ACS Appl Mater Interfaces
September 2021
Sub-micron-size light sources are currently extremely dim, achieving nanowatt output powers due to the current density and temperature droop. Recently, we reported a droop-free fin light-emitting diode (LED) pixel that at high current densities becomes a laser with record output power in the microwatt range. Here, we show a scalable method for selectively metallizing fins via their nonpolar side facet that allows electrical injection to sub-200 nm wide -ZnO fins on -GaN with at least 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCombining scanning tunneling microscopy and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we demonstrate how to tune the doping of epitaxial graphene from to by exploiting the structural changes that occur spontaneously on the Ge surface upon thermal annealing. Furthermore, using first-principle calculations, we build a model that successfully reproduces the experimental observations. Since the ability to modify graphene electronic properties is of fundamental importance when it comes to applications, our results provide an important contribution toward the integration of graphene with conventional semiconductors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPerovskite solar cells offer remarkable performance, but further advances will require deeper understanding and control of the materials and processing. Here, we fabricate the first single crystal nanorods of intermediate phase (MAI-PbI-DMSO), allowing us to directly observe the phase evolution while annealing in a high-vacuum transmission electron microscope, which lets up separate thermal effects from other environmental conditions such as oxygen and moisture. We attain the first full determination of the crystal structures and orientations of the intermediate phase, evolving perovskite, precipitating PbI, and e-beam induced PbI during phase conversion and decomposition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn situ transmission electron microscopy reveals that an atomically thin crystalline phase at the surface of liquid Au-Si is stable over an unexpectedly wide range of conditions. By measuring the surface structure as a function of liquid temperature and composition, a simple thermodynamic model is developed to explain the stability of the ordered phase. The presence of surface ordering plays a key role in the pathway by which the Au-Si eutectic solidifies and also dramatically affects the catalytic properties of the liquid, explaining the anomalously slow growth kinetics of Si nanowires at low temperature.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMonolayer transition metal dichalcogenide heterojunctions, including vertical and lateral p-n junctions, have attracted considerable attention due to their potential applications in electronics and optoelectronics. Lattice-misfit strain in atomically abrupt lateral heterojunctions, such as WSe-MoS, offers a new band-engineering strategy for tailoring their electronic properties. However, this approach requires an understanding of the strain distribution and its effect on band alignment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCapillary and van der Waals forces cause nanotubes to deform or even collapse under metal contacts. Using ab initio band structure calculations, we find that these deformations reduce the band gap by as much as 30%, while fully collapsed nanotubes become metallic. Moreover, degeneracy lifting due to the broken axial symmetry, and wave functions mismatch between the fully collapsed and the round portions of a CNT, lead to a 3 times higher contact resistance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCarbon nanotubes provide a rare access point into the plasmon physics of one-dimensional electronic systems. By assembling purified nanotubes into uniformly sized arrays, we show that they support coherent plasmon resonances, that these plasmons couple to nanotube and substrate phonons, and that the resulting phonon-plasmon resonances have quality factors as high as 10. Because nanotube plasmons intensely strengthen electromagnetic fields and light-matter interactions, they provide a compelling platform for surface-enhanced spectroscopy and tunable optical devices at deep-subwavelength scales.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe ability to fabricate nanoscale domains of uniform size in two-dimensional materials could potentially enable new applications in nanoelectronics and the development of innovative metamaterials. However, achieving even minimal control over the growth of two-dimensional lateral heterostructures at such extreme dimensions has proven exceptionally challenging. Here we show the spontaneous formation of ordered arrays of graphene nano-domains (dots), epitaxially embedded in a two-dimensional boron-carbon-nitrogen alloy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors challenges the device research community to reduce the transistor footprint containing all components to 40 nanometers within the next decade. We report on a p-channel transistor scaled to such an extremely small dimension. Built on one semiconducting carbon nanotube, it occupies less than half the space of leading silicon technologies, while delivering a significantly higher pitch-normalized current density-above 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAchieving high elasticity for silicon (Si) nanowires, one of the most important and versatile building blocks in nanoelectronics, would enable their application in flexible electronics and bio-nano interfaces. We show that vapor-liquid-solid-grown single-crystalline Si nanowires with diameters of ~100 nm can be repeatedly stretched above 10% elastic strain at room temperature, approaching the theoretical elastic limit of silicon (17 to 20%). A few samples even reached ~16% tensile strain, with estimated fracture stress up to ~20 GPa.