III-V Nanowires for Optoelectronics
Semiconductor nanowires are ultra-thin structures with diameters typically smaller than 100 nm and an extremely high aspect ratio. These quasi-one-dimensional materials exhibit unique properties resulting from their nanoscale size, such as enhanced light-matter interaction and carrier confinement. Nanowires can be fabricated using bottom-up approaches like molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), achieving feature sizes down to 10 nm without lithography. Top-down methods offer greater precision, particularly in creating regular nanowire arrays. Regardless of the fabrication approach, nanowires display distinct advantages, including the ability to integrate multiple materials within a single structure, making them ideal for various optoelectronic applications.
The goal of our research is to explore and harness the functionalities of III-V nanowires for advanced optoelectronic devices. We focus on fundamental properties, such as microstructure, optical characteristics, and electronic behavior, that directly influence performance in applications like LEDs, lasers, and photodetectors. By growing both group-III-nitride and group-III-arsenide nanowires, we aim to gain insights into how their material composition and structural properties impact device efficiency.
Through this work, we seek to push the boundaries of optoelectronics by developing nanowire-based devices with improved performance, such as higher efficiency, lower power consumption, and better integration with existing technologies. Our research will contribute to advancing novel approaches in energy-efficient devices, high-speed optical communication, and next-generation quantum photonics.
Highlights
- Epitaxy of highly dissimilar transition metal nitride-semiconductor heterostructures with low defect density – the example ScN/GaN(1100)
- Carrier Recombination in Highly Uniform and Phase-Pure GaAs/(Al,Ga)As Core/Shell Nanowire Arrays on Si(111): Implications for Light-Emitting Devices
- The azimuthal cell arrangement in molecular beam epitaxy drastically affects the luminescence efficiency of nanowire shells
- Understanding exciton recombination in GaN nanowires
- GaAs-based nanowire heterostructure for light generation in the telecommunication O band on Si
3rd Party Funded Projects
- Charge carrier dynamics under the influence of extreme strain gradients realized in bent semiconductor nanowires (DFG, with Universität Siegen)
- Photoelectrochemical CO2 reduction based on ordered (In,Ga)N NW arrays (DFG, with Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin)
- Application lab for time-resolved cathodoluminescence spectroscopy (EFRE, only partially on nanowires)
- Lead-free piezoelectric nanowire-nanocellulose hybrids for fl exible energy harvesters (ANR-DFG, with CNRS-Institut Néel, Grenoble)
- Large-area top-down processing of (In,Ga)N and (Al,Ga)N nanowires (DAAD, with Institut Néel)