Maoqing Yao

Electrical and Optical Characterization of Surface Passivation in GaAs Nanowires

We report a systematic study of carrier dynamics in Al(x)Ga(1-x)As-passivated GaAs nanowires. With passivation, the minority carrier diffusion length (L(diff)) increases from 30 to 180 nm, as measured by electron beam induced current (EBIC) mapping, and the photoluminescence (PL) lifetime increases from sub-60 ps to 1.3 ns. A 48-fold enhancement in the continuous-wave PL intensity is observed on the same individual nanowire with and without the Al(x)Ga(1-x)As passivation layer, indicating a significant reduction in surface recombination. These results indicate that, in passivated nanowires, the minority carrier lifetime is not limited by twin stacking faults. From the PL lifetime and minority carrier diffusion length, we estimate the surface recombination velocity (SRV) to range from 1.7 × 10(3) to 1.1 × 10(4) cm·s(-1), and the minority carrier mobility μ is estimated to lie in the range from 10.3 to 67.5 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) for the passivated nanowires.

GaAs Nanowire Array Solar Cells with Axial p–i–n Junctions

Because of unique structural, optical, and electrical properties, solar cells based on semiconductor nanowires are a rapidly evolving scientific enterprise. Various approaches employing III-V nanowires have emerged, among which GaAs, especially, is under intense research and development. Most reported GaAs nanowire solar cells form p-n junctions in the radial direction; however, nanowires using axial junction may enable the attainment of high open circuit voltage (Voc) and integration into multijunction solar cells. Here, we report GaAs nanowire solar cells with axial p-i-n junctions that achieve 7.58% efficiency. Simulations show that axial junctions are more tolerant to doping variation than radial junctions and lead to higher Voc under certain conditions. We further study the effect of wire diameter and junction depth using electrical characterization and cathodoluminescence. The results show that large diameter and shallow junctions are essential for a high extraction efficiency. Our approach opens up great opportunity for future low-cost, high-efficiency photovoltaics.

Optical, electrical, and solar energy-conversion properties of gallium arsenide nanowire-array photoanodes

Periodic arrays of n-GaAs nanowires have been grown by selective-area metal–organic chemical-vapor deposition on Si and GaAs substrates. The optical absorption characteristics of the nanowire-arrays were investigated experimentally and theoretically, and the photoelectrochemical energy-conversion properties of GaAs nanowire arrays were evaluated in contact with one-electron, reversible, redox species in non-aqueous solvents. The radial semiconductor/liquid junction in the nanowires produced near-unity external carrier-collection efficiencies for nanowire-array photoanodes in contact with nonaqueous electrolytes. These anodes exhibited overall inherent photoelectrode energy-conversion efficiencies of � 8.1% under 100 mW cm � 2 simulated Air Mass 1.5 illumination, with open-circuit photovoltages of 590 � 15 mV and short-circuit current densities of 24.6 � 2.0 mA cm � 2 . The high optical absorption, and minimal reflection, at both normal and off-normal incidence of the GaAs nanowire arrays that occupy <5% of the fractional area of the electrode can be attributed to efficient incoupling into radial nanowire guided and leaky waveguide modes. Broader context Due to the voltage requirements to produce fuels from sunlight, water, and CO2 as the inputs, two light-absorbing materials, with band gaps of 1.7 eV and 1.1 eV, respectively, are attractive as the foundation for high-efficiency articial photosynthesis. The integration of materials with 1.7 and 1.1 eV band gaps is, however, very challenging. Accordingly, a nanowire-growth strategy has been developed to integrate single crystal III–V nanowires (e.g. GaAs) with highly mismatched Si substrates. In this work, GaAs nanowire arrays grown on Si were studied using a non-destructive contact method involving non-aqueous photoelectrochemistry. The approach has allowed us to understand the interplay of nanowire growth with the optical absorption and electrical properties of such systems, and will aid in the design and optimization of nanowire-based systems for solar energy-conversion applications. Photoelectrolysis of water for the production of renewable H2 from sunlight faces a constraint in that a potential difference of 1.23 V is required thermodynamically to sustain the watersplitting reaction under standard conditions. In an integrated photoelectrochemical system for water splitting, the operating voltage produced by the light absorber should exceed the sum of

Tandem Solar Cells Using GaAs Nanowires on Si: Design, Fabrication, and Observation of Voltage Addition

Multijunction solar cells provide us a viable approach to achieve efficiencies higher than the Shockley-Queisser limit. Due to their unique optical, electrical, and crystallographic features, semiconductor nanowires are good candidates to achieve monolithic integration of solar cell materials that are not lattice-matched. Here, we report the first realization of nanowire-on-Si tandem cells with the observation of voltage addition of the GaAs nanowire top cell and the Si bottom cell with an open circuit voltage of 0.956 V and an efficiency of 11.4%. Our simulation showed that the current-matching condition plays an important role in the overall efficiency. Furthermore, we characterized GaAs nanowire arrays grown on lattice-mismatched Si substrates and estimated the carrier density using photoluminescence. A low-resistance connecting junction was obtained using n(+)-GaAs/p(+)-Si heterojunction. Finally, we demonstrated tandem solar cells based on top GaAs nanowire array solar cells grown on bottom planar Si solar cells. The reported nanowire-on-Si tandem cell opens up great opportunities for high-efficiency, low-cost multijunction solar cells.

