Academic literature on the topic 'GaAs nanomembrane'

GaAs nanomembranes grown by selective area epitaxy are novel structures. The high refractive index of GaAs makes them good candidates for nanoantennas. We numerically studied the optical modal structure of the resonator. The nanomembrane geometry introduces a strong light-polarization dependence. The scattering is dominated by an electric dipole contribution for polarization along the nanomembrane long dimension and by a magnetic dipole contribution in the orthogonal direction. The dependence on the geometry of the resonances close to the GaAs band gap was modeled by a single coefficient. It describes the resonance shifts against up-to 40% changes in length, height, and width. We showed that the nanomembranes exhibited field enhancement, far-field directionality, and tunability with the GaAs band gap. All these elements confirm their great potential as nanoantennas.

A 100 nm MOCVD-grown HEMT AlGaAs/InGaAs/GaAs heterostructure nanomembrane was released from the growth GaAs substrate by ELO using a 300 nm AlAs layer and transferred to sapphire. The heterostructure contained a strained 10 nm 2DEG In0.23Ga0.77As channel with a sheet electron concentration of 3.4 × 1012 cm−2 and Hall mobility of 4590 cm2V−1s−1, which was grown close to the center of the heterostructure to suppress a significant bowing of the nanomembrane both during and after separation from the growth substrate. The as-grown heterostructure and transferred nanomembranes were characterized by HRXRD, PL, SEM, and transport measurements using HEMTs. The InGaAs and AlAs layers were laterally strained: ~−1.5% and ~−0.15%. The HRXRD analysis showed the as-grown heterostructure had very good quality and smooth interfaces, and the nanomembrane had its crystalline structure and quality preserved. The PL measurement showed the nanomembrane peak was shifted by 19 meV towards higher energies with respect to that of the as-grown heterostructure. The HEMTs on the nanomembrane exhibited no degradation of the output characteristics, and the input two-terminal measurement confirmed a slightly decreased leakage current.

Here, heterostructures composed of p+Si nanomembranes (NM)/n+GaAs were fabricated by ultraviolet/ozone (UV/O3, UVO) treatment, and their tunneling properties were investigated. The hydrogen (H)-terminated Si NM was bonded to the oxygen (O)-terminated GaAs substrate, leading to Si/GaAs tunnel junctions (TJs). The atomic-scale features of the H-O-terminated Si/GaAs TJ were analyzed and compared to those of Si/GaAs heterojunctions with no UVO treatment. The electrical characteristics demonstrated the emergence of negative differential resistance, with an average peak-to-valley current ratio of 3.49, which was examined based on the band-to-band tunneling and thermionic emission theories.

ABSTRACTDue to their highly favorable materials properties such as direct bandgap, appropriate bandgap energy against solar spectrum, and ability to form multiple junctions, epitaxially grown III-V compound semiconductors such as gallium arsenide have provided unmatched performance over silicon in solar energy harvesting. However, their large-scale deployment in terrestrial photovoltaics remains as a daunting challenge mainly due to the high cost of growing device-quality epitaxial materials. In this regard, releasable multilayer epitaxial growth in conjunction with printing-based deterministic materials assemblies represents a promising approach that can overcome this challenge but also create novel engineering designs and device functionalities, each with significant practical values in photovoltaic technologies. This article will provide an overview of recent advances in materials design, fabrication concept, and nanophotonic light management of multilayer-grown nanomembrane-based GaAs solar cells aiming for high performance, cost-efficient platforms of III-V photovoltaics.

We demonstrate the feasibility of growing GaAs nanomembranes on a plastically-relaxed Ge layer deposited on Si (111) by exploiting selective area epitaxy in MBE. Our results are compared to the case of the GaAs homoepitaxy to highlight the criticalities arising by switching to heteroepitaxy. We found that the nanomembranes evolution strongly depends on the chosen growth parameters as well as mask pattern. The selectivity of III-V material with respect to the SiO2 mask can be obtained when the lifetime of Ga adatoms on SiO2 is reduced, so that the diffusion length of adsorbed Ga is high enough to drive the Ga adatoms towards the etched slits. The best condition for a heteroepitaxial selective area epitaxy is obtained using a growth rate equal to 0.3 ML/s of GaAs, with a As BEP pressure of about 2.5 × 10−6 torr and a temperature of 600 °C.

