Semi-insulating gallium arsenide (SI-GaAs) has gained great interest in recent years due to its wide application in optoelectronic devices and high-speed integrated circuits. An important feature of SI-GaAs is the high density of deep-level defect states, which control the electrical properties of the substrate by compensating the shallow defects. Over the years, deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) and its variations have been the most effective tools employed for the characterization of deep-level defects. However, most of these techniques require a contact probe and tend to be quite restrictive in their applications’ scope. In this thesis deep-level photo-thermal spectroscopy (DLPTS), an all-optical rate-window-based technique, is presented as a novel noncontact technique for the characterization of deep-level defects in SI-GaAs. The signal-generation mechanism for DLPTS is the super-bandgap excitation of carriers, and the sub-bandgap detection of the defect’s thermal-emission process. Combined with the rate-window detection utilizing lock-in amplifiers, DLPTS measurements are performed in three different modalities: temperature-scan, pulse-rate scan, and time-scan. This work demonstrates that each mode provides unique information about the defect configuration, and, in combination, the modes offer a powerful tool for the study of defect properties and optoelectronic processes in SI-GaAs. A hierarchical carrier-emission theory is proposed to explain the thermal broadening (nonexponentiality) in photo-thermal spectra. The model is studied comparatively with the Gaussian distribution of activation energies, and their similarities demonstrate an ergodic equivalence of random energy distribution and the constrained hierarchical emission process. In addition, a rate-window gated photo-carrier radiometry (PCR) technique is developed. The original diffusion-based PCR theory is modified to reflect the signal domination by trap emission and capture rates in the absence of diffusion. Defect luminescence is collected and analyzed using photo-thermal temperature spectra and resonant detection combined with frequency scans. The study results in the identification of five radiative defect states and the defect-photoluminescence quantum efficiency.

Semi-insulating gallium arsenide (SI-GaAs) has gained great interest in recent years due to its wide application in optoelectronic devices and high-speed integrated circuits. An important feature of SI-GaAs is the high density of deep-level defect states, which control the electrical properties of the substrate by compensating the shallow defects. Over the years, deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) and its variations have been the most effective tools employed for the characterization of deep-level defects. However, most of these techniques require a contact probe and tend to be quite restrictive in their applications’ scope. In this thesis deep-level photo-thermal spectroscopy (DLPTS), an all-optical rate-window-based technique, is presented as a novel noncontact technique for the characterization of deep-level defects in SI-GaAs. The signal-generation mechanism for DLPTS is the super-bandgap excitation of carriers, and the sub-bandgap detection of the defect’s thermal-emission process. Combined with the rate-window detection utilizing lock-in amplifiers, DLPTS measurements are performed in three different modalities: temperature-scan, pulse-rate scan, and time-scan. This work demonstrates that each mode provides unique information about the defect configuration, and, in combination, the modes offer a powerful tool for the study of defect properties and optoelectronic processes in SI-GaAs. A hierarchical carrier-emission theory is proposed to explain the thermal broadening (nonexponentiality) in photo-thermal spectra. The model is studied comparatively with the Gaussian distribution of activation energies, and their similarities demonstrate an ergodic equivalence of random energy distribution and the constrained hierarchical emission process. In addition, a rate-window gated photo-carrier radiometry (PCR) technique is developed. The original diffusion-based PCR theory is modified to reflect the signal domination by trap emission and capture rates in the absence of diffusion. Defect luminescence is collected and analyzed using photo-thermal temperature spectra and resonant detection combined with frequency scans. The study results in the identification of five radiative defect states and the defect-photoluminescence quantum efficiency.