Abstract Pseudoboehmite (AlOOH.xH2O) is one of the precursors of alumina. Its calcination produces different phases of alumina and at 1200º C the most stable phase, α-alumina, is formed. The synthesis of pseudoboehmite by the sol-gel process results in a product with high purity, high specific surface area, and high reproducibility. The aging of the pseudoboehmite at temperatures above room temperature results in pseudoboehmites with distinct properties. In this work we report the synthesis of pseudoboehmite by the sol-gel process, using aluminum nitrate and aluminum chloride as precursors, and investigate the effect of acetate ion on crystallinity, adsorption capacity, particle morphology, thermal properties and specific surface area. The X-ray diffraction data of the synthesized pseudoboehmites in the presence of the acetate ion revealed high quality nanoparticles.

We have investigated the transport of carriers in GaAs using time resolved optical spectroscopy with picosecond resolution. Carriers are optically created to the sample surface by an ultra-fast laser pulse. They diffuse and drift throught a thick GaAs layer, until they are captured by an InGaAs quantum well, where they recombine with holes from a p-type doped layer at an inner InGaP barrier. Our study was performed with a set of samples with different GaAs layer thickness. As the GaAs thickness increases, the emission from the quantum well is delayed and its decay slows down significantly. We have investigated the effect of an applied DC field between the surface and the InGaAs quantum well. The transient of the quantum well emission is mostly independent of the applied DC voltage up to field of the order of 20 KV/cm, including both polarities. This is a clear indication that the carrier transport is dominated by ambipolar diffusion due to the Coulomb interaction that strongly couples photoinjected electrons and holes. On the other hand, the decay of the GaAs emission varies signi-cantly when a DC gate voltage is applied such as a current appears at the structure.

Zero-Net-Strained (ZNS) InGaAsP/InGaAsP/InP Multi Quantum Wells (MQW) structures grown by Low Pressure Metalorganic Vapor Phase Epitaxy for 1.55mum laser applications were investigated using atomic force microscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. The morphology exhibits a strong anisotropic and modulated behavior. The photoluminescence spectrum shows a broad emission band below the fundamental quantum well transition. The results indicate a strong influence of the growth rate, growth temperature and barrier composition on the surface morphology, and on the optical and structural properties of the ZNS structures. Ridge wave-guide ZNS-MQW laser structures grown at optimized conditions exhibited excellent electro-optic characteristics with low threshold current and high efficiency.

We have investigated the optical and the structural properties of strained In1-xGaxAsyP1-y/InP and strain compensated In1-xGaxAsyP1-y/In1-zGazAsqP1-q/InP multi-quantum well heterostructures grown by low-pressure metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy at different growth conditions. Our results indicate an increase of the compositional fluctuation of quaternary materials as the alloy composition moves from the outer spinodal isotherm into the miscibility gap region. In1-xGaxAsyP1-y layers grown at high tensile strained values exhibit a three-dimensional-like growth mode. Strain compensated structures revealed the presence of a broad photoluminescence emission band below the fundamental quantum well transition, well defined elongated features along the [011] direction and interface undulations. All these effects were found to be strongly dependent on the growth temperature and the number of wells.