1 Plateforme Technologique de Microfabrication, Centre de Développement des Technologies Avancées, cité 20 août 1956, Baba Hassen, Algiers, Algeria 2 Microelectronics and Nanotechnology Division, Centre de Développement des Technologies Avancées, cité 20 août 1956, Baba Hassen, 16303, Algiers, Algeria 3 Laboratory of Metallic and Semiconducting Materials, Université de Biskra, B.P 455, 07000 Biskra RP, Algeria 4 School of Physics and Astronomy, Nottingham Nanotechnology and Nanoscience Center, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK

This paper presents a systematic simulation approach for analyzing a p-type Ti/Au/Al0.29Ga0.71 As Schottky diode with traps. The traps parameters are extracted by DLTS (Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy) technique. Simulation was carried out using Atlas-SILVACO TCAD 2D simulator. The simulation is performed using the appropriate physical models to explain the behavior of the physical mechanisms of the Schottky diode. The obtained results are the current-voltage and capacitance-voltage characteristic as function of temperature, frequency and Schottky contact diameters with and without defects.

We have investigated the spin properties of a two-dimensional hole gas (2DHG) formed at the contact layer of a p-type GaAs/AlAs resonant tunneling diode (RTD). We have measured the polarized-resolved photoluminescence of the RTD as a function of bias voltage, laser intensity and external magnetic field up to 15T. By tuning the voltage and the laser intensity, we are able to change the spin-splitting from the 2DHG from almost 0 meV to 5 meV and its polarization degree from − 40% to + 50% at 15T. These results are attributed to changes of the local electric field applied to the two-dimensional gas which affects the valence band and the hole Rashba spin–orbit effect.

Forward and reverse current-voltage (I-V) of Ti/Au/n-Al0.33Ga0.67As/n-GaAs/n-Al0.33Ga0.67As multi-quantum well (MQW) Schottky diodes were measured over a range of temperatures from 20 to 400 K by a step of 20 K. The Schottky diodes parameters were then extracted from these characteristics. The Cheung method is used for this purpose, assuming a thermionic conduction mechanism. The extracted ideality factor decrease with increasing temperatures. But their values at low temperatures were found to be unrealistic. In order to explain this uncertainty, three assumptions were explored. Firstly an assumed inhomogeneous barrier height gave better parameters especially the Richardson constant but the ideality factor is still unrealistic at low temperatures. Secondly, by using numerical simulation, it was demonstrated that defects including interface states are not responsible for the apparent unrealistic Schottky diode parameters. The third assumption is the tunnelling mechanism through the barrier in the low temperature range. At these lower temperatures, the tunnelling mechanism was more suitable to explain the extracted parameters values. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Existence of defect levels into the band gap of titanium oxide (TiO2) due to indium (In) doping was investigated by Deep level transition spectroscopy (DLTS), Raman Spectroscopy and photoluminescence (PL). Particularly, two distinct e-beam grown TiO2 thin film (TF) samples on Si substrates were doped using In films with thicknesses of 5 nm and 50 nm instantaneous source. It was observed that the increasing in In doping concentration has changed the TiO2 crystal structure from anatase to rutile phase. In addition, the low doped Ti/Au/5 nm In/TiO2 TF samples showed at -5 V reverse-bias lower leakage current (3.0 x 10(-7) A) as compared to the highly doped Ti/Au/50 nm In/TiO2 TF devices (7.0 x 10(-5) A). The free carrier concentration was increased from about 10(14) cm(-3) to 10(15) cm(-3) for 5 nm In/TiO2 TF to 50 nm In/TiO2 TF devices, respectively. DLTS results have revealed a unique behaviour where a substantial reduction in deep trap concentration was observed in the samples having larger In doping. A PL band around 2.4 eV and 1.9 eV was observed for 5 nm and 50 nm In/TiO2 TF samples, respectively A blue shift of photoluminescence (PL) energy peak with the increase of temperature was also observed for both samples and was associated to defect related emissions. Finally, the shallow activation energy was determined from the temperature dependence of PL spectra. It was observed that the activation energy increased from 25 meV for the low In-doped TiO2 TF samples to 65 meV for the highly In-doped TiO2 TFs. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In this work, we have investigated transport and polarization resolved photoluminescence (PL) of n-type GaAs-AlGaAs resonant tunneling diodes (RTDs) containing a layer of InGaAs self-assembled quantum rings (QRs) in the quantum well (QW). All measurements were performed under applied voltage, magnetic fields up to 15 T and using linearly polarized laser excitation. It was observed that the QRs’ PL intensity and the circular polarization degree (CPD) oscillate periodically with applied voltage under high magnetic fields at 2 K. Our results demonstrate an effective voltage control of the optical and spin properties of InGaAs QRs inserted into RTDs.

