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Using Dx Centers to Write Erasable Metallic Patterns in AlGaAs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 February 2011

Tineke Thio ,
R.A. Linke ,
G.E. Devlin ,
J.W. Bennett ,
J.D. Chadi ,
R.L. Macdonald  and
M. Mizuta
Tineke Thio
Affiliation:
NEC Research Institute, 4 Independence Way, Princeton NJ 08540
R.A. Linke
Affiliation:
NEC Research Institute, 4 Independence Way, Princeton NJ 08540
G.E. Devlin
Affiliation:
NEC Research Institute, 4 Independence Way, Princeton NJ 08540
J.W. Bennett
Affiliation:
NEC Research Institute, 4 Independence Way, Princeton NJ 08540
J.D. Chadi
Affiliation:
NEC Research Institute, 4 Independence Way, Princeton NJ 08540
R.L. Macdonald
Affiliation:
NEC Research Institute, 4 Independence Way, Princeton NJ 08540
M. Mizuta
Affiliation:
Fundamental Research Laboratories, NEC Corp., Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305, Japan
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Abstract

DX centers are semiconductor dopants which form deep states due to a large lattice relaxation. At low temperature, the DX centers exhibit persistent photoconductivity. When exposed to light in a spatial pattern, the photocarriers are confined to the illuminated regions by Coulomb interaction with the localised DX centers. The resulting spatial modulation of the free carrier density gives rise to a modulation of both the electrical conductivity and the dielectric constant. We demonstrate both effects by measurements of the conductance anisotropy and optical diffraction of samples exposed to excitation in a striped pattern. Erasure is achieved by thermal annealing. The constrast ratio of the conductivity modulation is greater than 108; in our experiment it is limited to ∼100 by light scattering. We estimate that 100nm resolution is feasible. Optical diffraction efficiencies up to 40% have been demonstrated in a stripe-illuminated thick sample. The persistence of the written patterns at low temperature is potentially useful in high-density data storage applications and the fabrication of erasable submicron devices.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 360 , 1994 , 91
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1995

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References

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