Zhores Alferov

The History of Semiconductor
Heterostructures Reserch: from Early Double Heterostructure
Concept to Modern Quantum Dot
Structures

St Petersburg Academic University —
Nanotechnology Research and Education Centre RAS

• Introduction • Transistor discovery • Discovery of laser-maser principle and birth of optoelectronics

• Heterostructure early proposals • Double heterostructure concept: classical, quantum well and superlattice heterostructure. “God-made” and “Man-made” crystals

• Heterostructure electronics • Quantum dot heterostructures and development of quantum dot lasers

• Future trends in heterostructure technology • Summary

2

The Nobel Prize in Physics 1956

"for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect"

• William Bradford
• Walter Houser
• John

Shockley

1910–1989

Brattain

1902–1987

Bardeen

1908–1991

• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6

W. Shockley and A. Ioffe. Prague. 1960.

7

The Nobel Prize in Physics 1964

"for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser-laser principle"

• Charles Hard
• Aleksandr
• Nicolay

• Townes
• Prokhorov
• Basov

1922–2001

• b. 1915
• 1916–2002

• 8
• 9

Proposals of semiconductor injection lasers

• N. Basov, O. Krochin and Yu. Popov

(Lebedev Institute, USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow) JETP, 40, 1879 (1961)

• M.G.A. Bernard and G. Duraffourg

(Centre National d’Etudes des Telecommunications, Issy-les-Moulineaux, Seine) Physica Status Solidi, 1, 699 (1961)

10

Lasers and LEDs on p–n junctions

• January 1962: observations of superlumenscences in GaAs p-n junctions
(Ioffe Institute, USSR).

• Sept.-Dec. 1962: laser action in GaAs and GaAsP p-n junctions
(General Electric , IBM (USA); Lebedev Institute (USSR).

Wavelength

“+”

E_Fⁿ
L_Dⁿ
L_D^p

p

• E_g
• hν

GaAs

n

E_F^p

Cleaved mirror

“–”

Eⁿ – E^p > E_g

Condition of optical gain:

• F
• F

11

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2000

"for basic work on information and communication technology"

“for developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed- and opto-electronics”
“for his part in the invention of the integrated circuit”

Zhores I.
Herbert
Jack S.

Alferov
Kilby

1923–2005

Kroemer

b. 1930 b. 1928

• 12
• 13

circuit

• 14
• 15
• 16

Fundamental physical phenomena in classical heterostructures

Electrons

E

(a) (b) (c)

c

One-side Injection

Propozal — 1948 (W. Shokley) Experiment — 1965 (Zh. Alferov et al.)

∆E

c

F

n

F

p

Holes

∆E

v

Superinjection

Theory — 1966 (Zh. Alferov et al.)

Experiment — 1968 (Zh. Alferov et al.)

Electrons

F
E

nc

F

p

E

v

Holes

Diffusion in built-in quasielectric field

Electrons

Theory — 1956 (H. Kroemer) Experiment — 1967 (Zh. Alferov et al.)

17

Fundamental physical phenomena in classical heterostructures

(d)

Electron and optical confinement

Propozal — 1963 (Zh. Alferov, R. Kazarinov)
(H. Kroemer)

E

c

F

n

F E

Experiment — 1968 (Zh. Alferov et al.)

pv

(e)

Superlattices

Theory — 1962 (L.V. Keldysh) Experiment —1970 (L. Esaki et al.)

E E

c

Stimulated emission:

v

Theory — 1971 (R. Kazarinov and R. Suris)

Experiment —1994 (F. Capasso et al.)

18

Heterojunctions—a new kind of semiconductor materials:

Long journey from infinite interface recombination to ideal heterojunction

Lattice matched heterojunctions

2.8
AlP

• Ge–GaAs–1959

(R. L. Anderson)

GaP
2.0

1.2 0.4
AlSb

• AlGaAs–1967

(Zh. Alferov et al., J. M. Woodall & H. S. Rupprecht)

InP
GaAs

GaSb

InAs
Ge

• Quaternary HS
(InGaAsP & AlGaAsSb)

Proposal–1970

5.40 5.56 5.72 5.88 6.04 6.20
Lattice constant ( ) [300 K]

(Zh. Alferov et al.)

Å

First experiment–1972

(Antipas et al.)

19

Radiation spectrum for the first low threshold
Al_xGa_1–xAs DHS laser at room temperature

(a)

(3)
1.59 eV

1.39 eV

300 K J_th = 4300 A/cm²

×100

(b)

1.59 eV
1.61 eV
(2)
(2)
1.61 eV

(1)
(1)

7760
Wavelength (

• 7820
• 7100 7700 8300 8900

• Wavelength (
• Å)
• Å)

20