No Arabic abstract
Semiconducting nanowire (NW) devices have garnered attention in self-powered electronic and optoelectronic applications. This work explores and exhibits, for the first time for visible light, a clear evidence of the zero-biased optoelectronic switching in randomly dispersed Ge and Si NW networks. The test bench, on which the NWs were dispersed for optoelectronic characterization, was fabricated using standard CMOS fabrication process, and utilized metal contacts with dissimilar work functions - Al and Ni. The randomly dispersed NWs respond to light by exhibiting substantial photocurrents and, most remarkably, demonstrate zero-bias photo-switching. The magnitude of the photocurrent is dependent on the NW material, as well as the channel length. The photocurrent in randomly dispersed GeNWs was found to be higher by orders of magnitude compared to SiNWs. In both of these material systems, when the length of the NWs was comparable to the channel length, the currents in sparse NW networks were found to be higher than that in dense NW networks, which can be explained by considering various possible arrangements of NWs in these devices.
We define single quantum dots of lengths varying from 60 nm up to nearly half a micron in Ge-Si core-shell nanowires. The charging energies scale inversely with the quantum dot length between 18 and 4 meV. Subsequently, we split up a long dot into a double quantum dot with a separate control over the tunnel couplings and the electrochemical potential of each dot. Both single and double quantum dot configurations prove to be very stable and show excellent control over the electrostatic environment of the dots, making this system a highly versatile platform for spin-based quantum computing.
General expressions for the electron- and hole-acoustical-phonon deformation potential Hamiltonian (H_{E-DP}) are derived for the case of Ge/Si and Si/Ge core/shell nanowire structures (NWs) with circular cross section. Based on the short-range elastic continuum approach and on derived analytical results, the spatial confined effects on the vector phonon displacement, the phonon dispersion relation and the electron- and hole-phonon scattering amplitudes are analyzed. It is shown that the acoustical vector displacement, phonon frequencies and H_{E-DP} present mixed torsional, axial, and radial components depending on the angular momentum quantum number and phonon wavector under consideration. The treatment shows that bulk group velocities of the constituent materials are renormalized due to the spatial confinement and intrinsic strain at the interface. The role of insulating shell on the phonon dispersion and electron-phonon coupling in Ge/Si and Si/Ge NWs are discussed.
We settle a general expression for the Hamiltonian of the electron-phonon deformation potential (DP) interaction in the case of non-polar core-shell cylindrical nanowires (NWs). On the basis of long range phenomenological continuum model for the optical modes and by taking into account the bulk phonon dispersions, we study the size dependence and strain-induced shift of the electron-phonon coupling strengths for Ge-Si and Si-Ge NWs. We derive analytically the DP electron-phonon Hamiltonian and report some numerical results for the frequency core modes and vibrational amplitudes. Our approach allows for the unambiguous identification of the strain and confinement effects. We explore the dependence of mode frequencies and hole-DP scattering rates on the structural parameters of these core-shell structures, which constitute a basic tool for the characterization and device applications of these novel nanosystems.
We report an ab initio study of the electronic properties of surface dangling-bond (SDB) states in hydrogen-terminated Si and Ge nanowires with diameters between 1 and 2 nm, Ge/Si nanowire heterostructures, and Si and Ge (111) surfaces. We find that the charge transition levels e(+/-) of SDB states behave as a common energy reference among Si and Ge wires and Si/Ge heterostructures, at 4.3 +/- 0.1 eV below the vacuum level. Calculations of e(+/-) for isolated atoms indicate that this nearly constant value is a periodic-table atomic property.
Semiconductor-superconductor hybrid systems have outstanding potential for emerging high-performance nanoelectronics and quantum devices. However, critical to their successful application is the fabrication of high-quality and reproducible semiconductor-superconductor interfaces. Here, we realize and measure axial Al-Ge-Al nanowire heterostructures with atomically precise interfaces, enwrapped by an ultrathin epitaxial Si layer further denoted as Al-Ge/Si-Al nanowire heterostructures. The heterostructures were synthesized by a thermally induced exchange reaction of single-crystalline Ge/Si core/shell nanowires and lithographically defined Al contact pads. Applying this heterostructure formation scheme enables self-aligned quasi one-dimensional crystalline Al leads contacting ultrascaled Ge/Si segments with contact transparencies greater than 96%. Integration into back-gated field-effect devices and continuous scaling beyond lithographic limitations allows us to exploit the full potential of the highly transparent contacts to the 1D hole gas at the Ge-Si interface. This leads to the observation of ballistic transport as well as quantum confinement effects up to temperatures of 150 K. Low-temperature measurements reveal proximity-induced superconductivity in the Ge/Si core/shell nanowires. The realization of a Josephson field-effect transistor allows us to study the subgap structure caused by multiple Andreev reflections. Most importantly, the absence of a quantum dot regime indicates a hard superconducting gap originating from the highly transparent contacts to the 1D hole gas, which is potentially interesting for the study of Majorana zero modes. Moreover, underlining the importance of the proposed thermally induced Al-Ge/Si-Al heterostructure formation technique, our system could contribute to the development of key components of quantum computing such as gatemon or transmon qubits