This article reports the effect of n-type GaAs substrate orientation, namely (100), (311)A and (311)B, on the electrical properties of sulfonated polyaniline (SPAN)/GaAs heterojunction devices. In addition, the inhomogeneity of the interface between various GaAs substrates and SPAN is investigated in terms of barrier height and ideality factor by performing I-V measurements at different temperatures (20-420 K). The I-V results indicate that the value of the rectification ratio (I-F/I-R) at 0.5 V is higher for SPAN/(311)B GaAs samples than for SPAN/(100) GaAs and SPAN/(311)A GaAs samples. Moreover, the barrier height decreases and the ideality factor increases with decreasing temperature for all three heterostructure devices. The high value of mean barrier (Phi) over bar (b) of SPAN/(311)B (calculated from the plots of Phi(b0) as a function of 1/2kT) confirms that the GaAs substrate orientation results in an increase of barrier homogeneities. Furthermore, the C-V characteristics were obtained at room temperature. The C-V measurements showed that the carrier distributions at the interface and away from the interface in high index (311) GaAs orientations are more uniform and have better barrier homogeneity than those grown on the conventional (100) GaAs substrates. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

We have investigated the polarization-resolved electroluminescence (EL) of a p–i–n GaAs/AlAs/InGaAs resonant tunneling diode (RTD) containing a GaMnAs (x  =  5%) spin injector under high magnetic fields. We demonstrate that under hole resonant tunneling condition, the GaMnAs contact acts as an efficient spin-polarized source for holes tunneling through the device. Polarization degrees up to 80% were observed in the device around the hole resonance at 2 K under 15 T. Our results could be valuable for improving the hole-spin injection in GaMnAs-based spintronic devices.

InGaAs quantum wire (QWr) intermediate-band solar cell-based nanostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy are studied. The electrical and interface properties of these solar cell devices, as determined by current-voltage (I-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) techniques, were found to change with temperature over a wide range of 20-340 K. The electron and hole traps present in these devices have been investigated using deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS). The DLTS results showed that the traps detected in the QWr-doped devices are directly or indirectly related to the insertion of the Si δ-layer used to dope the wires. In addition, in the QWr-doped devices, the decrease of the solar conversion efficiencies at low temperatures and the associated decrease of the integrated external quantum efficiency through InGaAs could be attributed to detected traps E1QWR_D, E2QWR_D, and E3QWR_D with activation energies of 0.0037, 0.0053, and 0.041 eV, respectively.

A detailed study of interface states in interfacial misfit (IMF) grown GaSb on GaAs substrates is presented. Two types of structures, namely, uncompensated and Te compensated, are investigated using current-voltage, capacitance-frequency, conductance-frequency, and deep level transient spectroscopy techniques. Our studies reveal that incorporation of Te at the interface (IMF) causes a degradation of the Te-compensated devices. A higher number of electrical active defects and higher value of interface states are detected in Te-compensated IMF GaSb/GaAs devices compared with as-grown IMF GaSb/GaAs devices.

This work reports the effect of gamma (gamma-) irradiation on dilute GaAsN with nitrogen concentrations ranging from 0.2 to 1.2% with post-irradiation stability using Current-Voltage (I-V) and Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) measurements in the temperature range from 10 K to 450 K. The I-V results indicate that the irradiation effect was more pronounced in the samples with nitrogen concentration of 0.4%. Additionally, the irradiated samples showed an ideality factor higher than the as-grown samples. On the other hand, for temperatures above 265 K the barrier height of the irradiated samples with 0.8% nitrogen is higher than the as-grown samples. The DLTS measurements revealed that after irradiation the number of traps either decreased remained constant, or new traps are created depending on the concentration of nitrogen. For samples with N = 0.2% - 0.4% the number of traps after irradiation decreased, whereas for samples with N - 0.8% - 1.2 % the number of traps remained the same. However, the properties of some traps such as capture cross-sections and density increased by about 2 orders of magnitude. The origin of the defects present before and after irradiation are discussed and correlated. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Numerical simulation, using SILVACO-TCAD, is carried out to explain experimentally observed effects of different types of deep levels on the capacitance–voltage characteristics of p-type Si-doped GaAs Schottky diodes grown on high index GaAs substrates. Two diodes were grown on (311)A and (211)A oriented GaAs substrates using Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE). Although, deep levels were observed in both structures, the measured capacitance–voltage characteristics show a negative differential capacitance (NDC) for the (311)A diodes, while the (211)A devices display a usual behaviour. The NDC is related to the nature and spatial distribution of the deep levels, which are characterized by the Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) technique. In the (311)A structure only majority deep levels (hole traps) were observed while both majority and minority deep levels were present in the (211)A diodes. The simulation, which calculates the capacitance–voltage characteristics in the absence and presence of different types of deep levels, agrees well with the experimentally observed behaviour.

