InSb Nanowires Research Articles

Schottky barrier and contact resistance of InSb nanowire field-effect transistors

Understanding of the electrical contact properties of semiconductor nanowire (NW) field-effect transistors (FETs) plays a crucial role in the use of semiconducting NWs as building blocks for future nanoelectronic devices and in the study of fundamental physics problems. Here, we report on a study of the contact properties of Ti/Au, a widely used contact metal combination, when contacting individual InSb NWs via both two-probe and four-probe transport measurements. We show that a Schottky barrier of height is present at the metal–InSb NW interfaces and its effective height is gate-tunable. The contact resistance () in the InSb NWFETs is also analyzed by magnetotransport measurements at low temperatures. It is found that in the on-state exhibits a pronounced magnetic field-dependent feature, namely it is increased strongly with increasing magnetic field after an onset field . A qualitative picture that takes into account magnetic depopulation of subbands in the NWs is provided to explain the observation. Our results provide solid experimental evidence for the presence of a Schottky barrier at Ti/Au–InSb NW interfaces and can be used as a basis for design and fabrication of novel InSb NW-based nanoelectronic devices and quantum devices.

InSb nanowire double quantum dots coupled to a superconducting microwave cavity

By employing a micrometer precision mechanical transfer technique, we embed individual InSb nanowires into a superconducting coplanar waveguide resonator. We investigate the characteristics of a double quantum dot formed in an InSb nanowire interacting with a single mode microwave field. The charge stability diagram can be obtained from the amplitude and phase response of the resonator independently from the dc transport measurement. As the charge transits between dot-dot, or dot-lead, the change of resonator transmission is compared and the charge-cavity coupling strength is extracted to be in the magnitude of several MHz.

Assessing the thermoelectric properties of single InSb nanowires: the role of thermal contact resistance

The peculiar shape and dimensions of nanowires (NWs) have opened the way to their exploitation in thermoelectric applications. In general, the parameters entering into the thermoelectric figure of merit are strongly interdependent, which makes it difficult to realize an optimal thermoelectric material. In NWs, instead, the power factor can be increased and the thermal conductivity reduced, thus boosting the thermoelectric efficiency compared to bulk materials. However, the assessment of all the thermoelectric properties of a NW is experimentally very challenging. Here, we focus on InSb NWs, which have proved to be promising thermoelectric materials. The figure of merit is accurately determined by using a novel method based on a combination of Raman spectroscopy and electrical measurements. Remarkably, this type of experiment provides a powerful approach allowing us to neglect the role played by thermal contact resistance. Furthermore, we compare the thermal conductivity determined by this novel method to the one determined on the same sample by the thermal bridge method. In this latter approach, the thermal contact resistance is a non-negligible parameter, especially in NWs with large diameters. We provide experimental evidence of the crucial role played by thermal contact resistance in the assessment of the thermal properties of nanostructures, using two different measurement methods of the thermal conductivity.

Conductance Quantization at Zero Magnetic Field in InSb Nanowires.

Ballistic electron transport is a key requirement for existence of a topological phase transition in proximitized InSb nanowires. However, measurements of quantized conductance as direct evidence of ballistic transport have so far been obscured due to the increased chance of backscattering in one-dimensional nanowires. We show that by improving the nanowire-metal interface as well as the dielectric environment we can consistently achieve conductance quantization at zero magnetic field. Additionally we study the contribution of orbital effects to the sub-band dispersion for different orientation of the magnetic field, observing a near-degeneracy between the second and third sub-bands.

Growth of High Material Quality Group III-Antimonide Semiconductor Nanowires by a Naturally Cooling Process.

We report on a simple but powerful approach to grow high material quality InSb and GaSb nanowires in a commonly used tube furnace setup. The approach employs a process of stable heating at a high temperature and then cooling down naturally to room temperature with the nanowire growth occurred effectively during the naturally cooling step. As-grown nanowires are analyzed using a scanning electron microscope and a transmission electron microscope equipped with an energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy setup. It is shown that the grown nanowires are several micrometers in lengths and are zincblende InSb and GaSb crystals. The FET devices are also fabricated with the grown nanowires and investigated. It is shown that the grown nanowires show good, desired electrical properties and should have potential applications in the future nanoelectronics and infrared optoelectronics.

Coherent Charge Transport in Ballistic InSb Nanowire Josephson Junctions.

