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(1 - 18 of 18)
- Title
- THERMODYNAMIC STUDIES ON THE SYNTHESIS OF NITRIDES AND EPITAXIAL GROWTH OF INGAN.
- Creator
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Monga, Zinki, Klemenz, Christine, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Nitride semiconductor materials have been used in a variety of applications, such as LEDs, lasers, photovoltaic cells and medical applications. If incandescent bulbs could be replaced by white GaN LEDs, they would not only provide compactness and longer lifetime, but this would also result in huge energy savings. A renewed interest in InGaN emerged recently after it was discovered that the band gap for InN is 0.7eV, instead of the previously published value of 1.9eV. Thus InGaN solid...
Show moreNitride semiconductor materials have been used in a variety of applications, such as LEDs, lasers, photovoltaic cells and medical applications. If incandescent bulbs could be replaced by white GaN LEDs, they would not only provide compactness and longer lifetime, but this would also result in huge energy savings. A renewed interest in InGaN emerged recently after it was discovered that the band gap for InN is 0.7eV, instead of the previously published value of 1.9eV. Thus InGaN solid solutions cover almost the whole visible spectrum, from a band gap of 3.34eV for GaN and 0.7eV for InN. Hence, InGaN can have excellent applications for photovoltaic cells. The objective of this work was to investigate and search for new ways of synthesis of nitrides. We studied the thermodynamics and evaluated chemical compatibilities for the growth of AlN, GaN, InN and their solid solutions from metallic solvents. The compatibility between potential substrate, crucible and solvent materials and various growth atmospheres was evaluated from Gibbs free energy calculations. Most of the nitride synthesis experiments performed by other groups were at higher temperatures (around 2,000C) and pressures up to 1GPa using different growth methods. Therefore, their results could not be extrapolated to our growth system, as their growth conditions were significantly different from ours Moreover, to the best of our knowledge; no-one has ever evaluated such compatibilities by thermodynamic calculations. We used those calculations to design our experiments for further studies on nitrides. Experimentally, we encountered fewer issues such as corrosion problems than others observed with their growth procedures, because near-atmospheric pressures and temperatures not exceeding 1,000C could be used. Preliminary experiments were performed to confirm the thermodynamic computations and test the behavior of the chosen system. A suitable configuration was found that allowed to nucleate films of InGaN on the templates. Nitride templates or 'Buffer layers' were used to saturate the solution and grow the films. A relatively simpler configuration, to create a temperature gradient in the solution was used. Two templates were placed in the crucible, one at the top and the other one at the bottom. The temperature was raised to 950C and they were soaked there for 15-20hrs. After the growth the surface morphology was analyzed using an optical microscope and it was found to be entirely different for both the templates. The atoms from the top template dissolved and attached at the bottom template. This can be explained by the thermal gradient between the two templates: one at the bottom was at lower temperature than the top template, so there was diffusion from the top substrate towards the bottom one. AFM studies were carried out on the film to study the surface morphology of the top and the bottom templates. Growth hillocks having step height typically between 15 and 50 nm were observed. Such hillocks were not present on the templates before the experiment.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2007
- Identifier
- CFE0001806, ucf:47376
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001806
- Title
- On-Chip Electro-Static Discharge (ESD) Protection for Radio-Frequency Integrated Circuits.
- Creator
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Cui, Qiang, Liou, Juin, Yuan, Jiann-Shiun, Wu, Xinzhang, Haralambous, Michael, Shen, Zheng, Deppe, Dennis, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) phenomenon is a common phenomenon in daily life and it could damage the integrated circuit throughout the whole cycle of product from the manufacturing. Several ESD stress models and test methods have been used to reproduce ESD events and characterize ESD protection device's performance. The basic ESD stress models are: Human Body Model (HBM), Machine Model (MM), and Charged Device Model (CDM). On-chip ESD protection devices are widely used to discharge ESD...
Show moreElectrostatic Discharge (ESD) phenomenon is a common phenomenon in daily life and it could damage the integrated circuit throughout the whole cycle of product from the manufacturing. Several ESD stress models and test methods have been used to reproduce ESD events and characterize ESD protection device's performance. The basic ESD stress models are: Human Body Model (HBM), Machine Model (MM), and Charged Device Model (CDM). On-chip ESD protection devices are widely used to discharge ESD current and limit the overstress voltage under different ESD events. Some effective ESD protection devices were reported for low speed circuit applications such as analog ICs or digital ICs in CMOS process. On the contrast, only a few ESD protection devices available for radio frequency integrated circuits (RF ICs). ESD protection for RF ICs is more challenging than traditional low speed CMOS ESD protection design because of the facts that: (1) Process limitation: High-performance RF ICs are typically fabricated in compound semiconductor process such as GaAs pHEMT and SiGe HBT process. And some proved effective ESD devices (e.g. SCR) are not able to be fabricated in those processes due to process limitation. Moreover, compound semiconductor process has lower thermal conductivity which will worsen its ESD damage immunity. (2) Parasitic capacitance limitation: Even for RF CMOS process, the inherent parasitic capacitance of ESD protection devices is a big concern. Therefore, this dissertation will contribute on ESD protection designs for RF ICs in all the major processes including GaAs pHEMT, SiGe BiCMOS and standard CMOS.The ESD protection for RF ICs in GaAs pHEMT process is very difficult, and the typical HBM protection level is below 1-kV HBM level. The first part of our work is to analyze pHEMT's snapback, post-snapback saturation and thermal failure under ESD stress using TLP-like Sentaurus TCAD simulation. The snapback is caused by virtual bipolar transistor due to large electron-hole pairs impacted near drain region. Post-snapback saturation is caused by temperature-induced mobility degradation due to III-V compound semiconductor materials' poor thermal conductivity. And thermal failure is found to be caused by hot spot located in pHEMT's InGaAs layer. Understanding of these physical mechanisms is critical to design effective ESD protection device in GaAs pHEMT process. Several novel ESD protection devices were designed in 0.5um GaAs pHEMT process. The multi-gate pHEMT based ESD protection devices in both enhancement-mode and depletion-mode were reported and characterized then. Due to the multiple current paths available in the multi-gate pHEMT, the new ESD protection clamp showed significantly improved ESD performances over the conventional single-gate pHEMT ESD clamp, including higher current discharge capability, lower on-state resistance, and smaller voltage transient. We proposed another further enhanced ESD protection clamp based on a novel drain-less, multi-gate pHEMT in a 0.5um GaAs pHEMT technology. Based on