer Dicke > 4 nm die Übergangsenergie des unabgeschirmten Grundzustandes nicht durch TI-PL-Messungen bestimmt werden kann. TR-PL-Messungen zeigen energetisch tiefere Übergangsenergien, jedoch ebenfalls nicht den unabgeschirmten Grundzustand. Mit einem eingeführten Modell zur Beschreibung der zeitabhängigen Abschirmung des Grundzustandsniveaus wird die Zerfallszeit für QW-Dicken in einem Bereich von 1 - 10 nm bestimmt. Durch die selbstkonsistente Lösung von Schrödinger- und Poissongleichung werden die Übergangsenergie und Zerfallszeit der Exzitonen im QW in Abhängigkeit der Feldstärke und auch der Ladungsträgerdichte berechnet. Dadurch ist eine exaktere Bestimmung der Feldstärke möglich. Zusätzlich wird durch die vergleichende Untersuchung von QWs unterschiedlicher Dicke, Potentialhöhe und Wachstumsunterlage die spontane und piezoelektrische Polarisation der Materialien experimentell bestimmt. Mittels temperaturabhängiger Messungen wird der Ursprung der Lumineszenz für QW-Dicken > 2 nm der Rekombination freier Exzitonen im QW zugeschrieben. Für dünnere QWs ist der temperaturabhängige Verlauf des PL-Maximums durch Lokalisation der Exzitonen bestimmt.

The physics and technology of the heterojunction infrared photodetectors having different material systems have been studied extensively. Devices used in this study have been characterized by using mainly optical methods, and electrical measurements have been used as an auxiliary method. The theory of internal photoemission in semiconductor heterojunctions has been investigated and the existing model has been extended by incorporating the effects of the difference in the effective masses in the active region and the substrate, nonspherical-nonparabolic bands, and the energy loss per collisions. The barrier heights (correspondingly the cut-off wavelengths) of SiGe/Si samples have been found from their internal photoemission spectrums by using the complete model which has the wavelength and doping concentration dependent free carrier absorption parameters. A qualitative model describing the mechanisms of photocurrent generation in SiGe/Si HIP devices has been presented. It has been shown that the performance of our devices depends significantly on the applied bias and the operating temperature. Properties of internal photoemission in a PtSi/Si Schottky type infrared detector have also been studied. InGaAs/InP quantum well photodetectors that covers both near and mid-infrared spectral regions by means of interband and intersubband transitions have been studied. To understand the high responsivity values observed at high biases, the gain and avalanche multiplication processes have been investigated. Finally, the results of a detailed characterization study on a systematic set of InAs/GaAs self-assembled quantum dot infrared photodetectors have been presented. A simple physical picture has also been discussed to account for the main observed features.