Hybrid InSb nanowire-superconductor devices are promising for investigating Majorana modes and topological quantum computation in solid-state devices. An experimental realisation of ballistic, phase-coherent superconductor-nanowire hybrid devices is a necessary step towards engineering topological superconducting electronics. Here, we report on a low-temperature transport study of Josephson junction devices fabricated from InSb nanowires grown by molecular-beam epitaxy and provide a clear evidence for phase-coherent, ballistic charge transport through the nanowires in the junctions. We demonstrate that our devices show gate-tunable proximity-induced supercurrent and clear signatures of multiple Andreev reflections in the differential conductance, indicating phase-coherent transport within the junctions. We also observe periodic modulations of the critical current that can be associated with the Fabry-Pérot interference in the nanowires in the ballistic transport regime. Our work shows that the InSb nanowires grown by molecular-beam epitaxy are of excellent material quality and hybrid superconducting devices made from these nanowires are highly desirable for investigation of the novel physics in topological states of matter and for applications in topological quantum electronics.

Transition from positive to negative magnetoresistance induced by a constriction in semiconductor nanowire

We have studied the magnetotransport through an indium antimonide (InSb) nanowire grown in [111] direction, with a geometric constriction and in an external magnetic field applied along the nanowire axis. We have found that the magnetoresistance is negative for the narrow constriction, nearly zero for the constriction of some intermediate radius, and takes on positive values for the constriction with the radius approaching that of the nanowire. For all magnitudes of the magnetic field, the radius of constriction at which the change of the magnetoresistance sign takes place has been found to be almost the same as long as other geometric parameters of the nanowire are fixed. The sign reversing of the magnetoresistance is explained as a combined effect of two factors: the influence of the constriction on the transverse states and the spin Zeeman effect.

Electronic structure and magnetism of doped wurtzite InSb nanowire

Using first-principles calculations, the effect on the magnetism of passivation, acceptors occupying on different sites, 3d2–3d10 impurities doping and interactions in [0 0 0 1] wurtzite InSb nanowire have been investigated. The results show that (i) the InSb nanowire is self-passivated and the dangling bonds of which do not induce any gap-states and spin-polarization. Thus pseudo-hydrogen saturation has little effect on removing gap-states, causing spin-polarization, and stabilizing the spin ground state. (ii) The magnetic moments induced by early 3d (Ti, V, Cr and Mn) impurities correspond to the numbers of free 3d electrons, while the late 3d (Ni, Cu and Zn) impurities cannot give rise to any spin-polarization. (iii) Although both are acceptor doped, InSb:Mn and InSb:Ge reveal pronounced differences on spin-polarization. The former has almost the largest magnetic moment and spin-splitting among the 3d impurities doped InSb nanowires, whereas the latter has no spin-polarization. These phenomenon are explained well by employing the level repulsion descriptions.

Thermo-mechanical effects in Majorana type quantum devices

We have developed a multi-scale model, consisting of an atomistic model in LAMMPS of an InSb nano-wire, and a continuum model in COMSOL of a so-called Majorana research device, to study the effects of thermo-mechanical deformations during the cool down from room temperature to the operating temperature of about 50mK. For the simulation of the InSb nano-wire suitable potentials were implemented in LAMMPS. The simulation results of the nano-wire show size dependent Young's moduli and gradients in the radial lattice spacing during uniaxial straining. The material properties that were derived from the atomistic model, were introduced in the continuum model. Cool down of the device from room temperature to its operating temperature introduced significant deformation. However, the stresses in the system are moderate and no fracture or damage is expected. Still, deformation of the device will induce shifts in band gap behavior of the device. Band gap shifts using a simple approximation are estimated to be about 34%.

Electron spin rotations induced by oscillating Rashba interaction in a quantum wire

A novel method and nanodevice are introduced that allows to rotate the single electron spin confined in a gated electrostatic InSb nanowire quantum dot. Proposed method does not require application of any (oscillating or static) external magnetic fields. Our proposal instead employs spatial and time modulation of confining potential induced by electric gates, which, in turn leads to oscillating Rashba type spin-orbit coupling. Moving electron back and forth in such a variable Rashba field allows for realization of spin rotations around two different axes separately without using an external magnetic field. The results are supported by realistic three-dimensional time dependent Poisson-Schr\"{o}dinger calculations for systems and material parameters corresponding to experimentally accessible structures.

Can antimonide-based nanowires form wurtzite crystal structure?

