Use and performance criteria of photonic devices increase in various application areas such as information and communication, lighting, and photovoltaics. In many current and future photonic devices, surfaces of a semiconductor crystal are a weak part causing significant photo-electric losses and malfunctions in applications. These surface challenges, many of which arise from material defects at semiconductor surfaces, include signal attenuation in waveguides, light absorption in light emitting diodes, non-radiative recombination of carriers in solar cells, leakage (dark) current of photodiodes, and light reflection at solar cell interfaces for instance. To reduce harmful surface effects, the optical and electrical passivation of devices has been developed for several decades, especially with the methods of semiconductor technology. Because atomic scale control and knowledge of surface-related phenomena have become relevant to increase the performance of different devices, it might be useful to enhance the bridging of surface physics to photonics. Toward that target, we review some evolving research subjects with open questions and possible solutions, which hopefully provide example connecting points between photonic device passivation and surface physics. One question is related to the properties of the wet chemically cleaned semiconductor surfaces which are typically utilized in device manufacturing processes, but which appear to be different from crystalline surfaces studied in ultrahigh vacuum by physicists. In devices, a defective semiconductor surface often lies at an embedded interface formed by a thin metal or insulator film grown on the semiconductor crystal, which makes the measurements of its atomic and electronic structures difficult. To understand these interface properties, it is essential to combine quantum mechanical simulation methods. This review also covers metal-semiconductor interfaces which are included in most photonic devices to transmit electric carriers to the semiconductor structure. Low-resistive and passivated contacts with an ultrathin tunneling barrier are an emergent solution to control electrical losses in photonic devices.

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弥合表面物理学和光子学之间的差距

光子器件的使用和性能标准在信息和通信、照明和光伏等各种应用领域中不断增加。在许多当前和未来的光子器件中，半导体晶体的表面是薄弱部分，会导致应用中的显着光电损耗和故障。这些表面挑战，其中许多是由半导体表面的材料缺陷引起的，包括波导中的信号衰减、发光二极管中的光吸收、太阳能电池中载流子的非辐射复合、光电二极管的泄漏（暗）电流以及光反射例如，太阳能电池接口。为了减少有害的表面效应，器件的光学和电学钝化已经发展了几十年，特别是半导体技术的方法。由于原子尺度控制和表面相关现象的知识已经与提高不同设备的性能相关，因此增强表面物理与光子学的桥梁可能有用。为了实现这一目标，我们回顾了一些不断发展的研究主题，提出了开放性问题和可能的解决方案，希望能够提供光子器件钝化和表面物理之间的连接点示例。其中一个问题与湿式化学清洁半导体表面的特性有关，这种半导体表面通常用于器件制造工艺，但似乎与物理学家在超高真空中研究的晶体表面不同。在器件中，有缺陷的半导体表面通常位于由半导体晶体上生长的薄金属或绝缘体薄膜形成的嵌入界面处，这使得对其原子和电子结构的测量变得困难。为了理解这些界面特性，必须结合量子力学模拟方法。本综述还涵盖了大多数光子器件中用于将电载流子传输到半导体结构的金属-半导体界面。具有超薄隧道势垒的低电阻和钝化触点是控制光子器件中电损耗的新兴解决方案。