Far-infrared stimulated emission from optically excited bismuth donors in silicon

Pavlov, S.G.; Hübers, Heinz‐Wilhelm; Rümmeli, Mark H.; Жукавин, Р.Х.; Orlova, E. E.; Shastin, V. N.; Riemann, H.

doi:10.1063/1.1489080

Cited by 56 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…It is interesting to note that the Bi D 0 X in Si is described in the earliest studies of bound excitons (BE) in semiconductors [14,15] but has received little attention since then [16]. This likely resulted from the scarcity of samples and, until now, their low quality.Recently [17], Si:Bi samples have been grown from ultrapure natural Si ( nat Si) using a floating-zone technique, for applications involving far-infrared lasers [18]. Samples from those same crystals are studied here, and show very reproducible D 0 X no-phonon (NP) photoluminescence (PL) structure over a wide range of Bi concentration.…”

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Hyperfine Structure and Nuclear Hyperpolarization Observed in the Bound Exciton Luminescence of Bi Donors in Natural Si

et al. 2010

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As the deepest group-V donor in Si, Bi has by far the largest hyperfine interaction and also a large I = 9/2 nuclear spin. At zero field this splits the donor ground state into states having total spin 5 and 4, which are fully resolved in the photoluminescence spectrum of Bi donor bound excitons. Under a magnetic field, the 60 expected allowed transitions cannot be individually resolved, but the effects of the nuclear spin distribution, −9/2 ≤ Iz ≤ 9/2, are clearly observed. A strong hyperpolarization of the nuclear spin towards Iz = −9/2 is observed to result from the nonresonant optical excitation. This is very similar to the recently reported optical hyperpolarization of P donors observed by EPR at higher magnetic fields. We introduce a new model to explain this effect, and predict that it may be very fast.PACS numbers: 78.55. Ap, Recent proposals [1][2][3][4][5] to use the electron and nuclear spins of shallow donor impurities as qubits for Si-based quantum computing (QC) have led to renewed interest in these systems [5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Most studies have focused on 31 P, the most common donor in Si, with an I = 1/2 nuclear spin. Most QC schemes involve enriched 28 Si, as this eliminates the 29 Si nuclear spin, but the removal of inhomogeneous isotope broadening [6] also enables an optical measurement of the donor electron and nuclear spin using the donor bound exciton (D 0 X) transition [7], and furthermore allows for the hyperpolarization of both spin systems at very low magnetic fields by resonant optical pumping [10]. McCamey et al. [9] have reported a different effect in which P nuclear hyperpolarization can be achieved with nonresonant optical excitation in natural Si at high magnetic field and low temperature.Bismuth is the deepest group-V donor in Si, with a binding energy of 70.98 meV [12], and is monoisotopic ( 209 Bi), with a large I = 9/2 nuclear spin and a hyperfine interaction of 1475.4 MHz, more than 12 times the 117.53 MHz value for 31 P [13]. While invoked in some QC proposals [4], Bi has not been the subject of recent study. It is interesting to note that the Bi D 0 X in Si is described in the earliest studies of bound excitons (BE) in semiconductors [14,15] but has received little attention since then [16]. This likely resulted from the scarcity of samples and, until now, their low quality.Recently [17], Si:Bi samples have been grown from ultrapure natural Si ( nat Si) using a floating-zone technique, for applications involving far-infrared lasers [18]. Samples from those same crystals are studied here, and show very reproducible D 0 X no-phonon (NP) photoluminescence (PL) structure over a wide range of Bi concentration. The spectra shown here are from a slice having a resistivity of 5.5 Ω·cm, mostly due to Bi, since the residual B and P concentrations are estimated to be at least an order of magnitude less than the Bi concentration. The sample was mounted without strain in a high homogeneity (0.01 %) split pair superconducting magnet dewar in Voigt configuration, with magnetic field ...

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“…Recently [17], Si:Bi samples have been grown from ultrapure natural Si ( nat Si) using a floating-zone technique, for applications involving far-infrared lasers [18]. Samples from those same crystals are studied here, and show very reproducible D 0 X no-phonon (NP) photoluminescence (PL) structure over a wide range of Bi concentration.…”

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confidence: 99%

Hyperfine Structure and Nuclear Hyperpolarization Observed in the Bound Exciton Luminescence of Bi Donors in Natural Si

et al. 2010

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“…1͒ bring the concept of transition from electrical to optical interconnects closer to realization, the base for any silicon photonics, namely, a group IV laser source, still has to be developed. Up to now, the only lasing devices demonstrated in Si are a Raman laser 2 and Si-based impurity lasers, 3 which essentially lack the advantages associated with the silicon system by requiring an external pump laser source. For silicon as an indirect semiconductor the concept of infrared emitters based on quantum cascade ͑QC͒ heterostructures, which is very successfully applied to III-V material systems, constitutes a promising approach towards a SiGe infrared laser.…”

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Direct monitoring of the excited state population in biased SiGe valence band quantum wells by femtosecond resolved photocurrent experiments

