Semiconductor superlattices and alloys based on III-V semiconductors have important applications in the design of optoelectronic devices in particular photodetectors. Understanding the electronic properties of such system is critical to be able to properly design and optimize the performance of such devices. Atomistic modelling is the most suitable approach to understand the microscopic properties of these systems. While density functional theory (DFT) is the approach of choice for many studies, it cannot be applied to systems comprised of a large number of atoms. The goal of this thesis is to explore the possibility of applying the empirical pseudopotential method associate with hybrid pseudopotential method to compute the electronic structure and optical properties of Ga_xAl_1-xAs alloy. The proposed work will address first the derivation of portable continuous screened atomic pseudopotentials for the constituent atoms. These will be validated using calculation on small systems. Subsequently, the atomic pseudopotential will be used to study Ga_xAl_1-xAs alloy with different microstructure.

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Twins are a pair of adjoining crystal grains related to each other by a special symmetry. They are frequently observed in bulk materials and nanomaterials. The formation of twins is an important topic in materials science and engineering because it affects material behaviors such as plastic deformation of metals, yield strength, and band gap energy in nanoscale semiconductors. Because of these unique phenomena and properties that the twinning can bring to the materials, it is of interest to investigate the formation of twins. Our primary objective in this dissertation is to study twinning in nanowires. Both gold and platinum <111> oriented nanowires were fabricated by similar solution-phase chemical synthesis methods. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy and electron diffraction patterns were carried out to analyze the structures of the nanowires. Nanodiffraction was used to demonstrate twinning is a general structural feature of the growth of gold nanowires growing in a <111> direction.  A model was proposed to explain the conditions under which twinning is energetically favored during nanowire growth. The model, which is based on a maximum rate hypothesis, considers the nanowire geometry and the relative surface and stacking fault energies and predicts twins should appear in gold nanowires but not in platinum nanowires, in agreement with experimental observations. During the structural characterization of gold nanowires, our interest is to resolve 3D structure of twinning. However, the structure of twinning in gold nanowires is very fine and the average spacing between twin boundaries is only 0.57nm (+/- 0.38 nm); therefore, regular 3D electron microscopy technique is unable to reconstruct these defected structures. Here we present a stereo vision technique to reconstruct 3D atomic non-periodic structures containing defects. The technique employs intrinsic atomic planes as epipolar planes to achieve the alignment accuracy needed to reconstruct a crystal with atomic resolution. We apply it to determine the 3D geometry and atomic arrangements of twinning in gold nanowire. In addition, an iterated cross-correlation algorithm was developed to analyze electron diffraction fully automatically to facilitate structural analysis of nanowires. A time-temperature-transformation diagram of platinum nanowires in chemical synthesis was determined to help optimize the fabrication process of the nanowires. / Ph. D.

Charge-carriers propagating in superlattices exhibit the related phenomena known as negative differential conductivity and Bloch oscillation. This behaviour may be utilised for the generation of tunable electromagnetic radiation. In this work, the dependence of the drift velocity and displacement of charge-carriers on external, applied electric fields is investigated. The theory is extended to incorporate a different miniband structure, with the aim of modelling a superlattice made from graphene. I predict that, for a chosen set of electric field parameters, a semiconductor superlattice will emit radiation in the terahertz range. I create an original mathematical framework within which to calculate the charge-carrier behaviour in a triangular miniband structure, while incorporating an arbitrary variable to account for the effects of corrugation or disorder, and predict the appearance of conductivity multistability. This may be of interest to further work done on the use of graphene for superlattice device construction.

