Heterojunction

Another example of epitaxy is tin growdi on the (100) surfaces of InSb or CdTe a = 6.49 A) [14]. At room temperature, elemental tin is metallic and adopts a bet crystal structure ( white tin ) with a lattice constant of 5.83 A. However, upon deposition on either of the two above-mentioned surfaces, tin is transfonned into the diamond structure ( grey tin ) with a = 6.49 A and essentially no misfit at the interface. Furtliennore, since grey tin is a semiconductor, then a novel heterojunction material can be fabricated. It is evident that epitaxial growth can be exploited to synthesize materials with novel physical and chemical properties. 

Some of tliese problems are avoided in heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) [jU, 38], tlie majority of which are based on III-V compounds such as GaAs/AlGaAs. In an HBT, tlie gap of tlie emitter is larger tlian tliat of tlie base. The conduction and valence band offsets tliat result from tlie matching up of tlie two different materials at tlie heterojunction prevent or reduce tlie injection of tlie base majority carriers into tlie emitter. This peniiits tlie use of... 

Margaritondo G (ed) 1988 E/eofro/r/o Structure of Semiconductor Heterojunctions (MWan Kluwer)... 

Heterocoagulation Heterocyclic Heterocyclic amines Heterocyclic azo dyes Heterocyclic compounds Heterocyclic dyes Heterocyclic polymers Heterocyclic thiophenes Heteroepitaxy Heterogeneous catalysis Heterogemte Heteroglycan Heterojunction... 

The first semiconductor lasers, fabricated from gallium arsenide material, were formed from a simple junction (called a homojunction because the composition of the material was the same on each side of the junction) between the type and n-ty e materials. Those devices required high electrical current density, which produced damage ia the region of the junction so that the lasers were short-Hved. To reduce this problem, a heterojunction stmcture was developed. This junction is formed by growing a number of layers of different composition epitaxially. This is shown ia Figure 12. There are a number of layers of material having different composition is this ternary alloy system, which may be denoted Al Ga his notation, x is a composition... 

Because there are two changes ia material composition near the active region, this represents a double heterojunction. Also shown ia Figure 12 is a stripe geometry that confines the current ia the direction parallel to the length of the junction. This further reduces the power threshold and makes the diffraction-limited spreading of the beam more symmetric. The stripe is often defined by implantation of protons, which reduces the electrical conductivity ia the implanted regions. Many different stmctures for semiconductor diode lasers have been developed. 

This confinement yields a higher carrier density of elections and holes in the active layer and fast ladiative lecombination. Thus LEDs used in switching apphcations tend to possess thin DH active layers. The increased carrier density also may result in more efficient recombination because many nonradiative processes tend to saturate. The increased carrier confinement and injection efficiency faciUtated by heterojunctions yields increasing internal quantum efficiencies for SH and DH active layers. Similar to a SH, the DH also faciUtates the employment of a window layer to minimise absorption. In a stmcture grown on an absorbing substrate, the lower transparent window layer may be made thick (>100 /tm), and the absorbing substrate subsequendy removed to yield a transparent substrate device. 

Four different types of junctions can be used to separate the charge carriers in solar cebs (/) a homojunction joins semiconductor materials of the same substance, eg, the homojunction of a p—n sibcon solar ceb separates two oppositely doped layers of sibcon 2) a heterojunction is formed between two dissimbar semiconductor substances, eg, copper sulfide, Cu S, and cadmium sulfide, CdS, in Cu S—CdS solar cebs (J) a Schottky junction is formed when a metal and semiconductor material are joined and (4) in a metal—insulator—semiconductor junction (MIS), a thin insulator layer, generaby less than 0.003-p.m thick, is sandwiched between a metal and semiconductor material. 

Fabrication methods that are generaby used to make these junctions are diffusion, ion implantation, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), vacuum deposition, and bquid-phase deposition for homojunctions CVD, vacuum deposition, and bquid-phase deposition for heterojunctions and vacuum deposition for Schottky and MIS junctions. 

Copper Sulfide—Cadmium Sulfide. This thin-film solar cell was used in early aerospace experiments dating back to 1955. The Cu S band gap is ca 1.2 eV. Various methods of fabricating thin-film solar cells from Cu S/CdS materials exist. The most common method is based on a simple process of serially overcoating a metal substrate, eg, copper (16). The substrate first is coated with zinc which serves as an ohmic contact between the copper and a 30-p.m thick, vapor-deposited layer of polycrystaUine CdS. A layer is then formed on the CdS base by dipping the unit into hot cuprous chloride, followed by heat-treating it in air. A heterojunction then exists between the CdS and Cu S layers. 

The main advantages that compound semiconductor electronic devices hold over their siUcon counterparts He in the properties of electron transport, excellent heterojunction capabiUties, and semi-insulating substrates, which can help minimise parasitic capacitances that can negatively impact device performance. The abiUty to integrate materials with different band gaps and electronic properties by epitaxy has made it possible to develop advanced devices in compound semiconductors. The hole transport in compound semiconductors is poorer and more similar to siUcon. Eor this reason the majority of products and research has been in n-ty e or electron-based devices. 

Eig. 10. Schematic of various LED and laser diode stmctures where S signifies material of a lower energy band gap (a) homojunction, (b) double-heterojunction (DH), and (c) multiquantum well (MQW) stmctures. 

Analysis of stress distributions in epitaxial layers In-situ characterization of dislocation motion in semiconductors Depth-resolved studies of defects in ion-implanted samples and of interface states in heterojunctions. 

Certain features in the PR spectra at 300 K from GaAs/Gai j,jAlj heterojunction bipolar transistor structures have been correlated with actual device performance thus PR can be used as an effective screening tool. From the observed FK oscillations it has been possible to evaluate the built-in dc electric fields in the Gai j jAlj emitter, as well as in the n—GaAs collector region. The behavior... 

Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS). When the p-n junction and the GaAs/GaAlAs heterojunction are not coincident, carrier recombination occurs, reducing the current and the performance of fabricated heterojunction bipolar transistors. 

In real device structures like heterojunction bipolar transistors, certain features in the PR spectrum can be correlated with actual device performance. Thus PR has been employed as an effective contacdess screening technique to eliminate structures that have imwanted properties. 

W.R.L.Lambrecht, B.SegaJl and O.K.Andersen, Self-consistent dipole theory of heterojunction band offsets , Phys. Rev. B41 2813 (1990). 

Contacts are the elementary building blocks for all electronic devices. These include interfaces between semiconductors of different doping type (homojunctions) or of different composition (heterojunctions), and junctions between a metal and a semiconductor, which can be either rectifying (Schotlky junction) or ohmic. Because of their primary importance, the physics of semiconductor junctions is largely dealt with in numerous textbooks [11, 12]. We shall concentrate here on basic aspects of the metal-semiconductor (MS) and, above all, metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) junctions, which arc involved in the oiganic field-effect transistors. 

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