Growth of III-V Compound Semiconductor Nanowires for Optoelectronic Applications

by H.A. Fonseka (Department of Electronic Materials Engineering, Research School of Physics and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia)

Thursday 19 Dec 2013, 15:00 → 16:00 Europe/Rome

Aula Rasetti (Dipartimento di Fisica - Ed. G. Marconi)

III-V compound semiconductor nanowires have been a highly popular area of research during the past decade. The interest in this field is due to the unique electronic and optical properties of the nanowires that stem from their large surface to volume ratio, very high aspect ratio, and carrier and photon confinement in two dimensions. Ability to mix and match different materials along and around the nanowire in axial and radial heter! ostructures further enhances their versatility as building blocks of novel electronic and photonic devices. High control over nanowire growth has been achieved for some material systems and more and more successful nanowire devices have being demonstrated in the recent past. This talk presents an overview of the growth of III-V nanowires such as GaAs, InGaAs and InP, and their heterosructures using metal organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD). The growth mechanisms of nanowires and the effect of growth parameters are discussed. Several successful demonstrations of devices such as lasers and solar-cells using these nanowires are also presented. Finally, the challenges and growth of III-V nanowires on technologically important substrates such as Si and (100) oriented substrates are discussed.