No description available.

Numerical simulations have been performed to study the single-charge-induced ON current fluctuations (random telegraphic noise) in conventional (MOSFET) and non-conventional (silicon nanowire) nanoscale field-effect transistors. A semi-classical three-dimensional particle-based Monte Carlo device simulator (MCDS 3-D) has been integrated and used in this work. Quantum mechanical space-quantization effects have been accounted for via a parameter-free effective potential scheme that has been proved quite successful in describing charge set back from the interface and quantization of the energy (bandgap widening) within the channel region of the device. The effective potential is based on a perturbation theory around thermodynamic equilibrium and leads to a quantum field formalism in which the size of the electron depends upon its energy. To treat full Coulomb (electron-ion and electron-electron) interactions properly, the simulator implements two different real-space molecular dynamics (MD) schemes: the particle-particle-particle-mesh (P3M) method and the corrected Coulomb approach. For better accuracy, particularly in case of nanowire FETs, bandstructure parameters (bandgap, effective masses, and density of states) have been computed via a 20-band nearest-neighbor sp3d5s* tight-binding scheme. Also, since the presence of single impurities in the channel region represents a rare event in the carrier transport process, necessary event-biasing algorithms have been implemented in the simulator that, while enhancing the statistics, results in a faster convergence in the chan-nel current. The study confirms that, due to the presence of single channel charges, both the electrostatics (carrier density) and dynamics (mobility) are modified and, therefore, simultaneously play important roles in determining the magnitude of the current fluctuations. The relative impact (percentage change in the ON current) depends on an intricate interplay of device size, geometry, crystal direction, gate bias, temperature, and energetics and spatial location of the trap.

No description available.

Diese Dissertation beschäftigt sich mit theoretischen Untersuchung der elektronischen und magnetischen Eigenschaften von 4f-Systemen mit Filmgeometrie. Die vorgestellte Theorie basiert auf dem s-f-Modell, welches durch einen intra-atomaren Austausch zwischen einem System lokaler magnetischer Momente und den Leitungselektronen charakterisiert ist. Das Modell wird für den Fall des leeren Leitungsbandes untersucht. Der untersuchte Spezialfall ist anwendbar auf die Klasse der ferromagnetischen Halbleiter mit den Europiumchalkogeniden EuO und EuS als Prototypen solcher Substanzen. Für den Grenzfall ferromagnetischer Sättigung des Systems lokaler magnetischer Momente existiert eine exakte Lösung für das Problem. Für endliche Temperaturen wird eine Methode vorgestellt, die auf einer momentenerhaltenden Entkopplungsprozedur für passend definierte Green-Funktionen basiert. Die Theorie für endliche Temperaturen leitet sich dabei übergangslos aus dem exakt lösbaren Grenzfall ab. Mit Hilfe der vorgestellten Theorie wird das temperaturabhängige Quasiteilchenspektrum eines ferromagnetischen Modellfilmes berechnet. Die Rechnungen zeigen ein deutliches korrelationsinduziertes Aufspalten der Spektren, das in der Existenz eines neuen Quasiteilchens, des magnetischen Polarons, resultiert. Der zweite Teil der Dissertation beschäftigt sich mit der Berechnung der elektronischen und magnetischen Eigenschaften eines realen ferromagnetischen Halbleiterfilms. Um den vielfachen Leitungsbändern eines realen Systems Rechnung tragen zu können, wird das ursprüngliche s-f-Modell zu einem Mehrbandmodell erweitert. Das so erweiterte s-f-Modell wird dazu benutzt, die temperaturabhängige Bandstruktur von Volumen-EuO und von EuO(100)-Filmen zu berechnen. Die T=0-Bandstrukturen, die als Input für die Modellrechnungen dienen, werden hierbei mittels einer TB-LMTO-ASA-Bandstrukturrechnung berechnet. Die spezielle Struktur der Lösung des s-f-Modells für den exakt lösbaren Grenzfall von T=0 verhindert dabei das Auftreten von Doppelzählungen relevanter Wechselwirkungen bei der Kombination von ab-initio-Rechnungen und s-f-Modellrechnungen. Die erhaltenen temperaturabhängigen Bandstrukturen geben wertvolle Einblicke in das Wechselspiel zwischen elektronischen und magnetischen Eigenschaften in EuO-Systemen und gestatten es, verifizierbare Vorhersagen für künftige Experimente zu machen. Insbesondere wird die Existenz eines EuO(100)-Oberflächenzustandes vorhergesagt, der das Auftreten eines Oberflächen-Metall-Isolator-Übergangs induzieren kann. / This dissertation is concerned with the theoretical investigation of the electronic and magnetic properties of 4f systems with film geometry. The presented theory is based on the s-f model which features an intra-atomic exchange between a system of localized magnetic moments and the conduction electrons. The model is investigated for the special case of zero band occupation of the conduction bands which is applicable to the situation in ferromagnetic semiconductors such as the europium chalcogenides EuO and EuS. For the special case of ferromagnetic saturation of the local-moment system the problem is exactly solvable. For finite temperatures, the presented approach is based on a moment-conserving decoupling approximation for suitably defined Green functions and evolves continuously from the exact limiting case. The theory is used to calculate the temperature-dependent quasiparticle spectrum of a ferromagnetic model film. Within these calculations, one finds a marked correlation-induced splitting of the spectra resulting in the existence of a new quasiparticle, the magnetic polaron. The second part of the thesis is devoted to the calculation of the electronic and magnetic properties of a real ferromagnetic semiconductor film. The original s-f model is extended to a multi-band s-f model to account for the multiple conduction bands in a real system. Based on the resulting model, the temperature-dependent band structures of bulk EuO and EuO(100) films are calculated. Here, the T=0 band structures of the systems, which have to be taken as input for the model calculations, are calculated using the TB-LMTO-ASA band-structure technique. Due to the special form of the solution of the s-f model for the exactly solvable limiting case of T=0 the employed approach for combining the first-principles calculations with the model calculations prevents the problem of double counting of relevant interactions. The calculated temperature-dependent band structures yield a valuable insight into the temperature-dependent interplay between the magnetic and electronic properties in the EuO systems and allow to make verifiable predictions for future experiments. In particular, the existence of a EuO(100) surface state has been predicted and been shown to possibly induce a surface insulator-metal transition.

