Scandium-III-nitrides: A New Material Platform for Semiconductor Photocatalysts with High Reducing Power.

Semiconductor nanowires have become emerging photocatalysts in artificial photosynthesis processes for solar fuel production. For reduction reactions, semiconductor photocatalysts with high reducing powers are highly desirable, especially for chemicals that are extremely difficult to reduce. This study introduces a new semiconductor photocatalyst, scandium (Sc)-III-nitrides, which have higher reducing powers than all conventional semiconductor photocatalysts.

Architecture for Surface-Emitting Lasers with On-Demand Lasing Wavelength by Nanowire Optical Cavities.

Despite the importance and exciting progress of surface-emitting (SE) semiconductor lasers, we have limited choices of lasing wavelength even today. From an application viewpoint, it is desirable to have an architecture that can allow SE lasing in a wide spectral range, based on the need of applications. Herein, we demonstrate a path for SE lasers with lasing wavelength on demand by exploiting III-nitride nanowire optical cavities formed by low-temperature selective area epitaxy (SAE), combined with fine-tuning of substrate patterns and photonic bands.

Facile Semiconductor p-n Homojunction Nanowires with Strategic p-Type Doping Engineering Combined with Surface Reconstruction for Biosensing Applications.

Photosensors with versatile functionalities have emerged as a cornerstone for breakthroughs in the future optoelectronic systems across a wide range of applications. In particular, emerging photoelectrochemical (PEC)-type devices have recently attracted extensive interest in liquid-based biosensing applications due to their natural electrolyte-assisted operating characteristics. Herein, a PEC-type photosensor was carefully designed and constructed by employing gallium nitride (GaN) p-n homojunction semiconductor nanowires on silicon, with the p-GaN segment strategically doped and then decorated with cobalt-nickel oxide (CoNiO).

Ultralow threshold surface emitting ultraviolet lasers with semiconductor nanowires.

Surface-emitting (SE) semiconductor lasers have changed our everyday life in various ways such as communication and sensing. Expanding the operation wavelength of SE semiconductor lasers to shorter ultraviolet (UV) wavelength range further broadens the applications to disinfection, medical diagnostics, phototherapy, and so on. Nonetheless, realizing SE lasers in the UV range has remained to be a challenge.

Vertical semiconductor deep ultraviolet light emitting diodes on a nanowire-assisted aluminum nitride buffer layer.

Vertical light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have many advantages such as uniform current injection, excellent scalability of the chip size, and simple packaging process. Hitherto, however, technologically important semiconductor aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN) deep ultraviolet (UV) LEDs are mainly through lateral injection. Herein, we demonstrate a new and practical path for vertical AlGaN deep UV LEDs, which exploits a thin AlN buffer layer formed on a nanowire-based template on silicon (Si).

Field emission from AlGaN nanowires with low turn-on field.

We fabricate AlGaN nanowires by molecular beam epitaxy and we investigate their field emission properties by means of an experimental setup using nano-manipulated tungsten tips as electrodes, inside a scanning electron microscope. The tip-shaped anode gives access to local properties, and allows collecting electrons emitted from areas as small as 1 µm. The field emission characteristics are analysed in the framework of Fowler-Nordheim theory and we find a field enhancement factor as high as β = 556 and a minimum turn-on field [Formula: see text] = 17 V µm for a cathode-anode separation distance [Formula: see text] = 500 nm.

Decoupling Strategy for Enhanced Syngas Generation from Photoelectrochemical CO Reduction.

Photoelectrochemical CO reduction into syngas (a mixture of CO and H) provides a promising route to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and store intermittent solar energy into value-added chemicals. Design of photoelectrode with high energy conversion efficiency and controllable syngas composition is of central importance but remains challenging. Herein, we report a decoupling strategy using dual cocatalysts to tackle the challenge based on joint computational and experimental investigations.

AlGaN Nanowires for Ultraviolet Light-Emitting: Recent Progress, Challenges, and Prospects.

In this paper, we discuss the recent progress made in aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN) nanowire ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The AlGaN nanowires used for such LED devices are mainly grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD); and various foreign substrates/templates have been investigated. Devices on Si so far exhibit the best performance, whereas devices on metal and graphene have also been investigated to mitigate various limitations of Si substrate, e.