Rauter¹,

Fromherz²,

Bauer³

et al. 2006

Applied Physics Letters

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The authors report a direct measurement of the optical phonon intersubband hole relaxation time in a SiGe heterostructure and a quantitative determination of hole relaxation under electrically active conditions. The results were obtained by femtosecond resolved pump-pump photocurrent experiments using a free electron laser ͑wavelength 7.9 m͒. Additionally, the intensity dependence of the nonlinear photocurrent response was measured. Both types of experiments were simulated using a density matrix description. With one parameter set, a consistent modeling was achieved confirming the significance of the extracted heavy hole relaxation times. For an intersublevel spacing of 160 meV, a value of 550 fs was obtained. Driven by the strong need for cheap and integrable Sibased optoelectronic devices for a wide range of applications, considerable endeavors have been made to develop structures for light emission, modulation, and detection in this material system. While recent breakthroughs like the demonstration of a high-speed optical modulator in Si ͑Ref. 1͒ bring the concept of transition from electrical to optical interconnects closer to realization, the base for any silicon photonics, namely, a group IV laser source, still has to be developed. Up to now, the only lasing devices demonstrated in Si are a Raman laser 2 and Si-based impurity lasers, 3 which essentially lack the advantages associated with the silicon system by requiring an external pump laser source. For silicon as an indirect semiconductor the concept of infrared emitters based on quantum cascade ͑QC͒ heterostructures, which is very successfully applied to III-V material systems, constitutes a promising approach towards a SiGe infrared laser. But while infrared electroluminescence ͑EL͒ of various wavelengths has been demonstrated for p-type SiGe quantum cascade structures, [4][5][6] lasing has yet to be achieved. The buildup of population inversion in order to achieve lasing fundamentally depends on the relaxation lifetime of the excited energy level of the lasing transition. Therefore the measurement and optimization of the intersubband relaxation time constitutes a key issue for the realization of a Si cascade laser source. The intersubband hole relaxation time for transitions below the optical phonon energy ͑Si-Si: 58 meV, GeGe: 36 meV͒ is significantly larger than 10 ps and therefore is experimentally well accessible. 7 The lifetimes for energies above the optical phonon energies are smaller than 1 ps. Thus so far experiments suffered from a lack of time resolution 8 or from hole heating requiring subtraction of heating contributions in order to gain a value for the relaxation time. 9 In this work we report the first direct measurement of the excited heavy hole ͑HH͒ lifetime in the femtosecond regime for quantum well ͑QW͒ transition energies above the optical phonon energy. Time resolved measurements were performed using the free electron laser ͑FEL͒ FELIX at FOM Rijnhuizen. FELIX provides micropulses with full widths at half maximum down to 280 fs an...

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“…It operates on optical transitions between excited states of the isocoric phosphorus donor (emission wavelength: 55.2 mm) in pulsed mode under optical pumping by a midinfrared laser at low lattice temperatures. In 2002-2004 several donor silicon lasers utilizing intracenter optical transitions of all group-V donors in silicon were demonstrated [16][17][18]. The first THz Raman-type intracenter silicon laser was reported in 2006 [19].…”

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The physical principles of terahertz silicon lasers based on intracenter transitions

Pavlov

Жукавин

Shastin

et al. 2012

Physica Status Solidi (b)

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The first silicon laser was reported in the year 2000. It is based on impurity transitions of the hydrogen-like phosphorus donor in monocrystalline silicon. Several lasers based on other group-V donors in silicon have been demonstrated since then. These lasers operate at low lattice temperatures under optical pumping by a midinfrared laser and emit light at discrete wavelengths in the range from 50 to 230 mm (between 1.2 and 6.9 THz). Dipole-allowed optical transitions between particular excited states of group-V substitutional donors are utilized for donortype terahertz (THz) silicon lasers. Population inversion is achieved due to specific electron-phonon interactions of the impurity atom. This results in long-living and short-living excited states of the donor centers. Another type of THz laser utilizes stimulated resonant Raman-type scattering of photons by a Raman-active intracenter electronic transition. By varying the pump-laser frequency, the frequency of the Raman intracenter silicon laser can be continuously changed between at least 4.5 and 6.4 THz. The gain of the donor and Ramantype THz silicon lasers is of the order of 0.5 to 10 cm À1 , which is similar to the net gain realized in THz quantum cascade lasers and infrared Raman silicon lasers. In addition, fundamental aspects of the laser process provide new information about the peculiarities of electronic capture by shallow impurity centers in silicon, lifetimes of nonequilibrium carriers in excited impurity states, and electron-phonon interaction.

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Far-infrared stimulated emission from optically excited bismuth donors in silicon

Cited by 56 publications

References 12 publications

Hyperfine Structure and Nuclear Hyperpolarization Observed in the Bound Exciton Luminescence of Bi Donors in Natural Si

Hyperfine Structure and Nuclear Hyperpolarization Observed in the Bound Exciton Luminescence of Bi Donors in Natural Si

Direct monitoring of the excited state population in biased SiGe valence band quantum wells by femtosecond resolved photocurrent experiments

The physical principles of terahertz silicon lasers based on intracenter transitions

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