Barth 4002 TLP measurement results, the ESD protection devices proposed in this chapter can improve the ESD level from 1-kV (0.6 A It2) to up to 8-kV ((>) 5.2 A It2) under HBM. Then we optimized SiGe-based silicon controlled rectifiers (SiGe SCR) in SiGe BiCMOS process. SiGe SCR is considered a good candidate ESD protection device in this process. But the possible slow turn-on issue under CDM ESD events is the major concern. In order to optimize the turn-on performance of SiGe SCR against CDM ESD, the Barth 4012 very fast TLP (vfTLP) and vfTLP-like TCAD simulation were used for characterization and analysis. It was demonstrated that a SiGe SCR implemented with a P PLUG layer and minimal PNP base width can supply the smallest peak voltage and fastest response time which is resulted from the fact that the impact ionization region and effective base width in the SiGe SCR were reduced due to the presence of the P PLUG layer. This work demonstrated a practical approach for designing optimum ESD protection solutions for the low-voltage/radio frequency integrated circuits in SiGe BiCMOS process.In the end, we optimized SCRs in standard silicon-based CMOS process to supply protection for high speed/radio-frequency ICs. SCR is again considered the best for its excellent current handling ability. But the parasitic capacitance of SCRs needs to be reduced to limit SCR's impact to RF performance. We proposed a novel SCR-based ESD structure and characterize it experimentally for the design of effective ESD protection in high-frequency CMOS based integrated circuits. The proposed SCR-based ESD protection device showed a much lower parasitic capacitance and better ESD performance than the conventional SCR and a low-capacitance SCR reported in the literature. The physics underlying the low capacitance was explained by measurements using HP 4284 capacitance meter.Throughout the dissertation work, all the measurements are mainly conducted using Barth 4002 transimission line pulsing (TLP) and Barth 4012 very fast transmission line pulsing (vfTLP) testers. All the simulation was performed using Sentaurus TCAD tool from Synopsys.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2013
- Identifier
- CFE0004668, ucf:49848
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004668
- Title
- RELIABILITY STUDY OF INGAP/GAAS HETEROJUNCTION BIPOLAR TRANSISTOR MMIC TECHNOLOGY BY CHARACTERIZATION, MODELING AND SIMULATION.
- Creator
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LIU, XIANG, Liou, Juin J., University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Recent years have shown real advances of microwave monolithic integrated circuits (MMICs) for millimeter-wave frequency systems, such as wireless communication, advanced imaging, remote sensing and automotive radar systems, as MMICs can provide the size, weight and performance required for these systems. Traditionally, GaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT) or InP based MMIC technology has dominated in millimeter-wave frequency applications because of their high fT and...
Show moreRecent years have shown real advances of microwave monolithic integrated circuits (MMICs) for millimeter-wave frequency systems, such as wireless communication, advanced imaging, remote sensing and automotive radar systems, as MMICs can provide the size, weight and performance required for these systems. Traditionally, GaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT) or InP based MMIC technology has dominated in millimeter-wave frequency applications because of their high fT and fmax as well as their superior noise performance. But these technologies are very expensive. Thus, for low cost and high performance applications, InGaP/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) are quickly becoming the preferred technology to be used due to their inherently excellent characteristics. These features, together with the need for only one power supply to bias the device, make InGaP/GaAs HBTs very attractive for the design of high performance fully integrated MMICs. With the smaller dimensions for improving speed and functionality of InGaP/GaAs HBTs, which dissipate large amount of power and result in heat flux accumulated in the device junction, technology reliability issues are the first concern for the commercialization. As the thermally triggered instabilities often seen in InGaP/GaAs HBTs, a carefully derived technique to define the stress conditions of accelerated life test has been employed in our study to acquire post-stress device characteristics for the projection of long-term device performance degradation pattern. To identify the possible origins of the post-stress device behaviors observed experimentally, a two dimensional (2-D) TCAD numerical device simulation has been carried out. Using this approach, it is suggested that the acceptor-type trapping states located in the emitter bulk are responsible for the commonly seen post-stress base current instability over the moderate base-emitter voltage region. HBT-based MMIC performance is very sensitive to the variation of core device characteristics and the reliability issues put the limit on its radio frequency (RF) behaviors. While many researchers have reported the observed stress-induced degradations of GaAs HBT characteristics, there has been little published data on the full understanding of stress impact on the GaAs HBT-based MMICs. If care is not taken to understand this issue, stress-induced degradation paths can lead to built-in circuit failure during regular operations. However, detection of this failure may be difficult due to the circuit complexity and lead to erroneous data or output conditions. Thus, a practical and analytical methodology has been developed to predict the stress impacts on HBT-based MMICs. It provides a quick way and guidance for the RF design engineer to evaluate the circuit performance with reliability considerations. Using the present existing EDA tools (Cadance SpectreRF and Agilent ADS) with the extracted pre- and post-stress transistor models, the electrothermal stress effects on InGaP/GaAs HBT-based RF building blocks including power amplifier (PA), low-noise amplifier (LNA) and oscillator have been systematically evaluated. This provides a potential way for the RF/microwave industry to save tens of millions of dollars annually in testing costs. The world now stands at the threshold of the age of advanced GaAs HBT MMIC technology and researchers have been exploring here for years. The reliability of GaAs HBT technology is no longer the post-design evaluation, but the pre-design consideration. The successful and fruitful results of this dissertation provide methods and guidance for the RF designers to achieve more reliable RF circuits with advanced GaAs HBT technology in the future.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2011
- Identifier
- CFE0003904, ucf:48744
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003904
- Title
- IMPACT OF GAMMA-IRRADIATION ON THE CHARACTERISTICS OF III-N/GaN BASED HIGH ELECTRON MOBILITY TRANSISTORS.
- Creator
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Yadav, Anupama, Flitsiyan, Elena, Chernyak, Leonid, Peale, Robert, Richie, Samuel, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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In this study, the fundamental properties of AlGaN/GaN based High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs) have been investigated in order to optimize their performance in radiation harsh environment. AlGaN/GaN HEMTs were irradiated with 60Co gamma-rays to doses up to 1000 Gy, and the effects of irradiation on the devices' transport and optical properties were analyzed. Understanding the radiation affects in HEMTs devices, on carrier transport, recombination rates and traps creation play a...
