Role of Boron in Assisting the Super-Enhancement of Emissions from Carbon-Implanted Silicon

The super enhancement of silicon band edge luminescence when co-implanted with boron and carbon is reported. The role of boron in the band edge emissions in silicon was investigated by deliberately introducing defects into the lattice structures. We aimed to increase the light emission intensity from silicon by boron implantation, leading to the formation of dislocation loops between the lattice structures. The silicon samples were doped with a high concentration of carbon before boron implantation and then annealed at a high temperature to activate the dopants into substitutional lattice sites. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements were performed to observe the emissions at the near-infrared region. The temperatures were varied from 10 K to 100 K to study the effect of temperature on the peak luminescence intensity. Two main peaks could be seen at ~1112 and 1170 nm by observing the PL spectra. The intensities shown by both peaks in the samples incorporated with boron are significantly higher than those in pristine silicon samples, and the highest intensity in the former was 600 times greater than that in the latter. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to study the structure of post-implant and post-anneal silicon sample. The dislocation loops were observed in the sample. Through a technique compatible with mature silicon processing technology, the results of this study will greatly contribute to the development of all Si-based photonic systems and quantum technologies.

First-Principles Studies for Electronic Structure and Optical Properties of Strontium Doped β-Ga2O3

The crystal structure, electron charge density, band structure, density of states, and optical properties of pure and strontium (Sr)-doped β-Ga₂O₃ were studied using the first-principles calculation based on the density functional theory (DFT) within the generalized-gradient approximation (GGA) with the Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof (PBE). The reason for choosing strontium as a dopant is due to its p-type doping behavior, which is expected to boost the material’s electrical and optical properties and maximize the devices’ efficiency. The structural parameter for pure β-Ga₂O₃ crystal structure is in the monoclinic space group (C2/m), which shows good agreement with the previous studies from experimental work. Bandgap energy from both pure and Sr-doped β-Ga₂O₃ is lower than the experimental bandgap value due to the limitation of DFT, which will ignore the calculation of exchange-correlation potential. To counterbalance the current incompatibilities, the better way to complete the theoretical calculations is to refine the theoretical predictions using the scissor operator’s working principle, according to literature published in the past and present. Therefore, the scissor operator was used to overcome the limitation of DFT. The density of states (DOS) shows the hybridization state of Ga 3d, O 2p, and Sr 5s orbital. The bonding population analysis exhibits the bonding characteristics for both pure and Sr-doped β-Ga₂O₃. The calculated optical properties for the absorption coefficient in Sr doping causes red-shift of the absorption spectrum, thus, strengthening visible light absorption. The reflectivity, refractive index, dielectric function, and loss function were obtained to understand further this novel work on Sr-doped β-Ga₂O₃ from the first-principles calculation.

Double-peak one-dimensional photonic crystal cavity in parallel configuration for temperature self-compensation in sensing

We designed and demonstrated a double-peak one-dimensional photonic crystal (1D PhC) cavity device by integrating two 1D PhCs cavities in a parallel configuration. The device design is proposed so that it can be used for bio-sensing purposes and has a self-compensation ability to reduce the measurement error caused by the change of the surrounding temperature. By combining two light resonances, two resonance peaks are obtained. The peak's separation, which gives the initial value for a sensing system, can be controlled by varying the cavity length difference (Δc) between the first and second 1D PhCs in parallel. Then, by making one arm of the device as the reference arm and the other arm as the sensing arm, the temperature self-compensation device can be realized. The design and simulation of this device are done by using Lumerical software, which are Lumerical MODE, Lumerical finite-difference time-domain, and Lumerical Interconnect. Electron-beam-lithography and deep reactive-ion-etching processes were used for device fabrication. The experimental results show the controllable peaks' separation, which solves the double-peak requirement for a temperature self-compensated bio-sensor design.

Structural and Photoluminescence Analysis on the Implantation of Carbon and Proton for the Creation of Damage-Assisted Emission in Silicon

We study the induced defects in the depth profiling of the silicon structure after being implanted with carbon and followed by high energy proton irradiation. It has been reported before that the formation of the optically active point-defect, specifically the G-centre is due to the implantation and irradiation of carbon and proton, respectively. It is crucial to quantify the diffusional broadening of the implanted ion profile especially for proton irradiation process so that the radiation damage evolution can be maximized at the point-defect formation region. Profiling analysis was carried out using computational Stopping and Range of Ions in Matter (SRIM) and Surrey University Sputter Profile Resolution from Energy Deposition (SUSPRE) simulation. The energies of carbon ions adopted for this investigation are 10, 20, 30, and 50 keV, while proton irradiation energy was kept at 2 MeV. Photoluminescence measurements on silicon implanted with carbon at different energies were carried out to study the interrelation between the numbers of vacancies produced during the damage event and the peak emission intensities.

Urea and creatinine detection on nano-laminated gold thin film using Kretschmann-based surface plasmon resonance biosensor

This work investigates the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) response of 50-nm thick nano-laminated gold film using Kretschmann-based biosensing for detection of urea and creatinine in solution of various concentrations (non-enzymatic samples). Comparison was made with the presence of urease and creatininase enzymes in the urea and creatinine solutions (enzymatic samples), respectively. Angular interrogation technique was applied using optical wavelengths of 670 nm and 785 nm. The biosensor detects the presence of urea and creatinine at concentrations ranging from 50–800 mM for urea samples and 10–200 mM for creatinine samples. The purpose of studying the enzymatic sample was mainly to enhance the sensitivity of the sensor towards urea and creatinine in the samples. Upon exposure to 670 nm optical wavelength, the sensitivity of 1.4°/M was detected in non-enzymatic urea samples and 4°/M in non-enzymatic creatinine samples. On the other hand, sensor sensitivity as high as 16.2°/M in urea-urease samples and 10°/M in creatinine-creatininase samples was detected. The enhanced sensitivity possibly attributed to the increase in refractive index of analyte sensing layer due to urea-urease and creatinine-creatininase coupling activity. This work has successfully proved the design and demonstrated a proof-of-concept experiment using a low-cost and easy fabrication of Kretschmann based nano-laminated gold film SPR biosensor for detection of urea and creatinine using urease and creatininase enzymes.