In this work, we have investigated transport and optical properties of n-i-n resonant tunneling diodes (RTDs) containing a layer of InAs self-assembled quantum dots (QDs) grown on a (311)B oriented GaAs substrate. Polarization-resolved photoluminescence (PL) and magneto-transport measurements were performed under applied voltage and magnetic fields up to 15 T at 2 K under linearly polarized laser excitation. It was observed that the QD circular polarization degree depends strongly on the applied voltage. Its voltage dependence is explained by the formation of excitonic complexes such as positively (X+) and negatively (X-) charged excitons in the QDs. Our results demonstrate an effective electrical control of an ensemble of InAs QD properties by tuning the applied voltage across a RID device into the resonant tunneling condition. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The effect of thermal annealing on Te compensated Interfacial Misfit GaSb/GaAs heterostructures is investigated by using two different thermal annealing procedures, namely rapid thermal annealing and furnace annealing. The electrical properties of the devices are studied by using Current–Voltage, Capacitance–Voltage and Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy techniques. It is observed that rapid thermal annealing treatment is superior in terms of improvement of the electrical characteristics compared to furnace annealing treatment. The lowest leakage current and defect concentration are obtained when rapid thermal annealing is employed.

In this paper, we present an extensive study of the electrical properties of organic-inorganic hybrid heterojunctions. Polyaniline (PANI) thin films were deposited by a very simple technique on (1 0 0) and (3 1 1)B n-type Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) substrates to fabricate hybrid devices with excellent electrical properties. The hybrid devices were electrically characterized using current-voltage (I-V), capacitance-voltage (C-V) and deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) measurements in the temperature range 20-440 K. The analysis of I-V characteristics based on the thermionic emission mechanism has shown a decrease of the barrier height and an increase of the ideality factor at lower temperatures for both hybrid devices. The interface states were analyzed by series resistance obtained using the C-G-V methods. The interface state density (D) of PANI/(1 0 0) GaAs devices is approximately one order of magnitude higher than that of PANI/(3 1 1)B GaAs devices. This behaviour is attributed to the effect of crystallographic orientation of the substrates, and was confirmed by DLTS results as well. Additionally, the devices show excellent air stability, with rectification ratio values almost unaltered after two years of storage under ambient conditions, making the polyaniline an interesting conductor polymer for future devices applications. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Post-growth annealing treatments in the range 400–600°C are performed on GaSb/GaAs Interfacial Misfit grown samples. Current density–voltage (J–V), Capacitance–voltage (C–V), capacitance–frequency (C–F) and Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) measurements are performed on as-grown and annealed samples. Our studies show that possible defect compensation is observed with the annealing treatments, resulting in a significant improvement in the performances of the devices.

In this paper, we have investigated the effect of Be acceptors on the electroluminescence and the spin polarization in GaAs/AlAs p-i-n resonant tunneling diodes. The quantum well emission comprise two main lines separated by ∼20 meV attributed to excitonic and Be-related transitions, which intensities show remarkably abrupt variations at critical voltages, particularly at the electron resonant peak where it shows a high-frequency bistability. The circular-polarization degree of the quantum-well electroluminescence also shows strong and abrupt variations at the critical bias voltages and it attains relatively large values (of ∼−75% at 15 T). These effects may be explored to design novel devices for spintronic applications such as a high-frequency spin-oscillators.

The SILVACO-TCAD numerical simulator is used to explain the effect of different types of deep levels on the temperature dependence of the capacitance of p-type Si-doped GaAs Schottky diodes grown on high index GaAs substrates, namely (311)A and (211)A oriented GaAs substrates. For the (311)A diodes, the measured capacitance-temperature characteristics at different reverse biases show a large peak while the (211)A devices display a much smaller one. This peak is related to the presence of different types of deep levels in the two structures. These deep levels are characterized by the Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) technique. In the (311)A structure only majority deep levels (hole deep levels) were observed while both majority and minority deep levels were present in the (211)A diodes. The simulation software, which calculates the capacitance-voltage and the capacitance-temperature characteristics in the absence and presence of different types of deep levels, agrees well with the experimentally observed behavior of the capacitance-temperature properties. A further evidence to confirm that deep levels are responsible for the observed phenomenon is provided by a simulation of the capacitance-temperature characteristics as a function of the ac-signal frequency. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In this work, we have investigated magneto-transport and polarization resolved photoluminescence of a GaAs /AlGaAs resonant tunneling diode with Si delta-doping at the center of the quantum well under a magnetic field parallel to the tunnel current. Three resonant peaks were observed in the current-voltage characteristics curve (I(V)) which were associated to donor-assisted resonant tunneling, electron resonant tunneling and to phonon-assisted resonant tunneling. The optical emission from GaAs contact layers shows evidence of highly spin-polarized two-dimensional electron and hole gases which affect the spin-polarization of carriers in the well. The quantum well photoluminescence shows strong circular polarization degrees with values up to 85% under 15T at the donor assisted resonant tunneling peak voltage. Our results can be exploited for future development of voltage-controlled spintronics devices.