Show moreIn this study, the fundamental properties of AlGaN/GaN based High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs) have been investigated in order to optimize their performance in radiation harsh environment. AlGaN/GaN HEMTs were irradiated with 60Co gamma-rays to doses up to 1000 Gy, and the effects of irradiation on the devices' transport and optical properties were analyzed. Understanding the radiation affects in HEMTs devices, on carrier transport, recombination rates and traps creation play a significant role in development and design of radiation resistant semiconductor components for different applications. Electrical testing combined with temperature dependent Electron Beam Induced Current (EBIC) that we used in our investigations, provided critical information on defects induced in the material because of gamma-irradiation. It was shown that low dose (below ~250 Gy) and high doses (above ~250 Gy) of gamma-irradiation affects the AlGaN/GaN HEMTs due to different mechanisms. For low doses of gamma-irradiation, the improvement in minority carrier diffusion length is likely associated with the irradiation-induced growing lifetime of the non-equilibrium carriers. However, with the increased dose of irradiation (above ~ 250 Gy), the concentration of point defects, such as nitrogen vacancies, as well as the complexes involving native defects increases which results in the non-equilibrium carrier scattering. The impact of defect scattering is more pronounced at higher radiation, which leads to the degradation in the mobility and therefore the diffusion length. In addition for each device under investigation, the temperature dependent minority carrier diffusion length measurements were carried out. These measurements allowed the extraction of the activation energy for the temperature-induced enhancement of the minority carrier transport, which (activation energy) bears a signature of defect levels involved the carrier recombination process. Comparing the activation energy before and after gamma-irradiation identified the radiation-induced defect levels and their dependences. To complement EBIC measurements, spatially resolved Cathodoluminescence (CL) measurements were carried out at variable temperatures. Similar to the EBIC measurements, CL probing before and after the gamma-irradiation allowed the identification of possible defect levels generated as a result of gamma-bombardment. The observed decrease in the CL peak intensity after gamma-irradiation provides the direct evidence of the decrease in the number of recombination events. Based on the findings, the decay in the near-band-edge intensity after low-dose of gamma-irradiation (below ~250 Gy) was explained as a consequence of increased non-equilibrium carrier lifetime. For high doses (above ~250 Gy), decay in the CL intensity was observed to be related to the reduction in the mobility of charge carriers. The results of EBIC are correlated with the CL measurements in order to demonstrate that same underlying process is responsible for the changes induced by the gamma-irradiation. DC current-voltage measurements were also conducted on the transistors to assess the impact of gamma-irradiation on transfer, gate and drain characteristics. Exposure of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs to high dose of 60Co gamma-irradiation (above ~ 250 Gy) resulted in significant device degradation. Gamma-rays doses up to 1000 Gy are shown to result in positive shift in threshold voltage, a reduction in the drain current and transconductance due to increased trapping of carriers and dispersion of charge. In addition, a significant increase in the gate leakage current was observed in both forward and reverse directions after irradiation. Post-irradiation annealing at relatively low temperature was shown to restore the minority carrier transport as well as the electrical characteristics of the devices. The level of recovery of gamma-irradiated devices after annealing treatment depends on the dose of the irradiation. The devices that show most recovery for a particular annealing temperature are those exposed to the low doses of gamma-irradiation, while those exposed to the highest doses results in no recovery of performance. The latter fact indicates that a higher device annealing temperature is needed for larger doses of gamma-irradiation.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2016
- Identifier
- CFE0006424, ucf:51458
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006424
- Title
- STUDY OF INGAAS LDMOS FOR POWER CONVERSION APPLICATIONS.
- Creator
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Liu, Yidong, Yuan, Jiann S., University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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In this work an n-channel In0.65Ga0.35As LDMOS with Al2O3 as gate dielectric is investigated. Instead of using traditional Si process for LDMOS, we suggest In0.65Ga0.35As as substitute material due to its higher electron mobility and its promising for power applications. The proposed 0.5-μm channel-length LDMOS cell is studied through device TCAD simulation tools. Due to different gate dielectric, comprehensive comparisons between In0.65Ga0.35As LDMOS and Si LDMOS are made in two ways,...
Show moreIn this work an n-channel In0.65Ga0.35As LDMOS with Al2O3 as gate dielectric is investigated. Instead of using traditional Si process for LDMOS, we suggest In0.65Ga0.35As as substitute material due to its higher electron mobility and its promising for power applications. The proposed 0.5-μm channel-length LDMOS cell is studied through device TCAD simulation tools. Due to different gate dielectric, comprehensive comparisons between In0.65Ga0.35As LDMOS and Si LDMOS are made in two ways, structure with the same cross-sectional dimension, and structure with different thickness of gate dielectric to achieve the same gate capacitance. The on-resistance of the new device shows a big improvement with no degradation on breakdown voltage over traditional device. Also it is indicated from these comparisons that the figure of merit(FOM) Ron·Qg of In0.65Ga0.35As LDMOS shows an average of 91.9% improvement to that of Si LDMOS. To further explore the benefit of using In0.65Ga0.35As LDMOS as switch in power applications, DC-DC buck converter is utilized to observe the performance of LDMOS in terms of power efficiency. The LDMOS performance is experimented with operation frequency of the circuit sweeping in the range from 100 KHz to 100 MHz. It turns out InGaAs LDMOS is good candidate for power applications.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2009
- Identifier
- CFE0002686, ucf:48217
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002686
- Title
- Interdiffusion, Crystallography and Mechanical Properties of Nickel Manganese Gallium Alloys.
- Creator
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Zhou, Le, Sohn, Yongho, Heinrich, Helge, Coffey, Kevin, An, Linan, Orlovskaya, Nina, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
NiMnGa Heusler alloys, functioning as either ferromagnetic shape memory alloys or mangetocaloric materials, have both practical applications and fundamental research value. The functional properties of NiMnGa alloys are closely related to the martensitic transformation from high temperature austenitic phase to low temperature martensitic phase. Alloys can be used for room temperature or high temperature applications, depending on the martensitic transformation temperature, which is...