<p>This thesis concerns the growth and magnetic properties of thin films and multilayers. The samples were grown by magnetron sputtering, and characterized structurally mainly by x-ray diffraction and reflectivity. The magnetic characterization of the multilayers was done by magneto-optical Kerr technique, SQUID magnetometry and, in two samples, by neutron reflectometry.</p><p>Arrays of small elements of polycrystalline permalloy (FeNi alloy with 19 wt% Fe) are of interest as a component in non-volatile magnetic random access memories (MRAM). Here the shape dependence of the domain structure in such elements was studied by magnetic force microscopy (MFM) and in thin ring magnets the 'onion' state could be seen for the first time. Also, by post-annealing in hydrogen atmosphere the number of domains decreased in each element due to enhanced relaxation and defect reduction.</p><p>Furthermore, permalloy-based anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) in read heads are nowadays replaced by material combinations that have a giant magnetoresistance (GMR) effect. In this work Fe/V(001) and Fe_0.82Ni_0.18/V(001) superlattices, i.e. single-crystal-like multilayers, were investigated. These systems showed much smaller GMR effect compared to the Fe/Cr system. However, by introducing Ni into the Fe layers the magnetic anisotropy and the interlayer exchange coupling (IEC) decreased, thereby increasing the sensitivity, which is a key property for a magnetic sensor. The interface region showed a reduced magnetic moment, and the influence of the structural quality was modelled and investigated theoretically in the Fe_0.82Ni_0.18/V case. Also, in the Fe(2-3 ML)/V(x ML) superlattices (ML=monolayers) the transition temperature from long-range magnetic order to paramagnetic order oscillated with the V layer thickness (x) as a result of the oscillatory behaviour of the IEC.</p><p>The introduction of hydrogen in the non-magnetic layers of, for example, Fe/V(001) superlattices is a way to tune the IEC strength. Here the tuning was used as a tool to study the magnetic order in a low-dimensional magnet. At the critical hydrogen concentration <H/V>=0.022 the Fe layers in an Fe(2 ML)/V(13 ML) superlattice became decoupled. Then the system behaved as a two-dimensional Ising magnet with a finite ordering temperature of about 60 K.</p>

This thesis concerns the growth and magnetic properties of thin films and multilayers. The samples were grown by magnetron sputtering, and characterized structurally mainly by x-ray diffraction and reflectivity. The magnetic characterization of the multilayers was done by magneto-optical Kerr technique, SQUID magnetometry and, in two samples, by neutron reflectometry. Arrays of small elements of polycrystalline permalloy (FeNi alloy with 19 wt% Fe) are of interest as a component in non-volatile magnetic random access memories (MRAM). Here the shape dependence of the domain structure in such elements was studied by magnetic force microscopy (MFM) and in thin ring magnets the 'onion' state could be seen for the first time. Also, by post-annealing in hydrogen atmosphere the number of domains decreased in each element due to enhanced relaxation and defect reduction. Furthermore, permalloy-based anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) in read heads are nowadays replaced by material combinations that have a giant magnetoresistance (GMR) effect. In this work Fe/V(001) and Fe0.82Ni0.18/V(001) superlattices, i.e. single-crystal-like multilayers, were investigated. These systems showed much smaller GMR effect compared to the Fe/Cr system. However, by introducing Ni into the Fe layers the magnetic anisotropy and the interlayer exchange coupling (IEC) decreased, thereby increasing the sensitivity, which is a key property for a magnetic sensor. The interface region showed a reduced magnetic moment, and the influence of the structural quality was modelled and investigated theoretically in the Fe0.82Ni0.18/V case. Also, in the Fe(2-3 ML)/V(x ML) superlattices (ML=monolayers) the transition temperature from long-range magnetic order to paramagnetic order oscillated with the V layer thickness (x) as a result of the oscillatory behaviour of the IEC. The introduction of hydrogen in the non-magnetic layers of, for example, Fe/V(001) superlattices is a way to tune the IEC strength. Here the tuning was used as a tool to study the magnetic order in a low-dimensional magnet. At the critical hydrogen concentration &lt;H/V&gt;=0.022 the Fe layers in an Fe(2 ML)/V(13 ML) superlattice became decoupled. Then the system behaved as a two-dimensional Ising magnet with a finite ordering temperature of about 60 K.

Colloidal nanocrystal assemblies offer an attractive opportunity for designer metamaterials. The ability to permute chemical composition, size, shape, and arrangement of nanocrystals leads to an astounding number of unique materials properties that find use in an extensive array of applications---ranging from solar cells to medicine. However, to take full advantage of these materials in useful applications, the nature of their assembly and their behavior under external stimuli must be well understood. Additionally, the assembly of colloidal nanocrystals into thin films provides a promising pathway to the solution-processing of inorganic materials that are prohibitively too expensive and/or difficult to deposit by conventional methods. Nanocrystal superlattices (NCSLs) of sterically stabilized nanocrystals were assembled by slow evaporation of colloidal dispersions on various substrates. Detailed analysis of the NCSL structures was carried out using transmission and scanning electron microscopy (TEM and SEM) and small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS). Body-centered cubic (bcc) NCSLs, in particular, were studied in detail and ligand packing frustration was proposed as a significant driving force for their assembly. The behavior of NCSLs was also studied by SAXS under mild heating and solvent vapor exposure revealing several remarkable order-order, order-disorder, and amorphous-crystalline structural transitions. Colloidal Cu(In [subscript 1-x] Ga [subscript x])Se₂ (CIGS) nanocrystals were synthesized by arrested precipitation and formulated into inks. These inks were spray deposited into thin films under ambient conditions to serve as the active light absorbing material in printed low-cost photovoltaic (PV) devices. These devices, which were fabricated without the need for high temperature processes, have achieved power conversion efficiencies above 3 % under AM1.5 illumination. While the efficiencies of these devices are still too low for commercial viability, this work does provide a proof of concept that reasonable efficient solar cells can be created with a low-cost printable process using nanocrystal inks. Since high temperatures are not used to form the light-absorbing layer, nanocrystal-based solar cells were built on flexible light weight plastic substrates. The main obstacle to achieving high power conversation efficiencies was found to be the ability to extract the photo induced charge carriers. Nanocrystal films suffer from poor transport that leads to high recombination rates in thicker films. To date, the best efficiencies have been achieved with thin light absorber layers that only absorb a fraction of the incident light. / text

