RESUMEN
Self-assembled strained Ge1-x Sn x islands on Si (100) have been grown at a low temperature using molecular beam epitaxy. The in-built strain and fraction of Sn in the islands have been estimated using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and high resolution x-ray diffraction study of grown samples. No-phonon assisted transition in the optical communication wavelength range of 1.4-1.8 µm has been observed in the Ge1-x Sn x island samples. The direct band gap transition intensity is found to increase with a growth in Sn concentration, with this increase in intensity sustained up to a temperature of 130 K in Ge1-x Sn x islands. The observed electroluminescence in p-i-n devices fabricated on Ge1-x Sn x island samples above a threshold bias of 4 V makes them attractive for future Si based optical devices.
RESUMEN
The lowering of the work function (Φ) can lead to a better field emission (FE) behavior at lower threshold fields. We report on enhanced FE from randomly oriented and faceted Au-capped ZnO hetero-nanostructures (HNs) having more oxygen defects. Large-area arrays of non-aligned, faceted Au-capped ZnO HNs, such as nanowires (NWs) and triangular nanoflakes (TNFs) are grown using the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. Enhanced FE properties from the TNF sample resulted in a turn-on field as low as 0.52 V µm(-1) at a current density of 0.1 mA cm(-2) and a field enhancement factor (ß) as high as ≈5.16 × 10(5). Under similar experimental conditions, drawing the same current density from an NW specimen needs a higher turn-on field (0.86 V µm(-1)) and to exhibit nearly four times less field enhancement factor compared to the TNFs samples. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and photoluminescence (PL) measurements confirm the presence of more oxygen defects in the TNF samples compared to the NW samples. Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) measurements show the average local work function to be 4.70 ± 0.1 eV for the TNF sample, which is ≈ 0.34 eV lower than the NW sample. Using density functional theory (DFT) calculations, the estimated Φ values are found to be 4.98 eV for ZnO(0001), 4.17 eV for Au(001)/ZnO(0001) and 3.91 eV for Au(001)/Ovac-ZnO(0001) surfaces. The DFT results are qualitatively in agreement with our experimental results. The presence of Au nanostructures on top of O-deficient and sharp-tipped TNFs results in enhanced FE performance following their reduced tunneling barrier via pinning of effective Φ.
RESUMEN
A simple single-step chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method has been used to grow the faceted Au-ZnO hetero-nanostructures (HNs) either with nanowires (NWs) or with triangular nanoflakes (TNFs) on crystalline silicon wafers with varying oxygen defect density in ZnO nanostructures. This work reports on the use of these nanostructures on substrates for photodegradation of rhodamine B (RhB) dyes and phenol under the visible light illumination. The photoluminescence measurements showed a substantial enhancement in the ratio of defect emission to band-edge emission for TNF (ratio ≈ 7) compared to NW structures (ratio ≤ 0.4), attributed to the presence of more oxygen defects in TNF sample. The TNF structures showed 1 order of magnitude enhancement in photocurrent density and an order of magnitude less charge-transfer resistance (R(ct)) compared to NWs resulting high-performance photocatalytic activity. The TNFs show enhanced photocatalytic performance compared to NWs. The observed rate constant for RhB degradation with TNF samples is 0.0305 min(-1), which is ≈5.3 times higher compared to NWs case with 0.0058 min(-1). A comparison has been made with bulk ZnO powders and ZnO nanostructures without Au to deduce the effect of plasmonic nanoparticles (Au) and the shape of ZnO in photocatalytic performance. The results reveal the enhanced photocatalytic capability for the triangular nanoflakes of ZnO toward RhB degradation with good reusability that can be attracted for practical applications.