Show moreNiMnGa Heusler alloys, functioning as either ferromagnetic shape memory alloys or mangetocaloric materials, have both practical applications and fundamental research value. The functional properties of NiMnGa alloys are closely related to the martensitic transformation from high temperature austenitic phase to low temperature martensitic phase. Alloys can be used for room temperature or high temperature applications, depending on the martensitic transformation temperature, which is compositional sensitive. The microstructure and crystallography of the martensites can be very complex but are crucial to the optimization of the material performance. In this study, for the first time, a combinatorial study by combining solid-to-solid diffusion couples and various characterization techniques was carried out to fundamentally investigate the NiMnGa ternary alloys. Phase equilibria, interdiffusion behavior, microstructural and crystallographic development, and mechanical properties in NiMnGa alloys were systematically examined. Selected diffusion couples between pure Ni, Ni25Mn75 and four ternary off-stoichiometric NiMnGa alloys (i.e., Ni52Mn18Ga30, Ni46Mn30Ga24, Ni52Mn30Ga18, Ni58Mn18Ga24 in atomic percent) were assembled and annealed at 800, 850 and 900 (&)deg;C for 480, 240 and 120 hours, respectively. The microstructure and concentration profiles of the interdiffusion zone were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Concentration profiles across the interdiffusion zone were further quantified by electron probe micro analysis (EPMA). Detailed microstructure and crystallography of the austenite and martensite were investigated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). TEM thin foils were prepared by using focused ion beam (FIB) in situ lift out (INLO) technique, which is able to select desired composition from diffusion couples. The mechanical properties, namely reduced elastic modulus and hardness, as a function of composition were assessed via nanoindentation. Solubility values obtained for various phases were mostly consistent with the existing isothermal phase diagrams, but the phase boundary of the ?(Mn) + ? two-phase region was slightly modified. In addition, equilibrium compositions for the ?(Ni) and ?' phases at 900 (&)deg;C were also determined for the respective two-phase regions. Both austenitic and martensitic phases were found at room temperature in each diffusion couple with a clear interphase boundary. The compositions at the interfaces corresponded close to valence electron concentration (e/a) of 7.6, but decreased to lower values when Mn concentration increased to more than 35 at. %. Average effective interdiffusion coefficients for the ? phase over various compositional ranges were determined and reported in the light of temperature-dependence. Ternary interdiffusion coefficients were also determined and examined to assess the ternary diffusional interactions among Ni, Mn and Ga. Ni was observed to interdiffuse the fastest, followed by Mn then Ga. Interdiffusion flux of Ni also has strong influences on the interdiffusion of Mn and Ga with large and negative cross interdiffusion coefficients. The main ternary interdiffusion coefficients exhibited minimum values near 52 at. % Ni concentration. Extensive TEM analyses have been performed for the study of microstructure and crystallography of austenite and martensite from all diffusion couples. Crystallographic variations in martensitic phase, including non-modulated (NM) martensite, modulated (5M or 7M) martensite, were found in the diffusion couples. The 5M and 7M martensites were only found near the interface between austenite and martensite, corresponding to compositions with lower e/a ratio. The NM martensites were found mostly away from the interface region, with high e/a ratios. The tetragonality ratio (c/a) for NM martensite generally increases with e/a ratio, but also depended on the composition. All martensitic microstructure consists of twinned variants with different orientations that were documented using electron diffraction. The twinning relationship along with the c/a ratio was correlated to martensitic transformation temperature. In addition, pre-martensitic state has been clearly observed in the cubic austenitic phase region, with distinctive tweed microstructure originating from the local lattice distortions. Mechanical properties including reduced elastic modulus (Er) and hardness (H) as a function of composition were measured and analyzed by nanoindentation. A decrease of Er and H was observed with Mn or Ni substituting Ga, and Ni substituting Mn for the austenitic phase. However, an opposite trend was found for the martensitic phase. The softening of the elastic constants near the vicinity of martensitic transformation contributed to the sharp decrease in Er and H near the interface region. The measured Er and H had larger scatter for the martensitic phase than those for the austenitic phase. The scatters observed were attributed to the martensitic variants with different orientations. Contribution from the variation in grain orientation or shape memory effect was determined to be small in this investigation.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2016
- Identifier
- CFE0006204, ucf:51108
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006204
- Title
- ELECTRON INJECTION-INDUCED EFFECTS IN III-NITRIDES: PHYSICS AND APPLICATIONS.
- Creator
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Burdett, William Charles, Chernyak, Leonid, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
This research investigated the effect of electron injection in III-Nitrides. The combination of electron beam induced current and cathodoluminescence measurements was used to understand the impact of electron injection on the minority carrier transport and optical properties. In addition, the application of the electron injection effect in optoelectronic devices was investigated.The impact of electron injection on the minority carrier diffusion length was studied at various temperatures in Mg...
Show moreThis research investigated the effect of electron injection in III-Nitrides. The combination of electron beam induced current and cathodoluminescence measurements was used to understand the impact of electron injection on the minority carrier transport and optical properties. In addition, the application of the electron injection effect in optoelectronic devices was investigated.The impact of electron injection on the minority carrier diffusion length was studied at various temperatures in Mg-doped p-GaN, p-AlxGa1-xN, and p-AlxGa1-x N/GaN superlattices. It was found that the minority carrier diffusion length experienced a multi-fold linear increase and that the rate of change of the diffusion length decreased exponentially with increasing temperature. The effect was attributed to a temperature-activated release of the electrons, which were trapped by the Mg levels.The activation energies for the electron injection effect in the Mg-doped (Al)GaN samples were found to range from 178 to 267 meV, which is close to the thermal ionization energy of the Mg acceptor. The activation energy observed for Al0.15Ga0.85N and Al0.2Ga0.8N was consistent with the deepening of the Mg acceptor level due to the incorporation of Al into the GaN lattice. The activation energy in the homogeneously doped Al0.2Ga0.8N/GaN superlattice indicates that the main contribution to the electron injection effect comes from the capture of injected electrons by the wells (GaN). The electron injection effect was successfully applied to GaN doped with an impurity (Mn) other than Mg. Electron injection into Mn-doped GaN resulted in a multi-fold increase of the minority carrier diffusion length and a pronounced decrease in the band-to-band cathodoluminescence intensity. The activation energy due to the electron injection effect was estimated from temperature-dependent cathodoluminescence measurements to be 360 meV. The decrease in the band-to-band cathodoluminescence is consistent with an increase in the diffusion length and these results are attributed to an increase in the minority carrier lifetime due to the trapping of injected electrons by the Mn levels.A forward bias was applied to inject electrons into commercially built p-i-n and Schottky barrier photodetectors. Up to an order of magnitude increase in the peak (360 nm) responsivity was observed. The enhanced photoresponse lasted for over four weeks and was attributed to an electron injection-induced increase of the minority carrier diffsuion length and the lifetime.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2004
- Identifier
- CFE0000080, ucf:46109
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000080
- Title
- EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF PROFILES OF IMPLANTED SPECIES INTO SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS USING SECONDARY ION MASS SPECTROMETRY.
- Creator
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Salman, Fatma, Chow, Lee, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
ABSTRACT The study of impurity diffusion in semiconductor hosts is an important field that has both fundamental appeal and practical applications. Ion implantation is a good technique to introduce impurities deep into the semiconductor substrates at relatively low temperature and is not limited by the solubility of the dopants in the host. However ion implantation creates defects and damages to the substrate. Annealing process was used to heal these damages and to activate the dopants. In...
