No Arabic abstract
THz Time-Resolved Photoconductivity is used to probe carrier dynamics in the dilute III-V nitride GaP0.49As0.47N0.036. In these measurements a femtosecond optical pump-pulse excites electron-hole pairs, and a delayed THz pulse measures the change in conductivity. We find the photoconductivity is dominated by localized carriers. The decay of photoconductivity after excitation is consistent with bimolecular electron-hole recombination with recombination constant r = 3.2E-8 +/-0.8E-8 cm3/s. We discuss the implications for applications in solar energy.
A systematic study of hole compensation effect on magnetic properties, which is controlled by defect compensation through ion irradiation, in (Ga,Mn)As, (In,Mn)As and (Ga,Mn)P is presented in this work. In all materials, both Curie temperature and magnetization decrease upon increasing the hole compensation, confirming the description of hole mediated ferromagnetism according to the p-d Zener model. The material dependence of Curie temperature and magnetization versus hole compensation reveals that the manipulation of magnetic properties in III-Mn-V dilute ferromagnetic semiconductors by ion irradiation is strongly influenced by the energy level location of the produced defect relative to the band edges in semiconductors.
By combining optical spin injection techniques with transport spectroscopy tools, we demonstrate a spin-photodetector allowing for the electrical measurement and active filtering of conduction band electron spin at room temperature in a non-magnetic GaAsN semiconductor structure. By switching the polarization of the incident light from linear to circular, we observe a Giant Spin-dependent Photoconductivity (GSP) reaching up to 40 % without the need of an external magnetic field. We show that the GSP is due to a very efficient spin filtering effect of conduction band electrons on Nitrogen-induced Ga self-interstitial deep paramagnetic centers.
Large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) in transition metal thin films provides a pathway for enabling the intriguing physics of nanomagnetism and developing broad spintronics applications. After decades of searches for promising materials, the energy scale of PMA of transition metal thin films, unfortunately, remains only about 1 meV. This limitation has become a major bottleneck in the development of ultradense storage and memory devices. We discovered unprecedented PMA in Fe thin-film growth on the $(000bar{1})$ N-terminated surface of III-V nitrides from first-principles calculations. PMA ranges from 24.1 meV/u.c. in Fe/BN to 53.7 meV/u.c. in Fe/InN. Symmetry-protected degeneracy between $x^2-y^2$ and $xy$ orbitals and its lift by the spin-orbit coupling play a dominant role. As a consequence, PMA in Fe/III-V nitride thin films is dominated by first-order perturbation of the spin-orbit coupling, instead of second-order in conventional transition metal/oxide thin films. This game-changing scenario would also open a new field of magnetism on transition metal/nitride interfaces.
The role of spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization in III-V nitride heterostructure devices is discussed. Problems as well as opportunities in incorporating polarization in abrupt and graded heterojunctions composed of binary, ternary, and quaternary nitrides are outlined.
As a newly emergent type-II Dirac semimetal, Platinum Telluride (PtTe2) stands out from other 2D noble-transition-metal dichalcogenides for the unique structure and novel physical properties, such as high carrier mobility, strong electron-phonon coupling and tunable bandgap, which make the PtTe2 a good candidate for applications in optoelectronics, valleytronics and far infrared detectors. Although the transport properties of PtTe2 have been studied extensively, the dynamics of the nonequilibrium carriers remain nearly uninvestigated. Herein we employ optical pump-terahertz (THz) probe spectroscopy (OPTP) to systematically study the photocarrier dynamics of PtTe2 thin films with varying pump fluence, temperature, and film thickness. Upon photoexcitation the THz photoconductivity (PC) of 5 nm PtTe2 film shows abrupt increase initially, while the THz PC changes into negative value in a subpicosecond time scale, followed by a prolonged recovery process that lasted hundreds of picoseconds (ps). This unusual THz PC response observed in the 5 nm PtTe2 film was found to be absent in a 2 nm PtTe2 film. We assign the unexpected negative THz PC as the small polaron formation due to the strong electron-Eg-mode phonon coupling, which is further substantiated by pump fluence- and temperature-dependent measurements as well as the Raman spectroscopy. Moreover, our investigations give a subpicosecond time scale of sequential carrier cooling and polaron formation. The present study provides deep insights into the underlying dynamics evolution mechanisms of photocarrier in type-II Dirac semimetal upon photoexcitation, which is fundamental importance for designing PtTe2-based optoelectronic devices.