Gabriel Tourbot

Structural and optical properties of InGaN/GaN nanowire heterostructures grown by PA-MBE

The structural and optical properties of InGaN/GaN nanowire heterostructures grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy have been studied using a combination of transmission electron microscopy, electron tomography and photoluminescence spectroscopy. It is found that, depending on In content, the strain relaxation of InGaN may be elastic or plastic. Elastic relaxation results in a pronounced radial In content gradient. Plastic relaxation is associated with the formation of misfit dislocations at the InGaN/GaN interface or with cracks in the InGaN nanowire section. In all cases, a GaN shell was formed around the InGaN core, which is assigned to differences in In and Ga diffusion mean free paths.

Submicrometre resolved optical characterization of green nanowire-based light emitting diodes

The electroluminescent properties of InGaN/GaN nanowire-based light emitting diodes (LEDs) are studied at different resolution scales. Axial one-dimensional heterostructures were grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PAMBE) directly on a silicon (111) substrate and consist of the following sequentially deposited layers: n-type GaN, three undoped InGaN/GaN quantum wells, p-type AlGaN electron blocking layer and p-type GaN. From the macroscopic point of view, the devices emit light in the green spectral range (around 550 nm) under electrical injection. At 100 mA DC current, a 1 mm2 chip that integrates around 10(7) nanowires emits an output power on the order of 10 µW. However, the emission of the nanowire-based LED shows a spotty and polychromatic emission. By using a confocal microscope, we have been able to improve the spatial resolution of the optical characterizations down to the submicrometre scale that can be assessed to a single nanowire. Detailed μ-electroluminescent characterization (emission wavelength and output power) over a representative number of single nanowires provides new insights into the vertically integrated nanowire-based LED operation. By combining both μ-electroluminescent and μ-photoluminescent excitation, we have experimentally shown that electrical injection failure is the major source of losses in these nanowire-based LEDs.

Growth mechanism and properties of InGaN insertions in GaN nanowires.

We demonstrate the strong influence of strain on the morphology and In content of InGaN insertions in GaN nanowires, in agreement with theoretical predictions which establish that InGaN island nucleation on GaN nanowires may be energetically favorable, depending on In content and nanowire diameter. EDX analyses reveal In inhomogeneities between the successive dots but also along the growth direction within each dot, which is attributed to compositional pulling. Nanometer-resolved cathodoluminescence on single nanowires allowed us to probe the luminescence of single dots, revealing enhanced luminescence from the high In content top part with respect to the lower In content dot base.

The structural properties of GaN/AlN core–shell nanocolumn heterostructures

The growth and structural properties of GaN/AlN core-shell nanowire heterostructures have been studied using a combination of resonant x-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and high resolution transmission electron microscopy experiments. For a GaN core of 20 nm diameter on average surrounded by a homogeneous AlN shell, the built-in strain in GaN is found to agree with theoretical calculations performed using a valence force field model. It is then concluded that for an AlN thickness up to at least 12 nm both core and shell are in elastic equilibrium. However, in the case of an inhomogeneous growth of the AlN shell caused by the presence of steps on the sides of the GaN core, plastic relaxation is found to occur. Consistent with the presence of dislocations at the GaN/AlN interface, it is proposed that this plastic relaxation, especially efficient for AlN shell thickness above 3 nm, is promoted by the shear strain induced by the AlN inhomogeneity.

Optical anisotropy and light extraction efficiency of MBE grown GaN nanowires epilayers

The use of nanowires as active medium seems very promising for the development of high brightness LEDs. With a lower effective refractive index than bulk, semiconductor nanowire layers may lead to a high light extraction efficiency. We hereafter discuss the anisotropic properties of dense arrays of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) grown gallium nitride (GaN) nanowires and the consequences on the optical design of nanowire based LEDs. In particular we show numerically that light extraction efficiency as high as 72% can be expected for GaN nanowires layer grown on a low cost Si substrate.

Fine optical spectroscopy of the 3.45 eV emission line in GaN nanowires

GaN nanowires grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy are of excellent optical quality, their optical signature being characteristic of homogeneous strain-free GaN. There are however discrepancies between the low temperature luminescence spectra of GaN thin films and nanowires, in particular, a strong emission line around 3.45 eV in nanowires is not found with such a large intensity in thin film GaN. The origin of this emission line in nanowires is still debated; in this article, we shed new light on this debate notably by polarization-resolved luminescence and magneto-luminescence experiments. Our findings demonstrate, in particular, that this line cannot be attributed to a two-electron satellite of the donor bound exciton transition.

Optical spectroscopy of cubic GaN in nanowires

We show that highly homogeneous cubic GaN can be grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on wurtzite GaN nanowires. The line width of the donor bound exciton is below 3 meV and can reach 1.6 meV in the best parts of the studied sample. This allows to perform a detailed spectroscopy of cubic GaN, and, in particular, to determine the precise spectral positions of the donor bound exciton, the fundamental free exciton and the split-off exciton in a photoluminescence experiment.

Anisotropic in distribution in InGaN core-shell nanowires

In this work, we investigate the local atomic structure of defect-free homogeneous and self-organized core-shell structure nanowires by means of X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (XAFS) Spectroscopy at the In LIII and K edges and Multiwavelength Anomalous Diffraction. The results are interpreted by comparison of the experimental data with X-ray absorption calculations carried out with ab initio structural models. Extended-XAFS data analysis at In K-edge shows an anisotropic In distribution in the second nearest neighbors pointing out to a deviation from randomness in In distribution for the core-shell sample.

Temperature insensitive optical alignment of the exciton in nanowire embedded GaN Quantum Dots

We report on the exciton spin dynamics of nanowire embedded GaN/AlN Quantum Dots (QDs) investigated by time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy. Under a linearly polarized quasiresonant excitation we evidence the quenching of the exciton spin relaxation and a temperature insensitive degree of the exciton linear polarization, demonstrating the robustness of the optical alignment of the exciton spin in these nanowire embedded QDs. A detailed examination of the luminescence polarization angular dependence shows orthogonal linear exciton eigenstates with no preferential crystallographic orientation.