Show moreABSTRACT The study of impurity diffusion in semiconductor hosts is an important field that has both fundamental appeal and practical applications. Ion implantation is a good technique to introduce impurities deep into the semiconductor substrates at relatively low temperature and is not limited by the solubility of the dopants in the host. However ion implantation creates defects and damages to the substrate. Annealing process was used to heal these damages and to activate the dopants. In this study, we introduced several species such as alkali metals (Li, Na, K), alkali earth metals (Be, Ca,), transition metals (Ti, V, Cr, Mn) and other metals (Ga, Ge) into semiconductor substrates using ion implantation. The implantation energy varies form 70 keV to 200 keV and the dosages vary between ~ 1.0x1012 and ~5.0x1015 atoms/cm2. The samples are annealed at different temperatures from 300°C to 1000°C and for different time intervals. The redistribution behaviors of the implanted ions are studied experimentally using secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). We observed some complex distribution behaviors due to the defects created during the process of ion implantation. The diffusivities of some impurities are calculated and compared to previous data. It was found that the diffusivities of implanted impurities is related to the dosages, annealing temperatures and the defects and damages caused by ion implantation. Additionally, as we go from one type of semiconductor to another, the diffusion behavior of the impurities shows a different trend.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2007
- Identifier
- CFE0001791, ucf:47269
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001791
- Title
- INFLUENCE OF ELECTRON TRAPPING ON MINORITY CARRIER TRANSPORT PROPERTIES OF WIDE BAND GAP SEMICONDUCTORS.
- Creator
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Tirpak, Olena, Chernyak, Leonid, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Minority carrier transport properties and the effects of electron irradiation/injection were studied in GaN and ZnO containing dopants known to form acceptor states deep within the materials' bandgap. Minority carrier diffusion length and lifetime changes were investigated using Electron Beam Induced Current (EBIC) method, cathodoluminescence spectroscopy, spectral photoresponse and persistent photoconductivity measurements. It is shown that electron irradiation by the beam of a scanning...
Show moreMinority carrier transport properties and the effects of electron irradiation/injection were studied in GaN and ZnO containing dopants known to form acceptor states deep within the materials' bandgap. Minority carrier diffusion length and lifetime changes were investigated using Electron Beam Induced Current (EBIC) method, cathodoluminescence spectroscopy, spectral photoresponse and persistent photoconductivity measurements. It is shown that electron irradiation by the beam of a scanning electron microscope results in a significant increase of minority carrier diffusion length. These findings are supported by the cathodoluminescence measurements that demonstrate the decay of near-band-edge intensity as a consequence of increasing carrier lifetime under continuous irradiation by the electron beam. Temperature-dependent measurements were used to determine the activation energies for the electron irradiation-induced effects. The latter energies were found to be consistent with the involvement of deep acceptor states. Based on these findings, the effects of electron irradiation are explained via the mechanism involving carrier trapping on these levels. Solid-state electron injection was also shown to result in a similar increase of minority carrier lifetime and diffusion length. Solid-state injection was carried out by applying the forward bias to a ZnO homojunction and resulted in a significant improvement of the peak photoresponse of the junction. This improvement was unambiguously correlated with the increase of the minority carrier diffusion length due to electron injection.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2007
- Identifier
- CFE0001710, ucf:47325
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001710
- Title
- GENETICALLY ENGINEERED ADAPTIVE RESONANCE THEORY (ART) NEURAL NETWORK ARCHITECTURES.
- Creator
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Al-Daraiseh, Ahmad, Georgiopoulos, Michael, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Fuzzy ARTMAP (FAM) is currently considered to be one of the premier neural network architectures in solving classification problems. One of the limitations of Fuzzy ARTMAP that has been extensively reported in the literature is the category proliferation problem. That is Fuzzy ARTMAP has the tendency of increasing its network size, as it is confronted with more and more data, especially if the data is of noisy and/or overlapping nature. To remedy this problem a number of researchers have...
Show moreFuzzy ARTMAP (FAM) is currently considered to be one of the premier neural network architectures in solving classification problems. One of the limitations of Fuzzy ARTMAP that has been extensively reported in the literature is the category proliferation problem. That is Fuzzy ARTMAP has the tendency of increasing its network size, as it is confronted with more and more data, especially if the data is of noisy and/or overlapping nature. To remedy this problem a number of researchers have designed modifications to the training phase of Fuzzy ARTMAP that had the beneficial effect of reducing this phenomenon. In this thesis we propose a new approach to handle the category proliferation problem in Fuzzy ARTMAP by evolving trained FAM architectures. We refer to the resulting FAM architectures as GFAM. We demonstrate through extensive experimentation that an evolved FAM (GFAM) exhibits good (sometimes optimal) generalization, small size (sometimes optimal size), and requires reasonable computational effort to produce an optimal or sub-optimal network. Furthermore, comparisons of the GFAM with other approaches, proposed in the literature, which address the FAM category proliferation problem, illustrate that the GFAM has a number of advantages (i.e. produces smaller or equal size architectures, of better or as good generalization, with reduced computational complexity). Furthermore, in this dissertation we have extended the approach used with Fuzzy ARTMAP to other ART architectures, such as Ellipsoidal ARTMAP (EAM) and Gaussian ARTMAP (GAM) that also suffer from the ART category proliferation problem. Thus, we have designed and experimented with genetically engineered EAM and GAM architectures, named GEAM and GGAM. Comparisons of GEAM and GGAM with other ART architectures that were introduced in the ART literature, addressing the category proliferation problem, illustrate similar advantages observed by GFAM (i.e, GEAM and GGAM produce smaller size ART architectures, of better or improved generalization, with reduced computational complexity). Moverover, to optimally cover the input space of a problem, we proposed a genetically engineered ART architecture that combines the category structures of two different ART networks, FAM and EAM. We named this architecture UART (Universal ART). We analyzed the order of search in UART, that is the order according to which a FAM category or an EAM category is accessed in UART. This analysis allowed us to better understand UART's functionality. Experiments were also conducted to compare UART with other ART architectures, in a similar fashion as GFAM and GEAM were compared. Similar conclusions were drawn from this comparison, as in the comparison of GFAM and GEAM with other ART architectures. Finally, we analyzed the computational complexity of the genetically engineered ART architectures and we compared it with the computational complexity of other ART architectures, introduced into the literature. This analytical comparison verified our claim that the genetically engineered ART architectures produce better generalization and smaller sizes ART structures, at reduced computational complexity, compared to other ART approaches. In review, a methodology was introduced of how to combine the answers (categories) of ART architectures, using genetic algorithms. This methodology was successfully applied to FAM, EAM and FAM and EAM ART architectures, with success, resulting in ART neural networks which outperformed other ART architectures, previously introduced into the literature, and quite often produced ART architectures that attained optimal classification results, at reduced computational complexity.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2006
- Identifier
- CFE0000977, ucf:46696
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000977
- Title
- GaN Power Devices: Discerning Application-Specific Challenges and Limitations in HEMTs.
