Room temperature emission in narrow (14 nm) [formula omitted] quantum wires with strong lateral confinement effects

Abstract

We have fabricated deep etched Cd0.35Zn0.65SeZnSe quantum wires with lateral extensions down to 14 nm. The wires were defined by electron beam lithography and a low damage wet chemical etch process. Time-integrated and time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy was used to study excitonic properties in ultranarrow wide bandgap quantum wires. Lateral quantization causes a blue shift of the photoluminescence emission of up to 17 meV with respect to the 2D reference. A low temperature (T = 2 K) lifetime of about 110 ps was found, almost independent of the wire width. At room temperature, non-radiative sidewall recombination reduces the exciton lifetime from 330 ps for the 2D reference to about 21 ps in the case of a 28 nm wide wire.