University of Maryland LibrariesDigital Repository at the University of Maryland
    • Login
    View Item 
    •   DRUM
    • Theses and Dissertations from UMD
    • UMD Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    •   DRUM
    • Theses and Dissertations from UMD
    • UMD Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Silicon-Germanium Photodetectors for Optical Telecommunications

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    Ali_umd_0117E_13509.pdf (13.32Mb)
    No. of downloads: 54774

    Date
    2012
    Author
    Ali, Dyan
    Advisor
    Goldhar, Julius
    Richardson, Christopher J.K.
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    This thesis investigates the design and growth of silicon-germanium p-i-n photodetectors for optical telecommunications applications. Two types of heterostructures are considered: strained silicon-germanium layers grown directly on silicon substrates, and strain-balanced silicon-germanium/silicon superlattice grown on relaxed buffer layers. The heterostructures are designed using existing band structure models and are grown using solid source molecular beam epitaxy (SS-MBE). To facilitate these growths, an atomic absorption spectroscopy- based flux monitor for the silicon source is developed and calibrated. In addition, the development of a substrate preparation procedure for relaxed buffer layers that is compatible with SS-MBE is developed and allows the growth of epitaxial films with low defect densities. P-i-n diodes processed from these films are shown to have low reverse leakage currents densities compared to other competing devices. Photocurrent spectroscopy is used to characterize these structures. A clear reduction in the bandgap of the heterostructures over that of the constituent alloys due to exploitation of the Type-II band offsets in the silicon-germanium material system is demonstrated in both, the strained and strain-balanced photodetectors. Finally, the low leakage current densities are exploited to fabricate devices with noise equivalent powers comparable to or better than competing approaches based on the growth of germanium on silicon substrates.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/1903/13075
    Collections
    • Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses and Dissertations
    • UMD Theses and Dissertations

    DRUM is brought to you by the University of Maryland Libraries
    University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-7011 (301)314-1328.
    Please send us your comments.
    Web Accessibility
     

     

    Browse

    All of DRUMCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

    My Account

    LoginRegister
    Pages
    About DRUMAbout Download Statistics

    DRUM is brought to you by the University of Maryland Libraries
    University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-7011 (301)314-1328.
    Please send us your comments.
    Web Accessibility