No Arabic abstract
The structural and optical properties of 3 different kinds of GaAs nanowires with 100% zinc-blende structure and with an average of 30% and 70% wurtzite are presented. A variety of shorter and longer segments of zinc-blende or wurtzite crystal phases are observed by transmission electron microscopy in the nanowires. Sharp photoluminescence lines are observed with emission energies tuned from 1.515 eV down to 1.43 eV when the percentage of wurtzite is increased. The downward shift of the emission peaks can be understood by carrier confinement at the interfaces, in quantum wells and in random short period superlattices existent in these nanowires, assuming a staggered band-offset between wurtzite and zinc-blende GaAs. The latter is confirmed also by time resolved measurements. The extremely local nature of these optical transitions is evidenced also by cathodoluminescence measurements. Raman spectroscopy on single wires shows different strain conditions, depending on the wurtzite content which affects also the band alignments. Finally, the occurrence of the two crystallographic phases is discussed in thermodynamic terms.
Polarization dependent Raman scattering experiments realized on single GaAs nanowires with different percentages of zinc-blende and wurtzite structure are presented. The selection rules for the special case of nanowires are found and discussed. In the case of zinc-blende, the transversal optical mode E1(TO) at 267 cm-1 exhibits the highest intensity when the incident and analyzed polarization are parallel to the nanowire axis. This is a consequence of the nanowire geometry and dielectric mismatch with the environment, and in quite good agreement with the Raman selection rules. We also find a consistent splitting of 1 cm-1 of the E1(TO). The transversal optical mode related to the wurtzite structure, E2H, is measured between 254 and 256 cm-1, depending on the wurtzite content. The azymutal dependence of E2H indicates that the mode is excited with the highest efficiency when the incident and analyzed polarization are perpendicular to the nanowire axis, in agreement with the selection rules. The presence of strain between wurtzite and zinc-blende is analyzed by the relative shift of the E1(TO) and E2H modes. Finally, the influence of the surface roughness in the intensity of the longitudinal optical mode on {110} facets is presented.
We report both zinc-blende (ZB) and wurtzite (WZ) crystal phase self-assembled GaAs quantum dots (QDs) embedding in a single GaAs/AlGaAs core-shell nanowires (NWs). Optical transitions and single-photon characteristics of both kinds of QDs have been investigated by measuring photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved PL spectra upon application of hydrostatic pressure. We find that the ZB QDs are of direct band gap transition with short recombination lifetime (~1 ns) and higher pressure coefficient (75-100 meV/GPa). On the contrary, the WZ QDs undergo a direct-to-pseudodirect bandgap transition as a result of quantum confinement effect, with remarkably longer exciton lifetime (4.5-74.5 ns) and smaller pressure coefficient (28-53 meV/GPa). These fundamentally physical properties are further examined by performing state-of-the-art atomistic pseudopotential calculations.
A novel method for the direct correlation at the nanoscale of structural and optical properties of single GaAs nanowires is reported. Nanowires consisting of 100% wurtzite and nanowires presenting zinc-blende/wurtzite polytypism are investigated by photoluminescence spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The photoluminescence of wurtzite GaAs is consistent with a band gap of 1.5 eV. In the polytypic nanowires, it is shown that the regions that are predominantly composed of either zinc-blende or wurtzite phase show photoluminescence emission close to the bulk GaAs band gap, while regions composed of a nonperiodic superlattice of wurtzite and zinc-blende phases exhibit a redshift of the photoluminescence spectra as low as 1.455 eV. The dimensions of the quantum heterostructures are correlated with the light emission, allowing us to determine the band alignment between these two crystalline phases. Our first-principles electronic structure calculations within density functional theory, employing a hybrid-exchange functional, predict band offsets and effective masses in good agreement with experimental results.
Solid state physics and quantum electrodynamics with its ultra-relativistic (massless) particles meet, to their mutual beneit, in the electronic properties of one-dimensional carbon nanotubes as well as two-dimensional graphene or surfaces of topological insulators. However, clear experimental evidence for electronic states with conical dispersion relations in all three dimensions, conceivable in certain bulk materials, is still missing. In the present work, we fabricate and study a zinc-blend crystal, HgCdTe, at the point of the semiconductor-to-semimetal topological transition. Three-dimensional massless electrons with a velocity of about 10$^6$ m/s are observed in this material, as testifed by: (i) the dynamical conductivity which increases linearly with the photon frequency, (ii) in a magnetic field $B$, by a $sqrt{B}$ dependence of dipole-active inter-Landau-level resonances and (iii) the spin splitting of Landau levels, which follows a $sqrt{B}$ dependence, typical of ultra-relativistic particles but not really seen in any other electronic system so far.
We use polarized photocurrent spectroscopy in a nanowire device to investigate the band structure of hexagonal Wurtzite InAs. Signatures of optical transitions between four valence bands and two conduction bands are observed which are consistent with the symmetries expected from group theory. The ground state transition energy identified from photocurrent spectra is seen to be consistent with photoluminescence emitted from a cluster of nanowires from the same growth substrate. From the energies of the observed bands we determine the spin orbit and crystal field energies in Wurtzite InAs. This information is essential to the development of crystal phase engineering of this important III-V semiconductor.