- Creator
-
Binder, Andrew, Yuan, Jiann-Shiun, Sundaram, Kalpathy, Roy, Tania, Kapoor, Vikram, Chow, Lee, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
GaN power devices are typically used in the 600 V market, for high efficiency, high power-density systems. For these devices, the lateral optimization of gate-to-drain, gate, and gate-to-source lengths, as well as gate field-plate length are critical for optimizing breakdown voltage and performance. This work presents a systematic study of lateral scaling optimization for high voltage devices to minimize figure of merit and maximize breakdown voltage. In addition, this optimization is...
Show moreGaN power devices are typically used in the 600 V market, for high efficiency, high power-density systems. For these devices, the lateral optimization of gate-to-drain, gate, and gate-to-source lengths, as well as gate field-plate length are critical for optimizing breakdown voltage and performance. This work presents a systematic study of lateral scaling optimization for high voltage devices to minimize figure of merit and maximize breakdown voltage. In addition, this optimization is extended for low voltage devices ((<) 100 V), presenting results to optimize both lateral features and vertical features. For low voltage design, simulation work suggests that breakdown is more reliant on punch-through as the primary breakdown mechanism rather than on vertical leakage current as is the case with high-voltage devices. A fabrication process flow has been developed for fabricating Schottky-gate, and MIS-HEMT structures at UCF in the CREOL cleanroom. The fabricated devices were designed to validate the simulation work for low voltage GaN devices. The UCF fabrication process is done with a four layer mask, and consists of mesa isolation, ohmic recess etch, an optional gate insulator layer, ohmic metallization, and gate metallization. Following this work, the fabrication process was transferred to the National Nano Device Laboratories (NDL) in Hsinchu, Taiwan, to take advantage of the more advanced facilities there. Following fabrication, a study has been performed on defect induced performance degradation, leading to the observation of a new phenomenon: trap induced negative differential conductance (NDC). Typically NDC is caused by self-heating, however by implementing a substrate bias test in conjunction with pulsed I-V testing, the NDC seen in our fabricated devices has been confirmed to be from buffer traps that are a result of poor channel carrier confinement during the dc operating condition.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2019
- Identifier
- CFE0007885, ucf:52786
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007885
- Title
- TUNABLE TERAHERTZ DETECTORS BASED ON PLASMON EXCIATION IN TWO DIMENSIONAL ELECTRON GASES IN INGAAS/INP AND ALGAN/GAN HEMT.
- Creator
-
Saxena, Himanshu, Peale, Robert, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
The observation of voltage-tunable plasmon resonances in the terahertz range in two dimensional electron gas (2-deg) of a high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) fabricated from the InGaAs/InP and AlGaN/GaN materials systems is reported. The devices were fabricated from a commercial HEMT wafer by depositing source and drain contacts using standard photolithography process and a semi-transparent gate contact that consisted of a 0.5 µm period transmission grating formed by electron-beam...
Show moreThe observation of voltage-tunable plasmon resonances in the terahertz range in two dimensional electron gas (2-deg) of a high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) fabricated from the InGaAs/InP and AlGaN/GaN materials systems is reported. The devices were fabricated from a commercial HEMT wafer by depositing source and drain contacts using standard photolithography process and a semi-transparent gate contact that consisted of a 0.5 µm period transmission grating formed by electron-beam lithography. Narrow-band resonant absorption of THz radiation was observed in transmission in the frequency range 10–100 cm-1. The resonance frequency depends on the gate voltage-tuned sheet-charge density of the 2deg. The fundamental and higher resonant harmonics were observed to shift towards lower frequencies with the implementation of negative gate bias. The theory of interaction of sub millimeter waves with 2deg through corrugated structure on top has been applied to calculate and understand the phenomena of resonant plasmon excitations. The observed separation of resonance fundamental from its harmonics and their shift with gate bias follows theory, although the absolute frequencies are lower by about a factor of 2-3 in InGaAs/InP system. However, calculated values match much better with AlGaN/GaN system.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2009
- Identifier
- CFE0002912, ucf:47994
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002912
- Title
- Design of Novel Devices and Circuits for Electrostatic Discharge Protection Applications in Advanced Semiconductor Technologies.
- Creator
-
Wang, Zhixin, Liou, Juin, Gong, Xun, Yuan, Jiann-Shiun, Jin, Yier, Vinson, James, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Electrostatic Discharge (ESD), as a subset of Electrical Overstress (EOS), was reported to be in charge of more than 35% of failure in integrated circuits (ICs). Especially in the manufacturing process, the silicon wafer turns out to be a functional ICs after numerous physical, chemical and mechanical processes, each of which expose the sensitive and fragile ICs to ESD environment. In normal end-user applications, ESD from human and machine handling, surge and spike signals in the power...
Show moreElectrostatic Discharge (ESD), as a subset of Electrical Overstress (EOS), was reported to be in charge of more than 35% of failure in integrated circuits (ICs). Especially in the manufacturing process, the silicon wafer turns out to be a functional ICs after numerous physical, chemical and mechanical processes, each of which expose the sensitive and fragile ICs to ESD environment. In normal end-user applications, ESD from human and machine handling, surge and spike signals in the power supply, and wrong supplying signals, will probably cause severe damage to the ICs and even the whole systems. Generally, ESD protections are evaluated after wafer and even system fabrication, increasing the development period and cost if the protections cannot meet customer's requirements. Therefore, it is important to design and customize robust and area-efficient ESD protections for the ICs at the early development stage. As the technologies generally scaling down, however, ESD protection clamps remain comparable area consumption in the recent years because they provide the discharging path for the ESD energy which rarely scales down. Diode is the most simple and effective device for ESD protection in ICs, but the usage is significantly limited by its low turn-on voltage. MOS devices can be triggered by a dynamic-triggered RC circuit for IOs operating at low voltage, while the one triggered by a static-triggered network, e.g., zener-resistor circuit or grounded-gate configuration, provides a high trigger voltage for high-voltage applications. However, the relatively low current discharging capability makes MOS devices as the secondary choice. Silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR) has become famous due to its high robustness and area efficiency, compared to diode and MOS. In this dissertation, a comprehensive design methodology for SCR based on simulation and measurement are presented for different advanced commercial technologies. Furthermore, an ESD clamp is designed and verified for the first time for the emerging GaN technology.For the SCR, no matter what modification is going to be made, the first concern when drawing the layout is to determine the layout geometrical style, finger width and finger number. This problem for diode and MOS device were studied in detail, so the same method was usually