I semiconduttori sono una categoria di materiali fondamentali per lo sviluppo di molteplici dispositivi. Negli ultimi decenni, l’evoluzione dell’industria dei semiconduttori ha seguito la nota legge di Moore. Tuttavia, questo straordinario processo di innovazione va incontro a un ostacolo nei prossimi anni, in quanto il processo di miniaturizzazione sta raggiungendo la scala atomica. Per questo motivo, è necessario sviluppare strategie alternative. In particolare, metodi di crescita bottom-up sono attualmente studiati per lo sviluppo di nanostrutture 3D. In questa Tesi, per riprodurre la dinamica di crescita 3D, abbiamo sviluppato una tecnica modellistica che possa trattare la crescita verticale di nanostrutture. Un approccio cinetico, legato alla dinamica di incorporazione degli adatomi, deve essere utilizzato per simulare questo regime di crescita, che non può essere correttamente spiegato con un approccio termodinamico standard, basato sulle densità di energia superficiale. La simulazione di crescite verticali è un risultato complicato non solo per la definizione di un modello appropriato, ma richiede anche una tecnica numerica specifica. In particolare, in questa Tesi, abbiamo adottato un modello phase-field applicato allo studio della crescita di nanomembrane di GaAs, sfruttando il metodo a elementi finiti per la risoluzione numerica delle equazioni di evoluzione del sistema. Per lo sviluppo di dispositivi, è spesso necessario ricorrere a etero-strutture, che combinano diversi tipi di semiconduttori, per esempio per le applicazioni optoelettroniche dove spesso si utilizzano delle giunzioni p-n. Inoltre, la crescita eteroepitassiale può essere sfruttata anche per trasferire la struttura cristallina da un materiale a un altro. In questa Tesi, ci siamo focalizzati sullo studio di nanofili core/shell e abbiamo effettuato un’accurata caratterizzazione delle deformazioni elastiche della struttura cristallina che si verificano in questi sistemi. In particolare, il rilassamento elastico è stato studiato con un modello continuo, basato sul metodo a elementi finiti. In particolare, abbiamo studiato il fenomeno di piegamento di nanowire GaP/InGaP e abbiamo correlato questo fenomeno con la distribuzione delle deformazioni elastiche all’interno della struttura. Inoltre, abbiamo investigato il ruolo del rilassamento elastico nei nanofili Ge/GeSn in riferimento al fenomeno di incorporazione di Sn nella shell. L’evoluzione di nanostrutture può essere determinata anche dall’effetto combinato di energia di superficie ed energia elastica. L’esempio più studiato in letteratura è la crescita eteroepitassiale di isole su substrati planari, secondo la modalità di crescita di tipo Stranski-Krastanov. Per le applicazioni tecnologiche, è fondamentale poter controllare la distribuzione spaziale e l’uniformità della taglia delle isole. In questa Tesi, presentiamo un modello di crescita phase-field, che combina la descrizione della dinamica di diffusione superficiale con la caratterizzazione tramite elementi finiti del rilassamento elastico, al fine di simulare la crescita ordinata di isole su substrati patternati con pit. In particolare, ci focalizziamo sul sistema prototipico di Ge cresciuto su Si. Il vantaggio del modello phase-field basato sul metodo a elementi finiti è la possibilità di risolvere in modo esatto le equazioni di evoluzione, senza la necessità di adottare approssimazioni di ordine superiore nella formulazione delle equazioni, pur considerando con precisione la geometria patternata del substrato.
Semiconductors are the main building block for a variety of devices in our life. The semiconductor industry, in the last decades, has evolved by following the Moore's law. However, this incredible innovation process is going to reach an end in the next years, as the miniaturization process is getting too close to the atomistic size, which hinders the development of smaller devices. Therefore, alternative ways to evolve the current technologies have to been exploited. In particular, bottom-up approaches are currently being studied for the growth of 3D nanostructures. In this Thesis, to deal with the 3D growth dynamics, we develop a modeling technique that can reproduce the vertical growth of nanostrucutures. A kinetic approach, related to the incorporation dynamics of adatoms on the surface, has to be adopted to model the peculiar growth of 3D nanostructures, which cannot be explained by the standard thermodynamic arguments based on the surface energy densities. The simulation of the vertical growth is not just challenging for the definition of a proper model, but it requires also a dedicated technique for the numerical solution of the evolution dynamics. In particular, in this Thesis, we exploit a phase field model to simulate the growth on GaAs nanomembranes, based on a finite element method for the solution of the evolution equations. For the development of devices, it is often required to build heterostructures which combine different semiconductors, for instance for optoelectronic applications where a p-n junction is required. Furthermore, the heteroepitaxial growth can be exploited also to transfer some structural material properties, such as the hexagonal lattice structure, from a material to another. In this Thesis, we focus on the core/shell nanowire heteroepitaxial system and we provide a detailed characterization of the elastic deformations in the crystal structure. The elastic relaxation is studied in a continuum elasticity framework by finite element method. In particular, we study the bending of GaP/InGaP nanowires and we correlate this phenomenon with the partitioning of the elastic deformation within the nanostructure. Moreover, we investigate the role of the elastic relaxation in Ge/GeSn core/shell nanowires with respect to the incorporation of Sn in the shell. The evolution of nanostructures can be driven also by the combined effect of surface energy and elastic energy contributions. One of the most studied examples of this is the heteroepitaxial growth of islands on planar substrates, following the Stranski-Krastanov growth mode. For technological applications it is fundamental to control the spatial distribution and the size-uniformity of the islands. In this Thesis, we propose a phase-field model which combines the description for the surface diffusion dynamics and the finite element characterization of the strain field to study the ordered growth of islands on pit-patterned substrates. In particular, we choose the prototypical system where Ge islands are grown on a Si substrate. The advantage of the phase-field model based on finite element method is the possibility to exactly solve the evolution equations of the system, without the need of higher order approximations and with the possibility to precisely consider the effect on the elastic relaxation which is provided by the substrate morphology.

