There is an urgent requirement for an optical emitter that is compatible with standard, silicon-based ultra-large-scale integration (ULSI) technology. Bulk silicon has an indirect energy bandgap and ...is therefore highly inefficient as a light source, necessitating the use of other materials for the optical emitters. However, the introduction of these materials is usually incompatible with the strict processing requirements of existing ULSI technologies. Moreover, as the length scale of the devices decreases, electrons will spend increasingly more of their time in the connections between components; this interconnectivity problem could restrict further increases in computer chip processing power and speed in as little as five years. Many efforts have therefore been directed, with varying degrees of success, to engineering silicon-based materials that are efficient light emitters. Here, we describe the fabrication, using standard silicon processing techniques, of a silicon light-emitting diode (LED) that operates efficiently at room temperature. Boron is implanted into silicon both as a dopant to form a p-n junction, as well as a means of introducing dislocation loops. The dislocation loops introduce a local strain field, which modifies the band structure and provides spatial confinement of the charge carriers. It is this spatial confinement which allows room-temperature electroluminescence at the band-edge. This device strategy is highly compatible with ULSI technology, as boron ion implantation is already used as a standard method for the fabrication of silicon devices.
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Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The LUX-ZEPLIN experiment recently reported limits on WIMP-nucleus interactions from its initial science run, down to 9.2 x 10–48 cm2 for the spin-independent interaction of a 36 GeV/c2 WIMP at 90% ...confidence level. In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis of the backgrounds important for this result and for other upcoming physics analyses, including neutrinoless double-beta decay searches and effective field theory interpretations of LUX-ZEPLIN data. We confirm that the in-situ determinations of bulk and fixed radioactive backgrounds are consistent with expectations from the ex-situ assays. The observed background rate after WIMP search criteria were applied was (6.3 ± 0.5) x 10–5 events /keVee/kg/day in the low-energy region, approximately 60 times lower than the equivalent rate reported by the LUX experiment.
We report on the super enhancement of the 1.54 μm Er emission in erbium doped silicon-on-insulator when codoped with oxygen at a ratio of 1:1. This is attributed to a more favourable crystal field ...splitting in the substitutional tetrahedral site favoured for the singly coordinated case. The results on these carefully matched implant profiles show that optical response is highly determined by the amount and ratio of erbium and oxygen present in the sample and ratios of O:Er greater than unity are severely detrimental to the Er emission. The most efficient luminescence is forty times higher than in silicon-on-insulator implanted with Er only. This super enhancement now offers a realistic route not only for optical communication applications but also for the implementation of silicon photonic integrated circuits for sensing, biomedical instrumentation and quantum communication.
We estimate the amount of 37Ar produced in natural xenon via cosmic-ray-induced spallation, an inevitable consequence of the transportation and storage of xenon on the Earth’s surface. We then ...calculate the resulting 37Ar concentration in a 10-tonne payload (similar to that of the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment) assuming a representative schedule of xenon purification, storage, and delivery to the underground facility. Using the spallation model by Silberberg and Tsao, the sea-level production rate of 37Ar in natural xenon is estimated to be 0.024 atoms/ kg/day . Assuming the xenon is successively purified to remove radioactive contaminants in 1-tonne batches at a rate of 1 tonne/month, the average 37Ar activity after 10 tons are purified and transported underground is 0.058 - 0.090 μBq/kg , depending on the degree of argon removal during above-ground purification. Such cosmogenic 37Ar will appear as a noticeable background in the early science data, while decaying with a 35-day half-life. This newly noticed production mechanism of 37Ar should be considered when planning for future liquid-xenon-based experiments.
We present a study of bismuth and aluminium co-implanted silica thin films and the effectiveness of post implantation annealing at activating Bismuth related photoluminescence. The only emission seen ...in photoluminescence from any of the samples was centred at 1160nm and is of the kind generally reported as due to silicon dislocation loops. In particular, the layers did not exhibit the broad NIR emission in photoluminescence as reported by other authors in Bismuth doped silica fibres. In order to study the retention of the Bismuth in the layers after annealing Rutherford Backscattering measurements were conducted on the samples, these found that the concentration of bismuth in the samples was greatly reduced following the annealing process when compared to the concentration implanted and explains why we measured no emission from bismuth. The concentration of bismuth remaining in the sample post anneal depended on the initial implant doses of bismuth and aluminium. We propose that aluminium plays the role of increasing the solubility of bismuth in oxide but that this was not sufficient in our samples to observe the photoemission reported for fibre materials.
The effect of the temperature ranging from cryogenics to room temperature were investigated on the formation of the optically-active point defect called the G-centre. The G- centre as an emissive ...point defect gained a lot of attention recently due to its sharp zero phonon luminescence peak at a wavelength of 1.28 μm (0.97 eV) with the evidence of lasing occurred in the structure. The emission of the G-centre is attributed to the carbon substitutional-carbon interstitial (CsCi) complex which interacts with silicon interstitials during the damage event. This complex is generated by implantation of carbon and followed by proton irradiation. Prior to the carbon implantation, two of the samples were pre-amorphised by germanium. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements were carried out at temperature ranging from 80 K up to room temperature to observe the intensity of the main peaks. The results confirm that the main peaks of point-defect centre in all of the samples including the G-centre suffer from the temperature quenching. However, the peak intensity for some of the wavelength especially the ones with high FWHM, do perform better at high temperature. The temperature quenching phenomena observed in the point-defect technique is the main problem that needs to be addressed and solved before realizing the method in the all silicon photonic system.
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