Synthesis and Optoelectronic Performance of III-V Nanowires

Abstract

III-V semiconductor nanowires (NWs), such as InAs, GaAs, InP, are promising materials for applications in infrared optoelectronic devices because of their typically high carrier mobilities and narrow band gap. In view of expanding the application fields, a major opportunity for III-V NWs and their applications lies in the tunability of bandgaps. Here, the complete composition range InAsxP1-x alloy NWs with potential bandgap tunability from the near-IR region to the mid-IR region were synthesized by a new route combining the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) growth mechanism with an additional ion-exchange (IE) process. Based on these as-grown InAsxP1-x NWs, broadly band tunable nanometer-scale infrared photodetectors (PDs) have been achieved. In addition, high quality GaSb/GaInSb p–n heterojunction semiconductor nanowires were synthesized successfully via a simple chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. Based on these nanowires, high-performance photodetectors were constructed with an external quantum efficiency of 104, a responsivity of 103 A/W, and a short response time of 2 ms in the infrared optical communication region (1.55 μm). These III-V NWs shows promising potential applications in integrated photonics and optoelectronics devices or systems. ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­