Abstract
Zinc nitride (Zn3N2) nanowires (NWs) with diameters of 50 to 100 nm and a cubic crystal structure have been grown on 1 nm Au/Al2O3 via the reaction of Zn with NH3 including H2 between 500°C and 600°C. These exhibited an optical band gap of ≈ 3.2 eV, estimated from steady state absorption-transmission spectroscopy. We compared this with the case of ZnO NWs and discussed the surface oxidation of Zn3N2 NWs which is important and is expected to lead to the formation of a Zn3N2/ZnO core-shell NW, the energy band diagram of which was calculated via the self-consistent solution of the Poisson-Schrödinger equations within the effective mass approximation by taking into account a fundamental energy band gap of 1.2 eV. In contrast, only highly oriented Zn3N2 layers with a cubic crystal structure and an optical band gap of ≈ 2.9 eV were obtained on Au/Si(001) using the same growth conditions.
Highlights
III-V compound semiconductor nanowires (NWs) such as InN [1] and GaN [2,3] NWs are currently being investigated in view of their potential application as nanoscale optoelectronic devices for solid state lighting and solar energy conversion
The PL peak of the Zn3N2 layers at 2.9 eV shown in Figure 1 was enhanced by increasing the flow of NH3 or by adding H2 which led to a suppression of the side emission at 2.0 eV
The same has been observed in the growth of GaN NWs or the conversion of β-Ga2O3 into GaN NWs, where the band edge emission at 3.4 eV was boosted using a high flow of H2 along with NH3 since it passivates surface states or defects within the GaN NWs
Summary
III-V compound semiconductor nanowires (NWs) such as InN [1] and GaN [2,3] NWs are currently being investigated in view of their potential application as nanoscale optoelectronic devices for solid state lighting and solar energy conversion. Their distinct disadvantage is their high cost. Sn3N4 NWs [6,7] with diameters of 100 nm and lengths of 1 to 2 μm were only obtained recently by halide chemical vapour deposition. The Zn3N2 NWs had diameters ≈ 100 nm, lengths between 10 and 20 μm, and were
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