used in SCR. The research in this dissertation provides a closer look into the metal layout effect to the SCR, finding out the optimized robustness and minimized side-effect can be obtained by using specific layout geometry. Another concern about SCR is the relatively low turn-on speed when the IOs under protection is stressed by ESD pulses having very fast rising time, e.g., CDM and IEC 61000-4-2 pulses. On this occasion a large overshoot voltage is generated and cause damage to internal circuit component like gate oxides of MOS devices. The key determination of turn-on speed of SCR is physically investigated, followed by a novel design on SCR by directly connecting the Anode Gate and Cathode Gate to form internal trigger (DCSCR), with improved performance verified experimentally in this dissertation. The overshoot voltage and trigger voltage of the DCSCR will be significantly reduced, in return a better protection for internal circuit component is offered without scarifying neither area or robustness. Even though two SCR's with single direction of ESD current path can be constructed in reverse parallel to form bidirectional protection to pins, stand-alone bidirectional SCR (BSCR) is always desirable for sake of smaller area. The inherent high trigger voltage of BSCR that only fit in high-voltage technologies is overcome by embedding a PMOS transistor as trigger element, making it highly suitable for low-voltage ESD protection applications. More than that, this modification simultaneously introduces benefits including high robustness and low overshoot voltage.For high voltage pins, however, it presents another story for ESD designs. The high operation voltages require that a high trigger voltage and high holding voltage, so as to reduce the false trigger and latch-up risk. For several capacitive pins, the displacement current induced by a large snapback will cause severe damage to internal circuits. A novel design on SCR is proposed to minimize the snapback with adjustable trigger and holding voltage. Thanks to the additional a PIN diode, the similar high robustness and stable thermal leakage performance to SCR is maintained. For academic purpose of ESD design, it is always difficult to obtain the complete process deck in TCAD simulation because those information are highly confidential to the companies. Another challenge of using TCAD is the difficulty of maintaining the accuracy of physics models and predicting the performance of the other structures. In this dissertation a TCAD-aid ESD design methodology is used to evaluate ESD performance before the silicon shuttle.GaN is a promising material for high-voltage high-power RF application compared to the GaAs. However, distinct from GaAs, the leaky problem of the schottky junction and the lack of choice of passive/active components in GaN technology limit the ESD protection design, which will be discussed in this dissertation. However, a promising ESD protection clamp is finally developed based on depletion-mode pHEMT with adjustable trigger voltage, reasonable leakage current and high robustness.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2015
- Identifier
- CFE0006060, ucf:50989
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006060
- Title
- Radiation Effects on Wide Band Gap Semiconductor Transport Properties.
- Creator
-
Schwarz, Casey, Flitsiyan, Elena, Chernyak, Leonid, Peale, Robert, Schoenfeld, Winston, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
In this research, the transport properties of ZnO were studied through the use of electron and neutron beam irradiation. Acceptor states are known to form deep in the bandgap of doped ZnO material. By subjecting doped ZnO materials to electron and neutron beams we are able to probe, identify and modify transport characteristics relating to these deep accepter states. The impact of irradiation and temperature on minority carrier diffusion length and lifetime were monitored through the use of...
Show moreIn this research, the transport properties of ZnO were studied through the use of electron and neutron beam irradiation. Acceptor states are known to form deep in the bandgap of doped ZnO material. By subjecting doped ZnO materials to electron and neutron beams we are able to probe, identify and modify transport characteristics relating to these deep accepter states. The impact of irradiation and temperature on minority carrier diffusion length and lifetime were monitored through the use of the Electron Beam Induced Current (EBIC) method and Cathodoluminescence (CL) spectroscopy. The minority carrier diffusion length, L, was shown to increase as it was subjected to increasing temperature as well as continuous electron irradiation. The near-band-edge (NBE) intensity in CL measurements was found to decay as a function of temperature and electron irradiation due to an increase in carrier lifetime. Electron injection through application of a forward bias also resulted in a similar increase of minority carrier diffusion length.Thermal and electron irradiation dependences were used to determine activation energies for the irradiation induced effects. This helps to further our understanding of the electron injection mechanism as well as to identify possible defects responsible for the observed effects. Thermal activation energies likely represent carrier delocalization energy and are related to the increase of diffusion length due to the reduction in recombination efficiency. The effect of electron irradiation on the minority carrier diffusion length and lifetime can be attributed to the trapping of non-equilibrium electrons on neutral acceptor levels. The effect of neutron irradiation on CL intensity can be attributed to an increase in shallow donor concentration. Thermal activation energies resulting from an increase in L or decay of CL intensity monitored through EBIC and CL measurements for p-type Sb doped ZnO were found to be the range of Ea = 112 to 145 meV. P-type Sb doped ZnO nanowires under the influence of temperature and electron injection either through continuous beam impacting or through forward bias, displayed an increase in L and corresponding decay of CL intensity when observed by EBIC or CL measurements. These measurements led to activation energies for the effect ranging from Ea = 217 to 233 meV. These values indicate the possible involvement of a SbZn-2VZn acceptor complex. For N-type unintentionally doped ZnO, CL measurements under the influence of temperature and electron irradiation by continuous beam impacting led to a decrease in CL intensity which resulted in an electron irradiation activation energy of approximately Ea = 259 meV. This value came close to the defect energy level of the zinc interstitial. CL measurements of neutron irradiated ZnO nanostructures revealed that intensity is redistributed in favor of the NBE transition indicating an increase of shallow donor concentration. With annealing contributing to the improvement of crystallinity, a decrease can be seen in the CL intensity due to the increase in majority carrier lifetime. Low energy emission seen from CL spectra can be due to oxygen vacancies and as an indicator of radiation defects.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2012
- Identifier
- CFE0004234, ucf:49018
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004234
- Title
- MONTE CARLO SIMULATION OF HOLE TRANSPORT AND TERAHERTZ AMPLIFICATION IN MULTILAYER DELTA DOPED SEMICONDUCTOR STRUCTURES.
- Creator
-
Dolguikh, Maxim, Peale, Robert, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Monte Carlo method for the simulation of hole dynamics in degenerate valence subbands of cubic semiconductors is developed. All possible intra- and inter-subband scattering rates are theoretically calculated for Ge, Si, and GaAs. A far-infrared laser concept based on intersubband transitions of holes in p-type periodically delta-doped semiconductor films is studied using numerical Monte-Carlo simulation of hot hole dynamics. The considered device consists of monocrystalline pure Ge layers...
