Results of experimental investigation of photoelectric properties of GaAs p-n-junction illuminated by short laser pulses of 1.06 μm wavelength are presented. The influence of laser radiation intensity and external bias voltage on the formation of photoresponse voltage has been studied. Free carrier heating was recognized to influence significantly the magnitude of the measured photovoltage. Possibility to improve the conversion efficiency of solar cells is discussed.
We present experimental study of photoresponse in small area GaAs/AlGaAs heterojunction planar detector induced by
nanosecond CO2 laser pulses. This device revealed itself as a fast IR sensor operating at room temperature. Hot carrier
effects are proposed to be responsible for the photoresponse formation.
We present a study of phonon sidebands in the photoluminescence spectra of Be acceptor-doped GaAs/AlAs multiple
quantum wells at liquid nitrogen temperature. Up to two phonon satellites with a separation close to the GaAs
longitudinal optical phonon energy are observed in the sideband of the photoluminescence. A theoretical analysis of the
satellite-related photoluminescence lineshapes and their energetic position and impurity induced spectra is presented.
The results show that the phonon satellites can be attributed to free-electron-Be acceptor transitions involving
longitudinal optical phonon of GaAs - the host material of the studied quantum wells.
Reversible resistance change of thin La0.67Ca0.33MnO3 films, grown on cleaved MgO substrates, have been investigated
using both dc current and nanosecond electrical pulses of 10 ns and 100 ns in duration. It was found that at T=80 K the
series of 10 ns pulses with electric field strength above 20 kV/cm induced a reversible change of the film from low to
high resistive state. At the same time, the series of 100 ns pulses transmitted through the sample with increased
resistance induced an inverse effect - i.e. transformation of the film to the initial state. It was also obtained that at 130 K
(just below Curie temperature Tc) the series of 100 ns electrical pulses induced the resistive transition at lower electric
field value (13.7 kV/cm). The obtained results were explained in terms of local film heating and strong electric field
effect on narrow conductive constructions during current flow through channels in electrically inhomogeneous media in
the vicinity of Tc.
Algirdas Sužiedėlis, Valerij Petkun, Antoni Kozič, Viktorija Kazlauskaitė, Aurimas Čerškus, Gytis Steikūnas, Jonas Gradauskas, Jurgis Kundrotas, Steponas Ašmontas, Irina Papsujeva, Aleksandras Narkūnas, Tomas Anbinderis, Vladimir Umansky, Hadas Shtrikmann
Planar microwave detectors on the base of modulation doped AlGaAs/GaAs structures with &dgr;-doped layer were
investigated in (26÷120) GHz frequency range. Comparison of the features of the microwave diodes on the base of
modulation doped structures with &dgr;- and smoothly-distributed doping impurities in the AlGaAs barrier is presented.
Influence of the layers composing the modulation doped structure onto detective properties of the microwave diodes is
ascertained both theoretically and experimentally. In the case of the structure with &dgr;-doping this influence was less,
especially, in the case of symmetrically shaped structure with n-n+ and homogeneous asymmetrically shaped modulation
doped structure.
Semiconductor p-n and metal-insulator-semiconductor structures containing a capacitive element were investigated
under pulsed ir laser irradiation. It is shown that the carrier heating in the structures is responsible for the rise of the
photosignal. A direct correlation between the photosignal and the capacitance of the structures is confirmed. Possible
applications of the effect are discussed.
Our study is concerned with peculiarities of intense CO2 laser light detection in narrow-gap semiconductor p-n junctions. Samples of InSb, PbTe and HgCdTe were udner investigation. We present experimental evidence of free carrier heating phenomenon in the semiconductors and its influence on photovoltaic signal. We show, that in particular cases, depending on laser light intensity and applied bias, the hot carrier photosignal of opposite polarity may predominate over the ordinary photovoltaic one.
We review novel group of fast infrared detectors based on hot carrier effects in nonuniform Ge, Si, GaAs, AlGaAs and Ti/n-Si Schottky structures. It is demonstrated that the devices can be used to detect infrared pulses of nanosecond duration at room temperature. Physcial mechanism responsible for the photovoltage signal formation both in p-n and l-h junction of moderately and degenerately doepd semiconductors are analyzed and discussed. The influence of aluminum arsenide mole fractin on th emagnitude of the photoresponse to infrared radiation in AlGaAs/GaAs p-n junction is studied. Operational principle of the Schottky barrier detector at various radaition frequencies is considered. It is shown that photoresponse of the Schottky barrier detector superlinearly depends on infrared radiation intensity.
Investigations of transient photoluminescence induced by external electric fields parallel to the layers of GaAs/Al0.35Ga0.65As quantum wells are reviewed. The photoluminescence was detected by time-correlated single-photon counting technique at liquid nitrogen and liquid helium temperatures applying electric fields of nanosecond duration to the wells of different width. It is shown how experimentally one can resolve between excitonic and donor impact ionization processes in combining spectral and time domains. From the study of the spectral-temporal dynamics at initial moments we have determined the coefficient of exciton impact ionization as a function of electric field for various widths of the quantum wells.
Photoelectrical properties of nonuniform semiconductor under IR laser radiation has been investigated theoretically and experimentally. It is shown that photoemission of hot carriers across the potential barrier and the crystal lattice heating are dominant mechanisms of the photovoltage formation in p-n and l-h junction when laser photon energy less than the semiconductor energy gap. Influence of aluminum arsenide model fraction in GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs p-n heterojunction on CO2 laser radiation detection has been studied. It has been established that the photoresponse originating from the free carrier heating depends on the energy band discontinuities in heterojunction. GaAs/AlxGaz-xAs heterojunction with x <EQ 0.2 is found to be more suitable for IR detection compared to GaAs homojunction. In metal- semiconductor Schottky contact photoresponse demonstrates strongly nonlinear dependence on excitation intensity when photon energy is less than Schottky barrier height. We suppose that in this case the photosignal is caused by the multiphoton and multi step electron photoemission across the Schottky barrier.
