The electroluminescence （EL） and photoluminescence （PL） spectra of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells （MQWs） with a prestrained InGaN interlayer in a laser diode structure are investigated. When the injection current increases from 5 mA to 50 mA, the blueshift of the EL emission peak is 1 meV for the prestrained sample and 23 meV for a control sample with the conventional structure. Also, the internal quantum efficiency and the EL intensity at the injection current of 20 mA are increased by 71% and 65% respectively by inserting the prestrained InGaN interlayer. The reduced blueshift and the enhanced emission are attributed mainly to the reduced quantum-confined Stark effect （QCSE） in the prestrained sample. Such attributions are supported by the theoretical simulation results, which reveal the smaller piezoelectric field and the enhanced overlap of electron and hole wave functions in the prestrained sample. Therefore, the prestrained InGaN interlayer contributes to strain relaxation in the MQW layer and enhancement of light emission due to the reduction of QCSE.
A series of experiments were conducted to systematically study the effects of etching conditions on GaN by a con-venient photo-assisted chemical （PAC） etching method. The solution concentration has an evident influence on the surface morphology of GaN and the optimal solution concentrations for GaN hexagonal pyramids have been identified. GaN with hexagonal pyramids have higher crystal quality and tensile strain relaxation compared with as-grown GaN. A detailed anal- ysis about evolution of the size, density and optical property of GaN hexagonal pyramids is described as a function of light intensity. The intensity of photoluminescence spectra of GaN etched with hexagonal pyramids significantly increases compared to that of as-grown GaN due to multiple scattering events, high quality GaN with pyramids and the Bragg effect.
We investigate the mechanism for the improvement of p-type doping efficiency in Mg-Al0.14Ga0.86N/GaN super- lattices （SLs）. It is shown that the hole concentration of SLs increases by nearly an order of magnitude, from 1.1 × 1017 to 9.3×1017 cm-3, when an AlN interlayer is inserted to modulate the strains. SchrSdinger-Poisson self-consistent calculations suggest that such an increase could be attributed to the reduction of donor-like defects caused by the strain modulation induced by the AlN interlayer. Additionally, the donor-acceptor pair emission exhibits a remarkable decrease in intensity of the cathodoluminescence spectrumlfor SLs with an A1N interlayer. This supports the theoretical calculations and indicates that the strain modulation of SLs could be beneficial to the donor-like defect suppression as well as the p-type doping efficiency improvement.
Free standing silicene is a two-dimensional silicon monolayer with a buckled honeycomb lattice and a Dirac band structure. Ever since its first successful synthesis in the laboratory, silicene has been considered as an option for post-silicon electronics, as an alternative to graphene and other two-dimensional materials. Despite its theoretical high carrier mobility,the zero band gap characteristic makes pure silicene impossible to use directly as a field effect transistor(FET) operating at room temperature. Here, we first review the theoretical approaches to open a band gap in silicene without diminishing its excellent electronic properties and the corresponding simulations of silicene transistors based on an opened band gap.An all-metallic silicene FET without an opened band gap is also introduced. The two chief obstacles for realization of a silicene transistor are silicene’s strong interaction with a metal template and its instability in air. In the final part, we briefly describe a recent experimental advance in fabrication of a proof-of-concept silicene device with Dirac ambipolar charge transport resembling a graphene FET, fabricated via a growth-transfer technique.
Measurements of the excitation power-dependence and temperature-dependence photoluminescence（PL） are performed to investigate the emission mechanisms of In Ga N/Ga N quantum wells（QWs） in laser diode structures. The PL spectral peak is blueshifted with increasing temperature over a certain temperature range. It is found that the blueshift range was larger when the PL excitation power is smaller. This particular behavior indicates that carriers are thermally activated from localized states and partially screen the piezoelectric field present in the QWs. The small blueshift range corresponds to a weak quantum-confined Stark effect（QCSE） and a relatively high internal quantum efficiency（IQE） of the QWs.
The electronic structure and magnetic properties of the transition-metal （TM） atoms （Sc-Zn, Pt and Au） doped zigzag GaN single-walled nanotubes （NTs） are investigated using first-principles spin-polarized density functional calculations. Our results show that the bindings of all TM atoms are stable with the binding energy in the range of 6-16 eV. The Sc- and V-doped GaN NTs exhibit a nonmagnetic behavior. The GaN NTs doped with Ti, Mn, Ni, Cu and Pt are antiferromagnetic. On the contrary, the Cr-, Fe-, Co-, Zn- and Au-doped GaN NTs show the ferromagnetic characteristics. The Mn- and Co- doped GaN NTs induce the largest local moment of 4#B among these TM atoms. The local magnetic moment is dominated by the contribution from the substitutional TM atom and the N atoms bonded with it.
Spintronics involves the study of active control and manipulation of spin degrees of freedom in solid-state systems. The fascinating spin-resolved properties of graphene motivate numerous researchers to study spintronics in graphene and other two-dimensional(2D) materials. Silicene, the silicon analog of graphene, is considered to be a promising material for spintronics. Here, we present a review of theoretical advances with regard to spin-dependent properties, including the electric field- and exchange field-tunable topological properties of silicene and the corresponding spintronic device simulations.