abstract: Infrared photodetectors, used in applications for sensing and imaging, such as military target recognition, chemical/gas detection, and night vision enhancement, are predominantly comprised of an expensive II-VI material, HgCdTe. III-V type-II superlattices (SLs) have been studied as viable alternatives for HgCdTe due to the SL advantages over HgCdTe: greater control of the alloy composition, resulting in more uniform materials and cutoff wavelengths across the wafer; stronger bonds and structural stability; less expensive substrates, i.e., GaSb; mature III-V growth and processing technologies; lower band-to-band tunneling due to larger electron effective masses; and reduced Auger recombination enabling operation at higher temperatures and longer wavelengths. However, the dark current of InAs/Ga1-xInxSb SL detectors is higher than that of HgCdTe detectors and limited by Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) recombination rather than Auger recombination. This dissertation work focuses on InAs/InAs1-xSbx SLs, another promising alternative for infrared laser and detector applications due to possible lower SRH recombination and the absence of gallium, which simplifies the SL interfaces and growth processes. InAs/InAs1-xSbx SLs strain-balanced to GaSb substrates were designed for the mid- and long-wavelength infrared (MWIR and LWIR) spectral ranges and were grown using MOCVD and MBE by various groups. Detailed characterization using high-resolution x-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, photoluminescence (PL), and photoconductance revealed the excellent structural and optical properties of the MBE materials. Two key material parameters were studied in detail: the valence band offset (VBO) and minority carrier lifetime. The VBO between InAs and InAs1-xSbx strained on GaSb with x = 0.28 - 0.41 was best described by Qv = ÄEv/ÄEg = 1.75 ± 0.03. Time-resolved PL experiments on a LWIR SL revealed a lifetime of 412 ns at 77 K, one order of magnitude greater than that of InAs/Ga1-xInxSb LWIR SLs due to less SRH recombination. MWIR SLs also had 100's of ns lifetimes that were dominated by radiative recombination due to shorter periods and larger wave function overlaps. These results allow InAs/InAs1-xSbx SLs to be designed for LWIR photodetectors with minority carrier lifetimes approaching those of HgCdTe, lower dark currents, and higher operating temperatures. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Electrical Engineering 2012

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第18772号 / 理博第4030号 / 新制||理||1581(附属図書館) / 31723 / 京都大学大学院理学研究科物理学・宇宙物理学専攻 / (主査)教授 川上 則雄, 教授 田中 耕一郎, 教授 松田 祐司 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DGAM

Nondestructive testing (NDT) using ultrasound band 1-5 MHz, has been widely used for the early-stage detection of structural failure; however, it fails to detectf material degradation, fatigue, and microcracks. NDT with nonlinear ultrasound (NLU) can detect a microscopic discontinuity or imperfection that may be a source of the second harmonic in the reflected signal. In this research, we focus on creating a metamaterial band filter that filters out nonlinearities induced by the instrument itself. A 1D elastic superlattice (SL) acoustic filter is designed with a bandgap in its frequency spectrum that covers the frequency range of second harmonic. The SL is made of periodically alternating Cu and Sn-Pb solder layers. We conducted analytical and numerical calculations to obtain the appropriate thickness of each layer. The metamaterial in this study has the pass band for the fundamental frequency of 5 MHz and the first stop band centered near the frequency of 10 MHz; 5 MHz was chosen because the second harmonic at 10 MHz can detect 200μm micro-scale damage. Experiments with aluminum as the reference specimen and with SL filter were conducted. A function-generator generates 3 pulses sine signal, within the frequency range from 2.5 MHz to 20MHz. Spectral analysis of the signal through the SL filter shows 100 times voltage suppression of the second harmonic as compared to the signal transmitted through the Al specimen. By filtering out the device's inherent nonlinearity with the SL ultrasonic filter, one can detect microcracks, fatigue and material degradation with much higher accuracy.