We report the results of experimental study of IR radiation detection in a bulk of compensated germanium. Au or Ni with deep levels in the forbidden energy ap was used as compensating impurities. In spite of great difference in their activation energies the change of electrical resistance of the samples under CO2 laser illumination indicated the similar rise of carrier density in the valence band which can not be explained only by means of direct hole activation character of the electrical conductivity of compensated semiconductors. Evaluation of spatial quantity of in-homogenates in compensated semiconductors confirmed the importance of energetic bands bending due to the existence of ionized impurities complexes for IR detection.
Asymmetrically-necked GaAs/Al0.25Ga0.75As modulation-doped structures are examined as possible active parts of the detector for operation within 10 GHz -3 THz frequency range. The estimations of the device parameters are performed for real structure planned to be used in the experiments. Calculations show that i) Sensitivity of the diodes based on modulation doped structures at liquid nitrogen temperature is significantly higher than at room temperature; ii) this trend remains over the microwave frequency range of operation; iii) narrowing of the necked- size of the device with 300 nm size of the necked-part, the sensitivity could reach 4000 V/W for microwaves and 100 v/W at 1 THz at room temperature with respect to absorbed power. At liquid nitrogen temperature the frequency dependence of voltage sensitivity at the same conditions becomes more pronounced for microwaves- it is 30 000 V/W while in terahertz frequency range the voltage sensitivity drops to the value of 240 V/W.
KEYWORDS: Signal detection, Carbon dioxide lasers, Absorption, Carbon monoxide, Gas lasers, Semiconductor lasers, Group IV semiconductors, N-type semiconductors, Semiconductors, Lead
Our study is concerned with the photo-thermovoltaic effects caused by the absorption of CO2 laser light in narrow gap AIVBVI semiconductors. We report on results of experimental study of photoresponse induced in n-type and p- type lead telluride with Ni contacts. We show that in the case of ohmic contacts (n-PbTe-Ni and p-PbTe-Ni at 300K) the detected signal originated from thermoemf due to created crystal lattice temperature gradient. In the case of p- PbTe-Ni at 80K we have Schottky contacts and the photoresponse consists at least of two components: fast and great in value photoemf- due to carrier generation resulting from two-photon absorption, and slow as well as of lower magnitude thermoemf.
The peculiarities of a photovoltaic effect in Ti/n-Si Schottky contact and GaAs n-n+ junction at excitation wavelengths 10.6 micrometers , 2.8 micrometers and 2 micrometers has been investigated experimentally. When the incident photon hv energy is lower than Schottky barrier height the photoresponse nonlinearly depends on laser intensity. The results are interpreted by electron emission over the barrier due to multiphoton and multistep excitation. When hv is greater than the diffusion potential of GaAs n-n+ junction a linear relation between the photovoltage and the laser intensity is observed.
We report our results of experimental study of photoelectrical properties of GaAs p-n and l-h junctions illuminated with pulsed carbon-dioxide laser light. The current-voltage and voltage-power characteristics are investigated. It is demonstrated that photoemission of hot carriers across the potential barrier and the crystal lattice heating are the dominant mechanisms in the photovoltage formation. The obtained results show that hot- carrier effects in inhomogeneous GaAs can be used to detect very short infrared laser pulses.
We report the results of a study of photovoltage which is generated on p-n and l-h GaAs structures under pulsed infrared laser excitation. The hot carrier photocurrent reaches its maximum value at bias voltage related to potential barrier height of p-n junction. We demonstrate that the photoresponse consists of fast and slow components which result from free-carrier and crystal lattice heating, respectively. The obtained results indicate that nonuniform GaAs structures can be used for fabrication of fast detectors based on free-carrier heating by infrared light.
An original planar n-GaAs diode with n-n+ junction has been constructed to detect radiation in the range from millimeter wavelength. The operational principle of this detector is based on free carrier heating in semiconductor by incident power. The analytical formulae for the voltage arising in the planar diode under microwave and laser radiation obtained by solving phenomenological carrier transport and Poisson equations shows no frequency dependence of the detected voltage up to 1 millimeter wavelength. The frequency dependence of detected voltage in high frequency range results from the frequency dependence of the momentum relaxation time of hot carriers. Experimental results of microwave and laser radiation measurements have shown a good agrement with theoretical suggestions.
Point-contact of metal-semiconductor is widely used as a microwave (MW) power detector or harmonic mixer.However, at high frequencies, the application of such contact is problematic due to small size of the waveguide.
The results of experimental investigations of the photovoltage generated in Schottky barrier under CO2 laser radiation are presented. We demonstrate for the first time the nonlinear dependence of photovoltage on the incident power density. This dependence indicates the multi-photon light absorption in the semiconductor-metal interface.
The photoelectric characteristics of silicon phototransistors are investigated. The device consists of three regions with different types of conductivity. The operation of the phototransistor is based on the hot carrier emission from the emitter into the base under IR laser irradiation. The current-voltage measurements on the emitter-base junction show that photo-induced current increases with the increase of forward bias voltage and decreases when reverse bias is applied. The characteristics of the collector photocurrent versus the collector- base voltage in the common-base configuration are very similar to static collector current vs the collector voltage characteristics of an ordinary bipolar transistor. Furthermore, the collector photocurrent increases with an exponential law when the emitter-base junction is forward biased.
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