Doping concentration dependence of the photoluminescence spectra of n-type GaAs nanowires

In this letter, the photoluminescence spectra of n-type doped GaAs nanowires, grown by the metal organic chemical vapor deposition method, are measured at 4 K and 77 K. Our measurements indicate that an increase in carrier concentration leads to an increase in the complexity of the doping mechanism, which we attribute to the formation of different recombination centers. At high carrier concentrations, we observe a blueshift of the effective band gap energies by up to 25 meV due to the Burstein-Moss shift. Based on the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the photoluminescence peaks, we estimate the carrier concentrations for these nanowires, which varies from 6 × 1017 cm−3 (lightly doped), to 1.5 × 1018 cm−3 (moderately doped), to 3.5 × 1018 cm−3 (heavily doped) as the partial pressure of the disilane is varied from 0.01 sccm to 1 sccm during the growth process. We find that the growth temperature variation does not affect the radiative recombination mechanism; however, it does lead to a slight enhancemen...

Enhanced Fabry-Perot resonance in GaAs nanowires through local field enhancement and surface passivation

AbstractWe report substantial improvements in the photoluminescence (PL) efficiency and Fabry-Perot (FP) resonance of individual GaAs nanowires through surface passivation and local field enhancement, enabling FP peaks to be observed even at room temperature. For bare GaAs nanowires, strong FP resonance peaks can be observed at 4 K, but not at room temperature. However, depositing the nanowires on gold substrates leads to substantial enhancement in the PL intensity (5X) and 3.7X to infinite enhancement of FP peaks. Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations show that the gold substrate enhances the PL spectra predominately through enhanced absorption (11X) rather than enhanced emission (1.3X), predicting a total PL enhancement of 14X in the absence of non-radiative recombination. Despite the increased intensity of the FP peaks, lower Q factors are observed due to losses associated with the underlying gold substrate. As a means of reducing the non-radiative recombination in these nanowires, the surface states in the nanowires can be passivated by either an ionic liquid (1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (EMIM TFSI)) or an AlGaAs surface layer to achieve up to 12X enhancement of the photoluminescence intensity and observation of FP peaks at room temperature without a gold substrate.

Facile Five-Step Heteroepitaxial Growth of GaAs Nanowires on Silicon Substrates and the Twin Formation Mechanism.

Monolithic integration of III-V semiconductors with Si has been pursued for some time in the semiconductor industry. However, the mismatch of lattice constants and thermal expansion coefficients represents a large technological challenge for the heteroepitaxial growth. Nanowires, due to their small lateral dimension, can relieve strain and mitigate dislocation formation to allow single-crystal III-V materials to be grown on Si. Here, we report a facile five-step heteroepitaxial growth of GaAs nanowires on Si using selective area growth (SAG) in metalorganic chemical vapor deposition, and we further report an in-depth study on the twin formation mechanism. Rotational twin defects were observed in the nanowire structures and showed strong dependence on the growth condition and nanowire size. We adopt a model of faceted growth to demonstrate the formation of twins during growth, which is well supported by both a transmission electron microscopy study and simulation based on nucleation energetics. Our study has led to twin-free segments in the length up to 80 nm, a significant improvement compared to previous work using SAG. The achievements may open up opportunities for future functional III-V-on-Si heterostructure devices.

Formation of Fabry-Perot cavity in one-dimensional and two-dimensional GaAs nanostructures

We report formation of an optical cavity and observation of Fabry-Perot resonance in GaAs nanowires and nanosheets grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) with selective area growth (SAG). These nanostructures are grown along the (111)B direction. The formation of an optical cavity in the nanowires and nanosheets are fundamentally different from each other. In nanowires the optical cavity is formed along the length of the nanowire with ends of the nanowire behaving as two parallel mirrors. In nanosheets, however, the three non-parallel edges of the GaAs nanosheets are involved in trapping of the light through total internal reflection, thus forming a 2D cavity. We show that through surface passivation and local field enhancement, both the photoluminescence intensity and hence Fabry-Perot peak intensity increases significantly. Transferring the GaAs nanowires and nanosheets to the gold substrate (instead of Si/SiO2 substrate) leads to substantial enhancement in the photoluminescence intensity by 5X (for nanowires) and 3.7X (for nanosheets) to infinite enhancement of the FP peaks intensities. In order to reduce the non-radiative recombination in these nanowires the surface states in the nanowires can be passivated by either an ionic liquid (EMIM-TFSI) or an AlGaAs surface layer. Both passivations methods lead to an enhancement of the optical response by up to 12X.

Optical and electrical characterization of surface passivated GaAs nanostructures

GaAs nanostructures are used in different optoelectronic applications including solar cells, LEDs and fast electronics. Although GaAs shows outstanding optical properties, it suffers from surface states and consequently high surface recombination velocity. The surface depletion effects lead to semi-insulating behaviors in GaAs devices. Passivation of GaAs nanostructures (AlGaAs or ionic liquid) lead to surface stability and improvement in optoelectronic properties. We provide a systematic study to compare the optical and electrical improvement after passivation (AlGaAs or ionic liquid) of GaAs nanostructure including nanowires and nanosheets. Both room temperature and low temperature photoluminescent (PL) spectra indicate increase in optical activity of GaAs nanostructures after passivation. Electron beam induced current (EBIC) measurements reveal the diffusion length of carries in different GaAs nanostructures.

Nanowires in energy devices

Semiconductor nanostructures have the potential to make a positive impact on the efficiency and cost of solid state energy devices such as solar cells and light emitting diodes. In this talk I will explore the use of semiconductor nanorods for solar cells and high efficiency LEDs.