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe study the growth of GaN nanowires from liquid Au-Ga catalysts using environmental transmission electron microscopy. GaN wires grow in either ⟨112̅0⟩ or ⟨11̅00⟩ directions, by the addition of {11̅00} double bilayers via step flow with multiple steps. Step-train growth is not typically seen with liquid catalysts, and we suggest that it results from low step mobility related to the unusual double-height step structure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFControlled formation of non-equilibrium crystal structures is one of the most important challenges in crystal growth. Catalytically grown nanowires are ideal systems for studying the fundamental physics of phase selection, and could lead to new electronic applications based on the engineering of crystal phases. Here we image gallium arsenide (GaAs) nanowires during growth as they switch between phases as a result of varying growth conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSemiconductor heterostructures are fundamental building blocks for many important device applications. The emergence of two-dimensional semiconductors opens up a new realm for creating heterostructures. As the bandgaps of transition metal dichalcogenides thin films have sensitive layer dependence, it is natural to create lateral heterojunctions (HJs) using the same materials with different thicknesses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe show that Au nanoparticles spontaneously move across the (001) surface of InP, InAs, and GaP when heated in the presence of water vapor. As they move, the particles etch crystallographically aligned grooves into the surface. We show that this process is a negative analogue of the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) growth of semiconductor nanowires: the semiconductor dissolves into the catalyst and reacts with water vapor at the catalyst surface to create volatile oxides, depleting the dissolved cations and anions and thus sustaining the dissolution process.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn situ transmission electron microscopy observations of nanowire morphologies indicate that during Au-catalyzed Ge nanowire growth, Ge facets can rapidly form along the nanowire sidewalls when the source gas (here, digermane) flux is decreased or the temperature is increased. This sidewall faceting is accompanied by continuous catalyst loss as Au diffuses from the droplet to the wire surface. We suggest that high digermane flux and low temperatures promote effective surface passivation of Ge nanowires with H or other digermane fragments inhibiting diffusion and attachment of Au and Ge on the sidewalls.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMoving beyond the limits of silicon transistors requires both a high-performance channel and high-quality electrical contacts. Carbon nanotubes provide high-performance channels below 10 nanometers, but as with silicon, the increase in contact resistance with decreasing size becomes a major performance roadblock. We report a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) transistor technology with an end-bonded contact scheme that leads to size-independent contact resistance to overcome the scaling limits of conventional side-bonded or planar contact schemes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNanowire growth has generally relied on an initial particle of a catalyst such as Au to define the wire diameter and stabilize the growth. Self-catalyzed growth of III-V nanowires avoids the need for a foreign element, with the nanowire growing from the vapor via a droplet of the native group-III liquid. However, as suggested by Gibbs' phase rule, the absence of third element has a destabilizing effect.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStructural arrays with nanoscale spacing arise in many device concepts. Carbon nanotube transistors are an extreme example, where a practical technology will require arrays of parallel nanotubes with spacing of order 10 nm or less. We show that with decreasing pitch there is a first-order transition, from a robust structure in which the metal wets the substrate between tubes, to a poorly wetting structure in which the metal rides atop the nanotube array without touching the substrate.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUltrascaled transistors based on single-walled carbon nanotubes are identified as one of the top candidates for future microprocessor chips as they provide significantly better device performance and scaling properties than conventional silicon technologies. From the perspective of the chip performance, the device variability is as important as the device performance for practical applications. This paper presents a systematic investigation on the origins and characteristics of the threshold voltage (VT) variability of scaled quasiballistic nanotube transistors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe observe the growth of crystalline SiC nanoparticles on Si(001) at 900 °C using in situ electron microscopy. Following nucleation and growth of the SiC, there is a massive migration of Si, forming a crystalline Si mound underneath each nanoparticle that lifts it 4-5 nm above the initial growth surface. The volume of the Si mounds is roughly five to seven times the volume of the SiC nanoparticles.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNanowire growth is generally considered a steady-state process, but oscillatory phenomena are known to often play a fundamental role. Here we identify a natural sequence of distinct growth modes, in two of which the catalyst droplet jumps periodically on and off a crystal facet. The oscillatory modes result from a mismatch between catalyst size and wire diameter; they enable growth of straight smooth-sided wires even when the droplet is too small to span the wire tip.
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