Spatial modulation of above-the-gap cathodoluminescence in InP nanowires.

We report the observation of light emission on wurtzite InP nanowires excited by fast electrons. The experiments were performed in a scanning transmission electron microscope using an in-house-built cathodoluminescence detector. Besides the exciton emission, at 850 nm, emission above the band gap from 400 to 800 nm was observed. In particular, this broad emission presented systematic periodic modulations indicating variations in the local excitation probability. The physical origin of the detected emission is not clear. Measurements of the spatial variation of the above-the-gap emission points to the formation of leaky cavity modes of a plasmonic nature along the nanowire length, indicating the wave nature of the excitation. We propose a phenomenological model, which fits closely the observed spatial variations.

Optical emission of InAs nanowires.

Wurtzite InAs nanowire samples grown by chemical beam epitaxy have been analyzed by photoluminescence spectroscopy. The nanowires exhibit two main optical emission bands at low temperatures. They are attributed to the recombination of carriers in quantum well structures, formed by zincblende-wurtzite alternating layers, and to the donor-acceptor pair. The blue-shift observed in the former emission band when the excitation power is increased is in good agreement with the type-II band alignment between the wurtzite and zincblende sections predicted by previous theoretical works. When increasing the temperature and the excitation power successively, an additional band attributed to the band-to-band recombination from wurtzite InAs appears. We estimated a lower bound for the wurtzite band gap energy of approximately 0.46 eV at low temperature.

Enhanced Eshelby twist on thin Wurtzite InP nanowires and measurement of local crystal rotation.

We have performed a detailed study of the lattice distortions of InP wurtzite nanowires containing an axial screw dislocation. Eshelby predicted that this kind of system should show a crystal rotation due to the dislocation induced torque. We have measured the twisting rate and the dislocation Burgers vector on individual wires, revealing that nanowires with a 10-nm radius have a twist up to 100% larger than estimated from elasticity theory. The strain induced by the deformation has a Mexican-hat-like geometry, which may create a tube-like potential well for carriers.

Characterization of interface abruptness and material properties in catalytically grown III-V nanowires: exploiting plasmon chemical shift.

We have studied the assessment of chemical composition changes in III-V heterostructured semiconductor nanowires (NWs) with nanometric spatial resolution using transmission electron microscopy methods. These materials represent a challenge for conventional spectroscopy techniques due to their high sensitivity to electron beam irradiation. Radiation damage strongly limits the exposure time to a few (5-10) s, which reduces the sensitivity of the traditionally used x-ray spectroscopy. The rather low counting statistics results in significant errors bars for EDS chemical quantification (5-10%) and interface width determination (few nanometers). Plasmon chemical shift is ideal in this situation, as its measurement requires very short exposure times (approximately 100 ms) and the plasmon peak energy can be measured with high precision (approximately 20 meV in this work). This high sensitivity allows the detection of subtle changes (1-2%) in composition or even the detection of a small plasmon energy (33 +/- 7) meV change along usually assumed pure and homogeneous InAs segments. We have applied this approach to measure interface widths in heterostructure InAs/InP NWs grown using metal catalysts and also to determine the timescale (approximately 10 s) in which beam irradiation induces material damage in these wires. In particular, we have detected small As concentrations (4.4 +/- 0.5)% in the final InP segment close to the Au catalyst, which leads to the conclusion that As diffuses through the metal nanoparticle during growth.

III-V semiconductor nanowire growth: does arsenic diffuse through the metal nanoparticle catalyst?

The synthesis of III-V semiconductor nanowires (NWs) is based on the delivery of atoms from a vapor phase to a catalytic metal nanoparticle (NP). Although there has been extensive work on such systems, the incorporation pathways of group V atoms remain an open issue. Here, we have performed a detailed structural and chemical analysis of the catalyst NP in NWs where we switch the V atomic element during growth (heterostructured InP/InAs/InP NWs). Our experimental results indicate a group V pathway where these atoms actually diffuse through the catalytic NP by formation of a stable phase containing As under growth conditions. We have observed distinct NW growth behavior within a narrow temperature range (30 degrees C) suggesting a transition between vapor-liquid-solid and vapor-solid-solid growth modes.