Show moreMonte Carlo method for the simulation of hole dynamics in degenerate valence subbands of cubic semiconductors is developed. All possible intra- and inter-subband scattering rates are theoretically calculated for Ge, Si, and GaAs. A far-infrared laser concept based on intersubband transitions of holes in p-type periodically delta-doped semiconductor films is studied using numerical Monte-Carlo simulation of hot hole dynamics. The considered device consists of monocrystalline pure Ge layers periodically interleaved with delta-doped layers and operates with vertical or in-plane hole transport in the presence of a perpendicular in-plane magnetic field. Inversion population on intersubband transitions arises due to light hole accumulation in E B fields, as in the bulk p-Ge laser. However, the considered structure achieves spatial separation of hole accumulation regions from the doped layers, which reduces ionized-impurity and carrier-carrier scattering for the majority of light holes. This allows remarkable increase of the gain in comparison with bulk p-Ge lasers. Population inversion and gain sufficient for laser operation are expected up to 77 K. Test structures grown by chemical vapor deposition demonstrate feasibility of producing the device with sufficient active thickness to allow quasioptical electrodynamic cavity solutions. The same device structure is considered in GaAs. The case of Si is much more complicated due to strong anisotropy of the valence band. The primary new result for Si is the first consideration of the anisotropy of optical phonon scattering for hot holes.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2005
- Identifier
- CFE0000863, ucf:46672
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000863
- Title
- Harpers Weekly. Vol. VIII., No. 383, Saturday, April 30, 1864.
- Date Created
- 1864-04-30
- Identifier
- DP0012804
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/DP0012804
- Title
- Non-Degenerate Two Photon Gain in Bulk Gallium Arsenide.
- Creator
-
Turnbull, Brendan, Hagan, David, Vanstryland, Eric, Christodoulides, Demetrios, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the nonlinear phenomena known as doubly-stimulated, non-degenerate two-photon emission (ND-2PE) in Gallium Arsenide (GaAs). 2PE refers to the simultaneous emission of two-photons as electrons move from the conduction band in a direct gap semiconductor to the valence band. Following the same path for describing one-photon emission (1PE) we describe 2PE as a product of the irradiance, I, and the negative of the loss which in this case is two-photon...
Show moreThe purpose of this thesis is to investigate the nonlinear phenomena known as doubly-stimulated, non-degenerate two-photon emission (ND-2PE) in Gallium Arsenide (GaAs). 2PE refers to the simultaneous emission of two-photons as electrons move from the conduction band in a direct gap semiconductor to the valence band. Following the same path for describing one-photon emission (1PE) we describe 2PE as a product of the irradiance, I, and the negative of the loss which in this case is two-photon absorption, ?_2, the negative coming from the population inversion. We attempt to observe 2PE by using a frequency non-degenerate pump-probe experiment in which a third beam optically excites a 4 (&)#181;m thick GaAs sample. We use non-degenerate beams in hopes of utilizing the 3-orders of magnitude enhancement seen in two-photon absorption (2PA) by going to extreme nondegeneracy (END) to enhance 2PE. GaAs is chosen due to the availability of the appropriate wavelengths, the maturity of the GaAs technology, its use in optoelectronic devices and its ability to be electrically pumped. During the experimental development we learn how to effectively etch and manipulate thin GaAs samples and model the transmission spectrum of these samples using thin film transmission matrices. We are able to match the measured transmission spectrum with the theoretical transmission spectrum. Here we etch the bulk GaAs left on the sample leaving only the 4 (&)#181;m thickness of molecular beam epitaxial grown GaAs plus additional layers of aluminum gallium arsenide (AlGaAs). These samples were grown for us by Professor Gregory Salamo of the University of Arkansas.Using the pump-probe experiment on the 4 (&)#181;m GaAs sample, we measure the change of the 2PA due to the presence of optically excited carriers. The goal is to reduce the 2PA signal to zero and then invert the 2PA signal indicating an increase in transmission indicative of 2PE when the population is inverted. Our results show that we achieve a 45% reduction in the 2PA signal in a 4 ?m thick GaAs sample due to the excited carriers. Unfortunately, we currently cannot experimentally determine whether the reduction is strictly due to free-carrier absorption (FCA) of our pump or possibly due to a change in the two-photon absorption coefficient. We measure the transmission of various wavelengths around the bang gap of GaAs as a function of excitation wavelength and achieve a transmittance of ~80% which we attribute to possibly be one photon gain (1PG) at 880 nm. We also go to cryogenic temperatures to concentrate the carriers near the bottom of the conduction band and improve the theoretical gain coefficient for 2PE. Unfortunately, we do not observe a measurable change in 2PA with the addition of optically excited carriers. Along with FCA of our infrared pump we suspect that the difficulties in this first set of experiments are also a result or radiative recombination due to amplified spontaneous emission reducing our free carrier density along with the fact that 4 ?m is too thick for uniform excitation. We now have 1 ?m samples from Professor Gregory Salamo which we hope will give better and more definitive results.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2013
- Identifier
- CFE0004762, ucf:49776
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004762
- Title
- A Comparative Evaluation of FDSA,GA, and SA Non-Linear Programming Algorithms and Development of System-Optimal Dynamic Congestion Pricing Methodology on I-95 Express.
- Creator
-
Graham, Don, Radwan, Ahmed, Abdel-Aty, Mohamed, Al-Deek, Haitham, Uddin, Nizam, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
As urban population across the globe increases, the demand for adequatetransportation grows. Several strategies have been suggested as a solution to the congestion which results from this high demand outpacing the existing supply of transportation facilities.High (-)Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes have become increasingly more popular as a feature on today's highway system. The I-95 Express HOT lane in Miami Florida, which is currently being expanded from a single Phase (Phase I) into two Phases,...
Show moreAs urban population across the globe increases, the demand for adequatetransportation grows. Several strategies have been suggested as a solution to the congestion which results from this high demand outpacing the existing supply of transportation facilities.High (-)Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes have become increasingly more popular as a feature on today's highway system. The I-95 Express HOT lane in Miami Florida, which is currently being expanded from a single Phase (Phase I) into two Phases, is one such HOT facility. With the growing abundance of such facilities comes the need for in- depth study of demand patterns and development of an appropriate pricing scheme which reduces congestion.This research develops a method for dynamic pricing on the I-95 HOT facility such as to minimize total travel time and reduce congestion. We apply non-linear programming (NLP) techniques and the finite difference stochastic approximation (FDSA), genetic algorithm (GA) and simulated annealing (SA) stochastic algorithms to formulate and solve the problem within a cell transmission framework. The solution produced is the optimal flow and optimal toll required to minimize total travel time and thus is the system-optimal solution.We perform a comparative evaluation of FDSA, GA and SA non-linear programmingalgorithms used to solve the NLP and the ANOVA results show that there are differences in the performance of the NLP algorithms in solving this problem and reducing travel time. We then conclude by demonstrating that econometric forecasting methods utilizing vector autoregressive (VAR) techniques can be applied to successfully forecast demand for Phase 2 of the 95 Express which is planned for 2014.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2013
- Identifier
- CFE0005000, ucf:50019
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005000
