Influence of the surface roughness on the properties of Au films measured by surface plasmon resonance and x-ray reflectometry.

Thickness and refractive index of Au films thermally evaporated onto glass substrates and with an underlayer of Cr are determined from surface plasmon resonance. The results for the thickness are found to agree very well with those from X-ray reflectivity when a simple model of layers with flat interfaces is used. Plasmon propagation along thin films is influenced by radiative damping due to scattering from surface roughness. To study this influence the surface roughness of the glass substrate, Cr an Au layers are measured by X-ray reflectometry and the results used to introduce three intermediate layers with effective refractive indices and thicknesses corresponding to the roughness. Then Fresnel's equations are used to fit the reflectivity and to deduce the layer properties. It is found that the roughness affects to a great extent the optical parameters of the Au films even when it is smaller than 1 nm. In particular, the absolute value of real part of the dielectric constant decreases while its imaginary part increases when those effects are not taken into account. © 2011, Elsevier Ltd

Engineering parallel and perpendicular polarized photoluminescence from a single semiconductor nanowire by crystal phase control

We report on a crystal phase-dependent photoluminescence (PL) polarization effect in individual wurtzite GaAs nanowires with a zinc blende GaAsSb insert grown by Au-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. The PL emission from the zinc blende GaAsSb insert is strongly polarized along the nanowire axis while the emission from the wurtzite GaAs nanowire is perpendicularly polarized. The results indicate that the crystal phases, through optical selection rules, are playing an important role in the alignment of the PL polarization in nanowires besides the linear polarization induced by the dielectric mismatch. The strong excitation power dependence and long recombination lifetimes (∼4 ns) from the wurtzite GaAs and zinc blende GaAsSb-related PL emission strongly indicate the existence of type II band alignments in the nanowire due to the presence of nanometer thin zinc blende segments and stacking faults in the wurtzite GaAs barrier. © 2010 American Chemical Society

A Story Told by a Single Nanowire: Optical Properties of Wurtzite GaAs

The optical properties of the wurtzite (WZ) GaAs crystal phase found in nanowires (NWs) are a highly controversial topic. Here, we study high-quality pure WZ GaAs/AlGaAs core–shell NWs grown by Au-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) with microphotoluminescence spectroscopy (μ-PL) and (scanning) transmission electron microscopy on the very same single wire. We determine the room temperature (294 K) WZ GaAs bandgap to be 1.444 eV, which is ∼20 meV larger than in zinc blende (ZB) GaAs, and show that the free exciton emission at 15 K is at 1.516 eV. On the basis of time- and temperature-resolved μ-PL results, we propose a Γ₈ conduction band symmetry in WZ GaAs. We suggest a method for quantifying the optical quality of NWs, taking into consideration the difference between the room and low temperature integrated PL intensity, and demonstrate that Au-assisted GaAs/AlGaAs core–shell NWs can have high PL brightness up to room temperature

Position-Controlled Uniform GaAs Nanowires on Silicon using Nanoimprint Lithography

We report on the epitaxial growth of large-area position-controlled self-catalyzed GaAs nanowires (NWs) directly on Si by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Nanohole patterns are defined in a SiO₂ mask on 2 in. Si wafers using nanoimprint lithography (NIL) for the growth of positioned GaAs NWs. To optimize the yield of vertical NWs the MBE growth parameter space is tuned, including Ga predeposition time, Ga and As fluxes, growth temperature, and annealing treatment prior to NW growth. In addition, a non-negligible radial growth is observed with increasing growth time and is found to be independent of the As species (i.e., As₂ or As₄) and the growth temperatures studied. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy analysis of the GaAs NW/Si substrate heterointerface reveals an epitaxial growth where NW base fills the oxide hole opening and eventually extends over the oxide mask. These findings have important implications for NW-based device designs with axial and radial p–n junctions. Finally, NIL positioned GaAs/AlGaAs core–shell heterostructured NWs are grown on Si to study the optical properties of the NWs. Room-temperature photoluminescence spectroscopy of ensembles of as-grown core–shell NWs reveals uniform and high optical quality, as required for the subsequent device applications. The combination of NIL and MBE thereby demonstrates the successful heterogeneous integration of highly uniform GaAs NWs on Si, important for fabricating high throughput, large-area position-controlled NW arrays for various optoelectronic device applications

High Magnetic Field Reveals the Nature of Excitons in a Single GaAs/AlAs Core/Shell Nanowire

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