The epitaxial growth of antimonide-based nanowires has become an attractive subject due to their interesting properties required for various applications such as long-wavelength IR detectors. The studies conducted on antimonide-based nanowires indicate that they preferentially crystallize in the zinc blende (ZB) crystal structure rather than wurtzite (WZ), which is common in other III-V nanowire materials. Also, with the addition of small amounts of antimony to arsenide- and phosphide-based nanowires grown under conditions otherwise leading to WZ structure, the crystal structure of the resulting ternary nanowires favors the ZB phase. Therefore, the formation of antimonide-based nanowires with the WZ phase presents fundamental challenges and is yet to be explored, but is particularly interesting for understanding the nanowire crystal phase in general. In this study, we examine the formation of Au-seeded InSb and GaSb nanowires under various growth conditions using metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. We address the possibility of forming other phases than ZB such as WZ and 4H in binary nanowires and demonstrate the controlled formation of WZ InSb nanowires. We further discuss the fundamental aspects of WZ growth in Au-seeded antimonide-based nanowires.

Complete thermoelectric benchmarking of individual InSb nanowires using combined micro-Raman and electric transport analysis

Nanowires (NWs) are ideal nanostructures for exploring the effects of low dimensionality and thermal conductivity suppression on thermoelectric behavior. However, it is challenging to accurately measure temperature gradients and heat flow in such systems. Here, using a combination of spatially resolved Raman spectroscopy and transport measurements, we determine all the thermoelectric properties of single Se-doped InSb NWs and quantify the figure of merit ZT. The measured laser-induced heating in the NWs and associated electrical response are well described by a 1D heat equation model. Our method allows the determination of the thermal contact resistances at the source and drain electrodes of the NW, which are negligible in our system. The measured thermoelectric parameters of InSb NWs agree well with those obtained based on field-effect transistor Seebeck measurements.

Electronic structures of [001]- and [111]-oriented InSb and GaSb free-standing nanowires

We report on a theoretical study of the electronic structures of InSb and GaSb nanowires oriented along the [001] and [111] crystallographic directions. The nanowires are described by atomistic, tight-binding models, including spin-orbit interaction. The band structures and the wave functions of the nanowires are calculated by means of a Lanczos iteration algorithm. For the [001]-oriented InSb and GaSb nanowires, the systems with both square and rectangular cross sections are considered. Here, it is found that all the energy bands are doubly degenerate. Although the lowest conduction bands in these nanowires show good parabolic dispersions, the top valence bands show rich and complex structures. In particular, the topmost valence bands of the nanowires with a square cross section show a double maximum structure. In the nanowires with a rectangular cross section, this double maximum structure is suppressed, and the top valence bands gradually develop into parabolic bands as the aspect ratio of the cross section is increased. For the [111]-oriented InSb and GaSb nanowires, the systems with hexagonal cross sections are considered. It is found that all the bands at the Γ-point are again doubly degenerate. However, some of them will split into non-degenerate bands when the wave vector moves away from the Γ-point. Although the lowest conduction bands again show good parabolic dispersions, the topmost valence bands do not show the double maximum structure. Instead, they show a single maximum structure with its maximum at a wave vector slightly away from the Γ-point. The wave functions of the band states near the band gaps of the [001]- and [111]-oriented InSb and GaSb nanowires are also calculated and are presented in terms of probability distributions in the cross sections. It is found that although the probability distributions of the band states in the [001]-oriented nanowires with a rectangular cross section could be qualitatively described by one-band effective mass theory, the probability distributions of the band states in the [001]-oriented nanowires with a square cross section and the [111]-oriented nanowires with a hexagonal cross section show characteristic patterns with symmetries closely related to the irreducible representations of the relevant double point groups and, in general, go beyond the prediction of a simple one-band effective mass theory. We also investigate the effects of quantum confinement on the band structures of the [001]- and [111]-oriented InSb and GaSb nanowires and present an empirical formula for the description of quantization energies of the band edge states in the nanowires, which could be used to estimate the enhancement of the band gaps of the nanowires as a result of quantum confinement. The size dependencies of the electron and hole effective masses in these nanowires are also investigated and discussed.

Role of edge facets on stability and electronic properties of III–V nanowires

Results of our ab initio calculations of 〈111〉-oriented GaP, GaAs, GaSb, InP, InAs and InSb nanowires with the zinc-blende structure indicate morphology to crucially affect their electronic properties. For these nanowires, where {011} facets characterize their hexagonal cross section, the formation of small {112} facets between the adjacent {011} ones provides a more stable structure and removes surface states from the gap region even without hydrogen passivation. Our new structural model also predicts a crossover between the indirect and direct band gap in GaP, GaAs and GaSb nanowires when increasing diameters starting from 4 nm, while InP, InAs and InSb nanowires display the direct band gap at diameters of 1.5 nm and larger. Analysis of charge distribution between atoms suggests that {011} facets are positively charged even though a (011) surface of these materials is considered to be non-polar.

