Ultra-low power fiber-coupled gallium arsenide photonic crystal cavity electro-optic modulator.

We demonstrate a gallium arsenide photonic crystal cavity injection-based electro-optic modulator coupled to a fiber taper waveguide. The fiber taper serves as a convenient and tunable waveguide for cavity coupling with minimal loss. Localized electrical injection of carriers into the cavity region via a laterally doped p-i-n diode combined with the small mode volume of the cavity enable ultra-low energy modulation at sub-fJ/bit levels. Speeds of up to 1 GHz are demonstrated with photoluminescence lifetime measurements revealing that the ultimate limit goes well into the tens of GHz.

Transport of deposited atoms throughout strain-mediated self-assembly.

Using enriched isotopes, we developed a method to elucidate the long-standing issue of Ge transport governing the strain-driven self-assembly. Here 76Ge was employed to form the 2D metastable layer on a Si(001) surface, while the 3D transition and growth were completed by additional evaporation of 70Ge. This isotope tracing combined with the analysis of the Ge-Ge LO phonon enables the tracking of the origin of Ge atoms and their flow towards the growing islands. This atomic transport was quantified based on the quasiharmonic approximation of Ge-Ge vibrations and described using a rate equation model.

Influence of molecular ordering on electrical and friction properties of ω-(trans-4-stilbene)alkylthiol self-assembled monolayers on Au(111).

The electrical and friction properties of ω-(trans-4-stilbene)alkylthiol self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on Au(111) were investigated using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and near edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (NEXAFS). The sample surface was uniformly covered with a molecular film consisting of very small grains. Well-ordered and flat monolayer islands were formed after the sample was heated in nitrogen at 120 °C for 1 h. While lattice resolved AFM images revealed a crystalline phase in the islands, the area between islands showed no order. The islands exhibit substantial reduction (50%) in friction, supporting the existence of good ordering. NEXAFS measurements revealed an average upright molecular orientation in the film, both before and after heating, with a narrower tilt-angle distribution for the heated fim. Conductance-AFM measurements revealed a 2 orders of magnitude higher conductivity on the ordered islands than on the disordered phase. We propose that the conductance enhancement is a result of a better π-π stacking between the trans-stilbene molecular units as a result of improved ordering in islands.

Ultrafast direct modulation of a single-mode photonic crystal nanocavity light-emitting diode.

Low-power and electrically controlled optical sources are vital for next generation optical interconnect systems to meet strict energy demands. Current optical transmitters consisting of high-threshold lasers plus external modulators consume far too much power to be competitive with future electrical interconnects. Here we demonstrate a directly modulated photonic crystal nanocavity light-emitting diode (LED) with 10 GHz modulation speed and less than 1 fJ per bit energy of operation, which is orders of magnitude lower than previous solutions. The device is electrically controlled and operates at room temperature, while the high modulation speed results from the fast relaxation of the quantum dots used as the active material. By virtue of possessing a small mode volume, our LED is intrinsically single mode and, therefore, useful for communicating information over a single narrowband channel. The demonstrated device is a major step forward in providing practical low-power and integrable sources for on-chip photonics.

Control of defect concentrations within a semiconductor through adsorption.

The technologically useful properties of a crystalline solid depend upon the concentration of defects it contains. Here we show that defect concentrations as deep as 0.5 microm within a semiconductor can be profoundly influenced by gas adsorption. Self-diffusion rates within silicon show that nitrogen atoms adsorbed at less than 1% of a monolayer lead to defect concentrations that vary controllably over several orders of magnitude. The results show that previous measurements of diffusion and defect thermodynamics in semiconductors may have suffered from neglect of adsorption effects.

Compositional modulation in In(x)Ga(1-x)N: TEM and X-ray studies.

Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) have been used to study compositional modulation in In(x)Ga(1-x) N layers grown with compositions close to miscibility gap. The samples (0.34 < x < 0.8) were deposited by molecular beam epitaxy using either a 200 nm thick AlN or GaN buffer layer grown on a sapphire substrate. Periodic compositional modulation leads to extra electron diffraction spots and satellite reflections in XRD in the theta-2theta coupled geometry. The ordering period delta measured along c-axis was about delta = 45 A for x = 0.5 and delta = 66 A for x = 0.78 for samples grown on AlN buffer layer. TEM and XRD determinations of delta were in good agreement. Compositional modulation was not observed for the sample with x = 0.34 grown on a GaN buffer layer. Larger values of delta were observed for layers with higher In content and for those having larger mismatch with the underlying AlN buffer layer. The possibility that the roughness of the AlN growth surface promotes strong In segregation on particular crystallographic planes leading to compositional modulation is considered.