Rongfei Wang

Electronic properties of single Ge/Si quantum dot grown by ion beam sputtering deposition

The dependence of the electronic properties of a single Ge/Si quantum dot (QD) grown by the ion-beam sputtering deposition technique on growth temperature and QD diameter is investigated by conductive atomic force microscopy (CAFM). The Si-Ge intermixing effect is demonstrated to be important for the current distribution of single QDs. The current staircase induced by the Coulomb blockade effect is observed at higher growth temperatures (>700 °C) due to the formation of an additional barrier between dislocated QDs and Si substrate for the resonant tunneling of holes. According to the proposed single-hole-tunneling model, the fact that the intermixing effect is observed to increase as the incoherent QD size decreases may explain the increase in the starting voltage of the current staircase and the decrease in the current step width.

Recent progress in the preparation and application of quantum dots/graphene composite materials

Quantum dots/graphene (QDs/GR) composite materials show a distinct synergistic effect between the QDs and graphene, which has aroused vast attention toward their unique characteristics in the last few decades. The separation of electron–hole pairs generated in QDs are enhanced due to the photogating effects in the composites, and then the electrons or holes are rapidly transferred to the surface of the graphene sheets, resulting in excellent optical gain, making them promising materials for applications in optoelectronic and light harvesting devices. In this review, recent research progress on QDs/GR composites is reviewed and discussed, including preparation methods and applications. Numerous self-assembly synthetic methods such as hydrothermal, solvothermal, atomic layer deposition, ion beam sputtering deposition, and other typical synthetic methods like drop-casting, spin-coating, layer by layer, ultrasonication, polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) aid transfer and electrochemical methods are summarized and discussed. In addition, the applications of QDs/GR composites such as in photodetectors, lithium ion batteries, solar cells, photocatalysis, electrochemiluminescence (ECL) sensors and supercapacitors are described in detail. Finally, the prospects of QDs/GR composites are discussed.

Direct growth of Ge quantum dots on a graphene/SiO2/Si structure using ion beam sputtering deposition.

The growth of Ge quantum dots (QDs) using the ion beam sputtering deposition technique has been successfully conducted directly on single-layer graphene supported by SiO2/Si substrate. The results show that the morphology and size of Ge QDs on graphene can be modulated by tuning the Ge coverage. Charge transfer behavior, i.e. doping effect in graphene has been demonstrated at the interface of Ge/graphene. Compared with that of traditional Ge dots grown on Si substrate, the positions of both corresponding photoluminescence (PL) peaks of Ge QDs/graphene hybrid structure undergo a large red-shift, which can probably be attributed to the lack of atomic intermixing and the existence of surface states in this hybrid material. According to first-principles calculations, the Ge growth on the graphene should follow the so-called Volmer-Weber mode instead of the Stranski-Krastanow one which is observed generally in the traditional Ge QDs/Si system. The calculations also suggest that the interaction between Ge and graphene layer can be enhanced with the decrease of the Ge coverage. Our results may supply a prototype for fabricating novel optoelectronic devices based on a QDs/graphene hybrid nanostructure.

Investigation of the microstructure and optical properties of Ge films grown by DC magnetron sputtering and in situ annealing

We investigate the microstructure and optical properties of Ge films on Si substrates prepared at low temperature by DC magnetron sputtering and the effect of in situ annealing on them. With increasing growth temperature, Ge films undergo a transition from amorphous to microcrystalline, then to polycrystalline. After annealing, these thin films transform into polycrystalline films with the (111) preferred orientation and identical crystal sizes. The surfaces of the amorphous and microcrystalline Ge films are severely coarsened, whereas the polycrystalline Ge film still displays a smooth surface. The growth mechanisms of Ge films with different crystalline phases in the annealing process are discussed, which can explain their morphology evolutions. Additionally, their infrared absorptions are enhanced after annealing, and this is useful for fabricating high-efficiency Si-based solar cells.

Microstructure and optical response optimization of Ge/Si quantum dots transformed from the sputtering-grown Ge thin film by manipulating the thermal annealing

A series of zero-dimensional Ge/Si quantum dots (QDs) samples are fabricated by inducing the transformation from the two-dimensional Ge thin film, which is grown by the traditional direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering, via regulating the annealing process. The QD density increases sharply after the post rapid thermal annealing (PRTA). The observations of atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Raman spectroscopy suggest that the good morphology of Ge QDs results from an appropriate thermodynamics and kinetics surrounding shaped by the cooperative interaction of the Ge-Si lattice mismatch, the films surface temperature, and the difference in thermal expansion coefficients between Ge and Si. The photoluminescence (PL) peaks of Ge QDs are detected in monolayer Ge QDs with ultrahigh density at 17 K. The Metal-Ge/Si QDs-Metal (MGM) photodetector fabricated from the ultrahigh-density QDs sample exhibits a relatively high current gain, absolute photoelectric responsivity, and internal quantum efficiency (IQE). Our results demonstrate that the high-quality Ge QDs with strong light absorption and quantum confinement effect can be realized by modulating DC magnetron sputtering and the PRTA process. This paves the way for realizing silicon-based optoelectronic devices with high performance by the traditional, relatively low-cost, and large-scale production nanomaterial fabricating method.