Paul L. Thee

Date of Award

6-1994

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Department of Engineering Physics

Abstract

This study on praseodymium Pr luminescence in AlxGa1-xAs was conducted to enhance the understanding of the excitation mechanism. Pr was implanted at 390 keV with doses from 5 x 1012 to 5 x 1013 sq cm into AlxGa1-xAs x0.0 to 0.50 wafers which were annealed using the rapid thermal annealing RTA method. Low temperature photoluminescence PL was conducted using an Ar-ion laser and Ge detector. PL emissions of Pr from all hosts include peaks near 1.3 and 1.6 µm which are assigned to the intra-4f transitions of 1G4 yielding 3H5 and 3F3 yielding 3H4, respectively. The intensity of PL emissions depends strongly on the Al mole fraction. Selective excitation luminescence experiments revealed that the Pr-related PL intensity is quenched when the excitation laser energy is decreased below the host free exciton energy. Temperature dependent PL studies revealed activation energies corresponding to bound exciton dissociation from the Pr ions. Coimplantation of Pr with Er, B, C, N, 0, and F all proved to quench the Pr luminescence. An excitation model proposes that Pr luminescence can occur when the Pr forms bound excitons and absorbs the recombination energy.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-DS-ENP-94-01

DTIC Accession Number

ADA280687

Comments

The author's Vita page is omitted.

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