We report the fabrication of Ni2.7Mn0.9Ga0.4/InGaAs bilayers on GaAs (001)/InGaAs substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. To form freestanding microtubes the bilayers have been released from the substrate by strain engineering. Microtubes with up to three windings have been successfully realized by tailoring the size and strain of the bilayer. The structure and magnetic properties of both, the initial films and the rolled-up microtubes, are investigated by electron microscopy, X-ray techniques and magnetization measurements. A tetragonal lattice with c/a = 2.03 (film) and c/a = 2.01 (tube) is identified for the Ni2.7Mn0.9Ga0.4 alloy. Furthermore, a significant influence of the cylindrical geometry and strain relaxation induced by roll-up on the magnetic properties of the tube is found
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Дисертаційна робота присвячена встановленню механізмів і закономірностей формування наносистем Cu, Cr, Ni, Zn за умов близькорівноважної конденсації на основі CVD- (для наносистем Cu) або PVD- технологій (для наносистем Cr, Ni, Zn), а також використання як шаблонів наномембран АОА (для наносистем Zn і Ni). Досліджені: процеси зародкоутворення та механізми подальшого формування відтворюваних наносистем Cr за умов близькорівноважної та стаціонарної конденсації в системі плазма-конденсат; взаємозв'язок між структурно-морфологічними характеристиками пористих наносистем ZnO і їх сенсорними властивостями по відношенню до водню, пропан-бутанової суміші, а також етанолу та ацетону; механізми структуроутворення конденсатів Сu поблизу термодинамічної рівноваги при використанні CVD-технології. Запропоновано принципово новий технологічний підхід до процесу отримання упорядкованих наносистем Ni та Zn за допомогою наномембран Al2O3. При цьому вперше керування процесом конденсації всередині пор було реалізовано за допомогою використання розробленого пристрою на основі магнетронного розпилювача. Установлений взаємозв'язок між технологічними параметрами отримання наносистем Cu, Cr, Ni, Zn, ZnO і фізичними процесами їх структуроутворення.
Диссертация посвящена установлению механизмов и закономерностей формирования наносистем Cu, Cr, Ni, Zn в условиях околоравновесной конденсации на основе CVD- (для наносистем Cu) или PVD- технологий (для наносистем Cr, Ni, Zn), а также использования в качестве шаблонов наномембран АОА (для наносистем Zn и Ni). Исследованы: процессы зародышеобразования и механизмы дальнейшего формирования воспроизводимых наносистем Cr в условиях околоравновесной и стационарной конденсации в системе плазма-конденсат; взаимосвязь между структурно-морфологическим характеристикам пористых наносистем ZnO и их сенсорными свойствами по отношению к водороду, пропан-бутановой смеси, а также этанола и ацетона; механизмы структурообразования конденсатов Сu вблизи термодинамического равновесия при использовании CVD-технологии. Предложено принципиально новый технологический подход к процессу получения упорядоченных наносистем Ni и Zn с помощью наномембран Al2O3. При этом впервые управление процессом конденсации внутри пор было реализовано посредством использования разработанного устройства на основе магнетронного распылителя. Установлена взаимосвязь между технологическими параметрами получения наносистем Cu, Cr, Ni, Zn, ZnO и физическими процессами их структурообразования.
The thesis is devoted to the establishment of mechanisms and regularities of the formation of Cu, Cr, Ni, Zn nanosystems under conditions of near-equilibrium condensation on the basis of CVD- (for Cu nanosystems) or PVD-technologies (for Cr, Ni, Zn nanosystems), as well as use as templates of nanosized AOA (for nanosystems Zn and Ni). Investigations: the processes of nucleation and the mechanisms of the further formation of Cr-nanosystems reproduced under conditions of near equilibrium and stationary condensation in the plasma-condensate system; the relationship between the structural and morphological characteristics of porous ZnO nanosystems and their sensory properties in relation to hydrogen, propane-butane mixture, ethanol and acetone; mechanisms of structuring Cu condensates near thermodynamic equilibrium using CVD technology. A fundamentally new technological approach to the process of obtaining ordered Ni and Zn nanosystems with the aid of Al2O3 nanomembranes is proposed. At the same time, for the first time, the control of the process of condensation inside the pores was realized using the developed device based on the magnetron spray. The interconnection between the technological parameters of the production of Cu, Cr, Ni, Zn, ZnO nanosystems and the physical processes of their structuring is established.

