Semiconducting nanowires have been explored for a number of applications in optoelectronics such as photodetectors and solar cells. Currently, there is ample interest in identifying the mechanisms that lead to photoresponse in nanowires in order to improve and optimize performance. However, distinguishing among the different mechanisms, including photovoltaic, photothermoelectric, photoemission, bolometric, and photoconductive, is often difficult using purely optoelectronic measurements. In this work, we present an approach for performing combined and simultaneous thermoelectric and optoelectronic measurements on the same individual nanowire. We apply the approach to GaN/AlGaN core/shell and GaN/AlGaN/GaN core/shell/shell nanowires and demonstrate the photothermoelectric nature of the photocurrent observed at the electrical contacts at zero bias, for above- and below-bandgap illumination. Furthermore, the approach allows for the experimental determination of the temperature rise due to laser illumination, which is often obtained indirectly through modeling. We also show that under bias, both above- and below-bandgap illumination leads to a photoresponse in the channel with signatures of persistent photoconductivity due to photogating. Finally, we reveal the concomitant presence of photothermoelectric and photogating phenomena at the contacts in scanning photocurrent microscopy under bias by using their different temporal response. Our approach is applicable to a broad range of nanomaterials to elucidate their fundamental optoelectronic and thermoelectric properties.
The thermoelectric properties of unintentionally n-doped core GaN/AlGaN core/shell N-face nanowires are reported. We found that the temperature dependence of the electrical conductivity is consistent with thermally activated carriers with two distinctive donor energies. The Seebeck coefficient of GaN/AlGaN nanowires is more than twice as large as that for the GaN nanowires alone. However, an outer layer of GaN deposited onto the GaN/AlGaN core/shell nanowires decreases the Seebeck coefficient at room temperature, while the temperature dependence of the electrical conductivity remains the same. We attribute these observations to the formation of an electron gas channel within the heavily-doped GaN core of the GaN/AlGaN nanowires. The room-temperature thermoelectric power factor for the GaN/AlGaN nanowires can be four times higher than the GaN nanowires. Selective doping in bandgap engineered core/shell nanowires is proposed for enhancing the thermoelectric power.
Illumination by a narrow-band laser has been shown to enable photoelectrochemical (PEC) etching of InGaN thin films into quantum dots with sizes controlled by the laser wavelength. Here, we investigate and elucidate the influence of solution pH on such quantum-size-controlled PEC etch process. We find that although a pH above 5 is often used for PEC etching of GaN-based materials, oxides (In2O3 and/or Ga2O3) form which interfere with quantum dot formation. At pH below 3, however, oxide-free QDs with self-terminated sizes can be successfully realized.
There is strong interest in minimizing the volume of lasers to enable ultracompact, low-power, coherent light sources. Nanowires represent an ideal candidate for such nanolasers as stand-alone optical cavities and gain media, and optically pumped nanowire lasing has been demonstrated in several semiconductor systems. Electrically injected nanowire lasers are needed to realize actual working devices but have been elusive due to limitations of current methods to address the requirement for nanowire device heterostructures with high material quality, controlled doping and geometry, low optical loss, and efficient carrier injection. In this project we proposed to demonstrate electrically injected single nanowire lasers emitting in the important UV to visible wavelengths. Our approach to simultaneously address these challenges is based on high quality III-nitride nanowire device heterostructures with precisely controlled geometries and strong gain and mode confinement to minimize lasing thresholds, enabled by a unique top-down nanowire fabrication technique.
Ammonia-based molecular beam epitaxy (NH3-MBE) was used to grow catalyst-assisted GaN nanowires on (11¯02) r-plane sapphire substrates. Dislocation free [112¯0] oriented nanowires are formed with pentagon shape cross-section, instead of the usual triangular shape facet configuration. Specifically, the cross-section is the result of the additional two nonpolar {101¯0} side facets, which appear due to a decrease in relative growth rate of the {101¯0} facets to the {101¯1} and {101¯1} facets under the growth regime in NH3-MBE. Compared to GaN nanowires grown by Ni-catalyzed metal-organic chemical vapor deposition, the NH3-MBE grown GaN nanowires show more than an order of magnitude increase in band-edge to yellow luminescence intensity ratio, as measured by cathodoluminescence, indicating improved microstructural and optical properties.
We report continuous, dynamic, reversible, and widely tunable lasing from 367 to 337 nm from single GaN nanowires (NWs) by applying hydrostatic pressure up to ∼7 GPa. The GaN NW lasers, with heights of 4-5 μm and diameters ∼140 nm, are fabricated using a lithographically defined two-step top-down technique. The wavelength tuning is caused by an increasing Γ direct bandgap of GaN with increasing pressure and is precisely controllable to subnanometer resolution. The observed pressure coefficients of the NWs are ∼40% larger compared with GaN microstructures fabricated from the same material or from reported bulk GaN values, revealing a nanoscale-related effect that significantly enhances the tuning range using this approach. This approach can be generally applied to other semiconductor NW lasers to potentially achieve full spectral coverage from the UV to IR.
We report here the characteristics of photoelectrochemical (PEC) etching of epitaxial InGaN semiconductor thin films using a narrowband laser with a linewidth less than ∼1 nm. In the initial stages of PEC etching, when the thin film is flat, characteristic voltammogram shapes are observed. At low photo-excitation rates, voltammograms are S-shaped, indicating the onset of a voltage-independent rate-limiting process associated with electron-hole-pair creation and/or annihilation. At high photo-excitation rates, voltammograms are superlinear in shape, indicating, for the voltage ranges studied here, a voltage-dependent rate-limiting process associated with surface electrochemical oxidation. As PEC etching proceeds, the thin film becomes rough at the nanoscale, and ultimately the self-limiting etch kinetics lead to an ensemble of nanoparticles. This change in InGaN film volume and morphology leads to a characteristic dependence of PEC etch rate on time: an incubation time, followed by a rise, then a peak, then a slow decay.
Lasing is demonstrated from gallium nitride nanotubes fabricated using a two-step top-down technique. By optically pumping, we observed characteristics of lasing: a clear threshold, a narrow spectral, and guided emission from the nanotubes. In addition, annular lasing emission from the GaN nanotube is also observed, indicating that cross-sectional shape control can be employed to manipulate the properties of nanolasers. The nanotube lasers could be of interest for optical nanofluidic applications or application benefitting from a hollow beam shape.
We report in this letter experimental results that confirm the two-dimensional nature of the electron systems in a superlattice structure of 40 InN quantum wells consisting of one monolayer of InN embedded between 10 nm GaN barriers. The electron density and mobility of the two-dimensional electron system (2DES) in these InN quantum wells are 5 × 1015cm-2 (or 1.25 × 1014cm-2 per InN quantum well, assuming all the quantum wells are connected by diffused indium contacts) and 420 cm2/Vs, respectively. Moreover, the diagonal resistance of the 2DES shows virtually no temperature dependence in a wide temperature range, indicating the topological nature of the 2DES.
We demonstrate a new route to the precision fabrication of epitaxial semiconductor nanostructures in the sub-10 nm size regime: quantum-size-controlled photoelectrochemical (QSC-PEC) etching. We show that quantum dots (QDs) can be QSC-PEC-etched from epitaxial InGaN thin films using narrowband laser photoexcitation, and that the QD sizes (and hence bandgaps and photoluminescence wavelengths) are determined by the photoexcitation wavelength. Low-temperature photoluminescence from ensembles of such QDs have peak wavelengths that can be tunably blue shifted by 35 nm (from 440 to 405 nm) and have line widths that narrow by 3 times (from 19 to 6 nm).