Tuning the polarity of charge transport in InSb nanowires via heat treatment

InSb nanowire (NW) arrays were prepared by pulsed electrodeposition combined with a porous template technique. The resulting polycrystalline material has a stoichiometric composition (In:Sb = 1:1) and a high length-to-diameter ratio. Based on a combination of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis and field-effect measurements, the band gap, the charge carrier polarity, the carrier concentration, the mobility and the effective mass for the InSb NWs was investigated. In this preliminary work, a transition from p-type to n-type charge transport was observed when the InSb NWs were subjected to annealing.

Modulating spin relaxation in nanowires with infrared light at room temperature

Spintronic devices usually rely on long spin relaxation times and/or long spin relaxation lengths for optimum performance. Therefore, the ability to modulate these quantities with an external agent offers unique possibilities. The dominant spin relaxation mechanism in most technologically important semiconductors is the D’yakonov–Perel’ (DP) mechanism which may vanish if the spin carriers (electrons) are confined to a single conduction subband in a quantum wire. Here, we report modulating the DP spin relaxation rate (and hence the spin relaxation length) in self assembled 50 nm diameter InSb nanowires with infrared (IR) light at room temperature. In the dark, almost all the electrons in the nanowires are in the lowest conduction subband, resulting in near-complete absence of DP relaxation. This allows observation of spin-sensitive effects in the magnetoresistance. Under IR illumination, higher subbands get populated and the DP spin relaxation mechanism is revived, leading to a three-fold decrease in the spin relaxation length. Consequently, the spin sensitive effects disappear under illumination. This phenomenon may have applications in spintronic room-temperature IR photodetection.

Spin-orbit interaction in InSb nanowires

We use magnetoconductance measurements in dual-gated InSb nanowire devices together with a theoretical analysis of weak antilocalization to accurately extract spin-orbit strength. In particular, we show that magnetoconductance in our three-dimensional wires is very different compared to wires in two-dimensional electron gases. We obtain a large Rashba spin-orbit strength of $0.5 -1\,\text{eV\r{A}}$ corresponding to a spin-orbit energy of $0.25-1\,\text{meV}$. These values underline the potential of InSb nanowires in the study of Majorana fermions in hybrid semiconductor-superconductor devices.

Majorana transport in superconducting nanowire with Rashba and Dresselhaus spin–orbit couplings

The tunneling experiment is a key technique for detecting Majorana fermion (MF) in solid state systems. We use Keldysh non-equilibrium Green function method to study two-lead tunneling in superconducting nanowire with Rashba and Dresselhaus spin–orbit couplings. A zero-bias dc conductance peak appears in our setup which signifies the existence of MF and is in accordance with previous experimental results on InSb nanowire. Interestingly, due to the exotic property of MF, there exists a hole transmission channel which makes the currents asymmetric at the left and right leads. The ac current response mediated by MF is also studied here. To discuss the impacts of Coulomb interaction and disorder on the transport property of Majorana nanowire, we use the renormalization group method to study the phase diagram of the wire. It is found that there is a topological phase transition under the interplay of superconductivity and disorder. We find that the Majorana transport is preserved in the superconducting-dominated topological phase and destroyed in the disorder-dominated non-topological insulator phase.

Towards high mobility InSb nanowire devices

We study the low-temperature electron mobility of InSb nanowires. We extract the mobility at 4.2 K by means of field effect transport measurements using a model consisting of a nanowire-transistor with contact resistances. This model enables an accurate extraction of device parameters, thereby allowing for a systematic study of the nanowire mobility. We identify factors affecting the mobility, and after optimization obtain a field effect mobility of cm2 V−1 s−1. We further demonstrate the reproducibility of these mobility values which are among the highest reported for nanowires. Our investigations indicate that the mobility is currently limited by adsorption of molecules to the nanowire surface and/or the substrate.

Structural stability and electronic properties of InSb nanowires: A first-principles study

Using first-principles calculations, we investigate the structural stability and electronic properties of InSb nanowires (NWs). The results show that, in contrast to the bulk InSb phase, wurtzite (WZ) NWs are more stable than zinc-blende (ZB) NWs when the NW diameter is smaller than 10 nm. Nonpassivated ZB and WZ NWs are found to be metallic and semiconducting, respectively. After passivation, both ZB and WZ NWs exhibit direct-gap semiconductor character, and the band gap magnitude of the NWs strongly depends on the suppression of surface states by the charge-compensation ability of foreign atoms to surface atoms. Moreover, the carrier mobility of the NW can be strengthened by halogen passivation.