Extracorporeal blood therapies such as hemodialysis and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation supplement or replace organ function by the exchange of molecules between blood and another fluid across a semi-permeable membrane. Traditionally, these membranes are made of polymers with large surface areas and thicknesses on the scale of microns. Therapeutic gas exchange or toxin clearance in these devices occurs predominantly by diffusion, a process that is described by an inverse square law relating a distance to the average time a diffusing particle requires to travel that distance. As such, small changes in membrane thickness or other device dimensions can have significant effects on device performance — and large changes can cause dramatic paradigm shifts. In this work, we discuss the application of ultrathin nanoporous silicon membranes (nanomembranes) with thicknesses on the scale of tens of nanometers to diffusion-mediated medical devices. We discuss the theoretical consequences of nanomembrane medical devices for patients, analyzing several notable benefits such as reduced device size (enabling wearability, for instance) and improved clearance specificity. Special attention is paid to computational and analytical models that describe real experimental behavior, and that in doing so provide insights into the relevant parameters governing the devices.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have received much attention from both the scientific and industrial communities due to their structural properties and unique morphology. There has also been growing interest in vertically aligned single walled carbon nanotubes (VA-SWNTs) because of their suitability for building devices such as solar cells and nanomembrane. Various methods including chemical vapor deposition (CVD) have been developed for growing VA-SWNTs. Among them is alcohol catalytic CVD which is well known for its economic viability, comprehensive substrates selectivity and good yield of VA-SWNTs. This work studies the length assurance of VA-SWNTs growth by an experimental design and an artificial neural network (ANN) metamodel. Process analysis shows that the interaction between gas flow rate and growth time are the most significant input factors. In addition, with high probability flow rate less than 150 sccm and a growth time of 20 minutes are suitable for the repeatability of medium length VA-SWNTs.