Low-field mobility in an electrostatically confined 2D rectangular nanowire: effect of density of states and phonon confinement.

Transport in GaN-based nanoscale devices is of supreme importance for various applications. While the transport in bulk and two-dimensional (2D) structures is relatively well understood, understanding one-dimensional (1D) transport is still at its nascent stage. More importantly, the nanoscale structures may not operate at an explicit dimension of 2D and 1D. The understanding of the transport becomes limited on such an occasion. Here, we investigate the evolution of low-field mobility in GaN-based nanostructures for increasing quantum confinement in a uniform framework. We have used a split-gate architecture to change the degree of quantum confinement electrostatically. The low-field mobility is experimentally determined, which is then matched using scattering theory. It is shown that acoustic phonon, polar optical phonon, and scattering from piezoelectric fields dominate these devices. Contrary to intuition, the piezoelectric fields play the most determining role in low-field regimes. In addition, the evolving density of states and 2D phonon confinement, in addition to electron confinement, lead to a non-monotonic change in mobility. A decrease in the number of states near conduction band minima tends to increase mobility by reducing the number of final scattering states for the electrons. A larger overlap between confined electrons and phonons aggravates scattering and reduces mobility. These two competing effects can lead to many possible values for mobility during device operation.

Theoretical modelling of exciton binding energy, steady-state and transient optical response of GaN/InGaN/GaN and AlGaN/GaN/AlGaN core-shell nanostructures.

Here, we present an efficient 1D model to describe carrier confinement in GaN/InGaN/GaN and AlGaN/GaN/AlGaN core-shell nanostructures (CSNs) within the effective mass framework. A self-consistent procedure combined with hydrogenic model is implemented to estimate exciton binding energy in these CSNs, as a function of CSN dimensions, polarization charge and alloy composition. A 3-fold higher exciton binding energy in these CSNs than that in planar counterparts is attributed to an increased electron-hole overlap. The trend exhibited by the exciton binding energy with polarization charge and alloy composition in the two types of CSNs is significantly different, owing to a drastic difference in the piezoelectric polarizations. A detailed investigation of the steady-state and transient optical response from these CSNs suggests that GaN/InGaN/GaN CSNs emit a wide spectrum. However, that is not the case with AlGaN/GaN/AlGaN CSNs owing to a relatively weaker quantum confined Stark effect. This study is aimed at providing accurate design strategies for UV-blue III-N CSN light-emitting diodes.

Enhanced luminescence from InGaN/GaN nano-disk in a wire array caused by surface potential modulation during wet treatment.

Here we have demonstrated the profound impact of surface potential on the luminescence of an array of InGaN/GaN nano-disk in a wire heterostructure. The change in surface potential is brought about by a combination of dry and successive wet-processing treatments. The photoluminescence (PL) properties are determined as a function of size and height of this array of nano-disks. The observed characteristics are coherently explained by considering a change in quantum confinement induced by the change in surface potential, quantum-confined Stark effect, exciton binding energy and strain relaxation for varying surface potential. The change in hole bound state energy due to parabolic potential well near the side-wall is found to be the dominating factor. The PL peak position, full width at half-maximum, strain relaxation and integrated PL intensity are studied as a function of incident power and temperature. The devices demonstrate higher integrated PL intensity and slope efficiency.

Determination of strain relaxation in InGaN/GaN nanowalls from quantum confinement and exciton binding energy dependent photoluminescence peak.

GaN based nanostructures are being increasingly used to improve the performance of various devices including light emitting diodes and lasers. It is important to determine the strain relaxation in these structures for device design and better prediction of device characteristics and performance. We have determined the strain relaxation in InGaN/GaN nanowalls from quantum confinement and exciton binding energy dependent photoluminescence peak. We have further determined the strain relaxation as a function of nanowall dimension. With a decrease in nanowall dimension, the lateral quantum confinement and exciton binding energy increase and the InGaN layer becomes partially strain relaxed which decreases the piezoelectric polarization field. The reduced polarization field decreases quantum confined Stark effect along the c-axis and increases electron-hole wave-function overlap which further increases the exciton binding energy. The strong dependency of the exciton binding energy on strain is used to determine the strain relaxation in these nanostructures. An analytical model based on fractional dimension for GaN/InGaN/GaN heterostructures along with self-consistent simulation of Schrodinger and Poisson equations are used to theoretically correlate them. The larger effective mass of GaN along with smaller perturbation allows the fractional dimensional model to accurately describe our system without requiring first principle calculations.