Effect of growth temperature on the structural and optical properties of few-layer hexagonal boron nitride by molecular beam epitaxy.

We have studied the epitaxy of few-layer hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) using a low growth rate and nitrogen-rich condition. It has been determined that under such conditions, the growth temperature is the factor having the most significant impact on the structural and optical quality of the material. When grown at temperatures <1000 °C, the h-BN film is polycrystalline, and defect-related photoluminescence (PL) emission dominates.

Magnetic Field Enhanced Superconductivity in Epitaxial Thin Film WTe.

In conventional superconductors an external magnetic field generally suppresses superconductivity. This results from a simple thermodynamic competition of the superconducting and magnetic free energies. In this study, we report the unconventional features in the superconducting epitaxial thin film tungsten telluride (WTe).

Selective area epitaxy of AlGaN nanowire arrays across nearly the entire compositional range for deep ultraviolet photonics.

Semiconductor light sources operating in the ultraviolet (UV)-C band (100-280 nm) are in demand for a broad range of applications but suffer from extremely low efficiency. AlGaN nanowire photonic crystals promise to break the efficiency bottleneck of deep UV photonics. We report, for the first time, site-controlled epitaxy of AlGaN nanowire arrays with Al incorporation controllably varied across nearly the entire compositional range.

AlN/h-BN Heterostructures for Mg Dopant-Free Deep Ultraviolet Photonics.

Aluminum-rich AlGaN is the ideal material system for emerging solid-state deep-ultraviolet (DUV) light sources. Devices operating in the near-UV spectral range have been realized; to date, however, the achievement of high-efficiency light-emitting diodes (LEDs) operating in the UV-C band (200-280 nm specifically) has been hindered by the extremely inefficient p-type conduction in AlGaN and the lack of DUV-transparent conductive electrodes. Here, we show that these critical challenges can be addressed by Mg dopant-free Al(Ga)N/h-BN nanowire heterostructures.

Controlled Coalescence of AlGaN Nanowire Arrays: An Architecture for Nearly Dislocation-Free Planar Ultraviolet Photonic Device Applications.

Nearly dislocation-free semipolar AlGaN templates are achieved on c-plane sapphire substrate through controlled nanowire coalescence by selective-area epitaxy. The coalesced Mg-doped AlGaN layers exhibit superior charge-carrier-transport properties. Semipolar-AlGaN ultraviolet light-emitting diodes demonstrate excellent performance.

Nanogenerators based on vertically aligned InN nanowires.

Piezoelectric nanogenerators (NGs) based on vertically aligned InN nanowires (NWs) are fabricated, characterized, and evaluated. In these NGs, arrays of p-type and intrinsic InN NWs prepared by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) demonstrate similar piezoelectric properties. The p-type NGs show 160% more output current and 70% more output power product than the intrinsic NGs.

Optical constants of In(x)Ga(1-x)N (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.73) in the visible and near-infrared wavelength regimes.

Complex refractive indices of In(x)Ga(1-x)N epitaxial layers have been determined from analysis of data obtained by spectroscopic ellipsometry. The measurements were made in the wavelength range of 400-1687 nm. The samples were grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on (001) silicon substrate and are of the wurtzite crystalline form.

One-step overall water splitting under visible light using multiband InGaN/GaN nanowire heterostructures.

The conversion of solar energy into hydrogen via water splitting process is one of the key sustainable technologies for future clean, storable, and renewable source of energy. Therefore, development of visible light-responsive and efficient photocatalyst material has been of immense interest, but with limited success. Here, we show that overall water splitting under visible-light irradiation can be achieved using a single photocatalyst material.

Large-scale cubic InN nanocrystals by a combined solution- and vapor-phase method under silica confinement.

Large-scale cubic InN nanocrystals were synthesized by a combined solution- and vapor-phase method under silica confinement. Nearly monodisperse cubic InN nanocrystals with uniform spherical shape were dispersed stably in various organic solvents after removal of the silica shells. The average size of InN nanocrystals is 5.