The emperical pseudopotential method in the large basis approach was used to calculate the electronic bandstructures of bulk semiconductor materials and layered semiconductor heterostructures. The crucial continuous atomic form factor potentials needed to carry out such calculations were determined by using Levenberg-Marquardt optimization in order to obtain optimal cubic spline interpolations of the potentials. The optimized potentials were not constrained by any particular functional form (such as a linear combination of Gaussians) and had better convergence properties for the optimization. It was demonstrated that the results obtained in this work could potentially lead to better agreement between calculated and empirically determined band gaps via optimization / Physics / M. Sc. (Physics)

Das gitterfehlangepaßte Kristallwachstum führt unter bestimmten Bedingungen zu einem 3-D Wachstumsmodus, der oft Stranski-Krastanow-Wachstum genannt wird. Resultierende Strukturgrößen liegen in der Größenordnung 10 nm und die Halbleiterstrukturen besitzen daher Quanteneigenschaften. Sie stehen im Fokus grundlagenwissenschaftlichen Interesses, da künstliche Atome und Dimensionalitätseffekte an ihnen untersucht werden können. Auch von der Anwendungsseite wächst das Interesse, da niederdimensionale Strukturen hoher Kristallqualität und mit hoher gestalterischer Freiheit geschaffen werden können. In dieser Arbeit wurden Mischhalbleiter-Heterostrukturen der Dimensionalität d= 0,1 und 2 mittels Gasphasen-MBE hergestellt. Ziel war eine Korrelation der strukturellen mit den elektronischen und optischen Eigenschaften. Selbstformierende Quantendrähte und Quantenpunkte in leitfähigen Kanälen wurden in ihrem Einfluß auf den lateralen Transport untersucht. Weiterhin wird dargestellt, wie zusätzliche, durch Quantenpunkte induzierte Oberflächenzustände eine deutliche Verschiebung der Energie des Oberflächen-Ferminiveau-Pinning einer (100)-GaAs-Oberfläche verursachen. Der senkrechte Elektronentransport durch Quantenpunkte dient der Untersuchung von Dot-induzierten, tiefen elektronischen Zuständen und der Erklärung eines eindimensionalen Modells elektronischer Kopplung zwischen denselben. Zusätzlich führen uns die Ergebnisse optischer Messungen zu einem besseren Verständnis des Vorgangs der Dotformierung und der elektronischen Kopplung zwischen zufällig verteilten Quantenpunkten. / The lattice-mismatched epitaxial growth is known to induce a three-dimensional growth mode often referred to as Stranski-Krastanov growth. The resulting structures have typical sizes of 10 nm and possess quantum properties, which are of fundamental physical interest, since artificial atoms and dimensionality effects can be studied. There is a growing interest from an applicational point of view also, since low dimensional structures of a high crystal quality and of a high degree of designerabillity can be created. In this work such structures of a dimensionality d=0,1 and 2 based on compound semiconductors have been designed and prepared by molecular beam epitaxy to perform comparative studies with respect to their electronic, structural and optical properties. Self assembled quantum wires and dots in conductive channels have been examined according to their influence on lateral electrical transport. It is demonstrated how additional surface states from quantum dots cause a distinct shift in the Surface Fermi-level of a GaAs (100) surface. Vertical transport through dots is used to support a model of one-dimensional coupling between deep states induced by the dots. Additionally, optical investigations let us attain a better understanding of the process of dot formation and the electronic coupling between the randomly distributed dots.

