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The low-frequency power spectrum has been measured for ErAs:InAlGaAs diodes and shows at least a ten-times reduction of 1/f noise compared to traditional Al Schottky diodes on the same semiconductor material. These junctions are grown by molecular beam epitaxy, preventing oxidation and other contamination at the junction. The major noise source for these devices is attributed to the sidewalls and not the junction itself. Low-frequency oscillations have also been observed and associated with a deep trap level estimated to be similar to 200 meV below the conduction band edge by the comparison of diodes with different InAlGaAs compositions and confirmed by deep level transient spectroscopy. This deep level could be associated to erbium incorporation in the depletion region.

We demonstrate a molecular beam epitaxy growth technique to create intentionally textured interfaces between semimetallic ErAs and GaAs that result in interface orientations that are different from the substrate. To grow the textured interfaces, ErAs is deposited on (100) GaAs and islands form in an island growth mode. Enough GaAs is then deposited to fill the space between islands with semiconductor. More ErAs is deposited on the ErAs/GaAs surface and the new ErAs islands are thought to nucleate on the exposed top surface of the partially covered islands. The process is repeated to "stack" the islands. By quadratically increasing the amount of ErAs deposited in each repetition, the islands form into cones/pyramids that coalesce into a complete film with an intentionally roughened interface. Compared to a smooth interface between ErAs and GaAs, the Schottky barrier height between textured ErAs and n-GaAs can be reduced from similar to 0.81 to similar to 0.52 eV, and the Schottky barrier height between ErAs and p-GaAs can be increased from similar to 0.38 to similar to 0.63 eV. (c) 2006 American Vacuum Society.

In contrast to traditional metal-semiconductor (i.e., Schottky) junctions, molecular beam epitaxy (MBE)-grown ErAs:InAlGaAs heterojunctions have recently been shown to provide highly "engineerable" electrical rectification characteristics through the tuning of the Schottky barrier height, while maintaining the very low specific capacitance. This letter reports an approximate 10x improvement in the low-frequency noise performance by using MBE-grown ErAs as the Schottky contact instead of evaporated aluminum. The low-frequency noise power spectrum of ErAs devices has been observed to have a 1/f(1.0) frequency dependence. Constant-current bias-dependent measurements have shown a 1.8 power law dependence of the noise spectral density on dc current. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.

We demonstrate subpicosecond photocarrier lifetimes at 1.55 mum in GaSb/ErSb nanoparticle superlattices grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Pump-probe measurements were made with a 1.55 mum mode-locked laser in transmission geometry to determine the photocarrier lifetime. The lifetime is found to be dependent on the size of the ErSb particles, amount of ErSb, and the distance between layers of particles. Through manipulation of these three parameters the photocarrier lifetime can be tuned down to less than 300 fs, the temporal limit of our experiment. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.