Long-Term Stability and Optoelectronic Performance Enhancement of InAsP Nanowires with an Ultrathin InP Passivation Layer.


Type
Article
Change log
Authors
Chen, LuLu 
Adeyemo, Stephanie O 
Liu, Huiyun 
Kar, Srabani 
Abstract

The influence of nanowire (NW) surface states increases rapidly with the reduction of diameter and hence severely degrades the optoelectronic performance of narrow-diameter NWs. Surface passivation is therefore critical, but it is challenging to achieve long-term effective passivation without significantly affecting other qualities. Here, we demonstrate that an ultrathin InP passivation layer of 2-3 nm can effectively solve these challenges. For InAsP nanowires with small diameters of 30-40 nm, the ultrathin passivation layer reduces the surface recombination velocity by at least 70% and increases the charge carrier lifetime by a factor of 3. These improvements are maintained even after storing the samples in ambient atmosphere for over 3 years. This passivation also greatly improves the performance thermal tolerance of these thin NWs and extends their operating temperature from <150 K to room temperature. This study provides a new route toward high-performance room-temperature narrow-diameter NW devices with long-term stability.

Description

Funder: Leverhulme Trust

Keywords
long-term stability, photonic properties, surface passivation, thin nanowire, ultrathin InP
Journal Title
Nano Lett
Conference Name
Journal ISSN
1530-6984
1530-6992
Volume Title
22
Publisher
American Chemical Society (ACS)
Sponsorship
European Research Council (716471)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/P000916/1, EP/P006973/1, EP/P000886/1)