Photonic crystals (PhCs) are periodic dielectric structures that exhibit a photonic bandgap, i.e., a range of wavelength for which light propagation is forbidden. The special band structure related dispersion properties offer a realm of novel functionalities and interesting physical phenomena. PhCs have been manufactured using semiconductors and other material technologies. However, InP-based materials are the main choice for active devices at optical communication wavelengths. This thesis focuses on two-dimensional PhCs in the InP/GaInAsP/InP material system and addresses their fabrication technology and their physical properties covering both material issues and light propagation aspects. Ar/Cl2 chemically assisted ion beam etching was used to etch the photonic crystals. The etching characteristics including feature size dependent etching phenomena were experimentally determined and the underlying etching mechanisms are explained. For the etched PhC holes, aspect ratios around 20 were achieved, with a maximum etch depth of 5 microns for a hole diameter of 300 nm. Optical losses in photonic crystal devices were addressed both in terms of vertical confinement and hole shape and depth. The work also demonstrated that dry etching has a major impact on the properties of the photonic crystal material. The surface Fermi level at the etched hole sidewalls was found to be pinned at 0.12 eV below the conduction band minimum. This is shown to have important consequences on carrier transport. It is also found that, for an InGaAsP quantum well, the surface recombination velocity increases (non-linearly) by more than one order of magnitude as the etch duration is increased, providing evidence for accumulation of sidewall damage. A model based on sputtering theory is developed to qualitatively explain the development of damage. The physics of dispersive phenomena in PhC structures is investigated experimentally and theoretically. Negative refraction was experimentally demonstrated at optical wavelengths, and applied for light focusing. Fourier optics was used to experimentally explore the issue of coupling to Bloch modes inside the PhC slab and to experimentally determine the curvature of the band structure. Finally, dispersive phenomena were used in coupled-cavity waveguides to achieve a slow light regime with a group index of more than 180 and a group velocity dispersion up to 10^7 times that of a conventional fiber. / QC 20100712

The physics of cuprates is strongly influenced by the dimension of the cooper-oxygen network in the considered crystals. Due to the rich manifoldness of different network geometries realized by nature, cuprates are ideal model systems for experimental and theoretical studies of low-dimensional, strongly correlated systems. The dimensionality of the considered model compounds varies between zero and three with a focus on one- and two-dimensional compounds. Starting from LDA band structure calculations, the relevant orbitals for the low-energy physics have been characterized together with a discussion of the chemical bonding in the investigated compounds. By means of a systematic approach for various compounds, the influence of particular structural components on the electronic structure could be concluded. For the undoped cuprate compounds, paramagnetic LDA band structure calculations yield a metallic groundstate instead of the experimentally observed insulating behavoir. The strong correlations were taken into account using Hubbard- or Heisenberg-like models for the investigation of the magnetic couplings in cuprates. The necessary parameters were obtained from tight-binding parameterizations of LDA band structures. Finallly, several ARPES as well as XAS measurements were interpreted. The present work shows, that the combination of experiment, LDA, and model calculations is a powerful tool for the investigation of the electronic structure of strongly correlated systems.

The emperical pseudopotential method in the large basis approach was used to calculate the electronic bandstructures of bulk semiconductor materials and layered semiconductor heterostructures. The crucial continuous atomic form factor potentials needed to carry out such calculations were determined by using Levenberg-Marquardt optimization in order to obtain optimal cubic spline interpolations of the potentials. The optimized potentials were not constrained by any particular functional form (such as a linear combination of Gaussians) and had better convergence properties for the optimization. It was demonstrated that the results obtained in this work could potentially lead to better agreement between calculated and empirically determined band gaps via optimization / Physics / M. Sc. (Physics)

The physics of cuprates is strongly influenced by the dimension of the cooper-oxygen network in the considered crystals. Due to the rich manifoldness of different network geometries realized by nature, cuprates are ideal model systems for experimental and theoretical studies of low-dimensional, strongly correlated systems. The dimensionality of the considered model compounds varies between zero and three with a focus on one- and two-dimensional compounds. Starting from LDA band structure calculations, the relevant orbitals for the low-energy physics have been characterized together with a discussion of the chemical bonding in the investigated compounds. By means of a systematic approach for various compounds, the influence of particular structural components on the electronic structure could be concluded. For the undoped cuprate compounds, paramagnetic LDA band structure calculations yield a metallic groundstate instead of the experimentally observed insulating behavoir. The strong correlations were taken into account using Hubbard- or Heisenberg-like models for the investigation of the magnetic couplings in cuprates. The necessary parameters were obtained from tight-binding parameterizations of LDA band structures. Finallly, several ARPES as well as XAS measurements were interpreted. The present work shows, that the combination of experiment, LDA, and model calculations is a powerful tool for the investigation of the electronic structure of strongly correlated systems.