Optical properties of undoped, Be-doped, and Si-doped wurtzite-rich GaAs nanowires grown on Si substrates by molecular beam epitaxy

Abstract

The photoluminescence (PL) of undoped, Si-doped, and Be-doped GaAs nanowires (NWs) grown on Si substrates by molecular beam epitaxy was investigated. PL peaks of the undoped and Be-doped NWs were observed at higher energies than the bandgap energy of GaAs bulk. According to X-ray diffraction analysis, the blue-shift is attributed to the wurtzite-rich GaAs NW structure. Impurity-related peaks were observed in the undoped NWs and the impurity was Si that diffused via interaction with the adatoms on the Si surface during the growth. A slight bandgap narrowing of the Be-doped GaAs NWs was observed from their PL spectra. The Si-doped NWs showed a very broad PL peak due to a larger density of Si-related defects originating from the heavy doping level. The dependence of the PL peaks of the NWs on temperature was also investigated.