Special Issue on Nanostructures for Photonics

Phase diagrams are useful tools to study the phase equilibria of nanowire materials systems because the growth of nanowires is accompanied by phase formation and phase transition. We have modeled the phase equilibria of the As–Au–Ga ternary system by means of the CALPHAD method. This method is a well-established semi-empirical technique for thermodynamic modeling in which Gibbs energy functions with free parameters are defined for all phases in a system followed by adjusting these parameters to the experimental data. Using the resulting As–Au–Ga thermodynamic database, four vertical cuts of this ternary system are calculated and all show good agreement with experiments. This ternary system is particularly useful for predicting the state of the Au seed alloys when growing GaAs nanowires and we discuss such predictions. Similar calculations are performed for Au-seeded InAs nanowires. We show that the vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) growth fails for InAs nanowires, while GaAs nanowires can grow from a liquid particle. Our calculations are in agreement with experimental data on the growth of Au-seeded GaAs and InAs nanowires.

Quantum emitters, such as quantum dots or dye molecules, pumped and situated close to plasmonic nanostructures resonantly excite surface plasmon-polaritons (SPPs). Excitation efficiency increases with the number of emitters because the SPP field synchronizes dipole oscillations of emitters, in analogy with superradiance (SR) in free space. Using a fully quantum mechanical model for two emitters coupled to a single metal nanorod, we predict that plasmonic SR increases the SPP generation yield of a single emitter by up to 15%. Such ‘plasmonic SR’ enhancement of SPP generation is stationary and takes place even at strong dissipation, dephasing and under incoherent pumping. Solid-state quantum emitters with blinking behaviors may be used to demonstrate plasmonic SR. Plasmonic SR may be useful for excitation of non-radiative SPP modes in plasmonic waveguides and lowering the threshold of plasmonic nanolasers.

The growth and characterization of ternary GaAsBi and quaternary GaInAsBi compound quantum wells (QWs) on GaAs substrates is presented in this study. The influence of technological parameters, such as different growth modes, substrate temperatures, beam equivalent pressure ratios and thermal treating on structural and luminescent properties of QWs is discussed. The complex structural investigations using x-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy revealed high crystal structure, smooth surfaces and abrupt interfaces of both GaAsBi and GaInAsBi QWs. The temperature dependent photoluminescence measurements demonstrated emission wavelengths up to 1.43 µm in room temperature PL spectra measured for GaAsBi/GaAs QWs containing 12% Bi, whereas GaInAsBi QWs with 4.2% of bismuth inserted between GaAs barriers has reached 1.25 µm. Moreover, the annealing at high temperatures of GaAsBi/AlAs QWs stimulated agglomeration of bismuth to quantum dots in the well layers, emitting at 1.5 µm. The achieved wavelengths are the longest ones declared for the GaAsBi and GaInAsBi QW structures grown on the GaAs substrate, therefore bismide-based QWs are the promising structures for applications in infrared devices.

The paper focuses on the study of transformation of silicon crystal into silicon carbide crystal via substitution reaction with carbon monoxide gas. As an example, the Si(1 0 0) surface is considered. The cross section of the potential energy surface of the first stage of transformation along the reaction pathway is calculated by the method of nudged elastic bands. It is found that in addition to intermediate states associated with adsorption of CO and SiO molecules on the surface, there is also an intermediate state in which all the atoms are strongly bonded to each other. This intermediate state significantly reduces the activation barrier of transformation down to 2.6 eV. The single imaginary frequencies corresponding to the two transition states of this transformation are calculated, one of which is reactant-like, whereas the other is product-like. By methods of quantum chemistry of solids, the second stage of this transformation is described, namely, the transformation of precarbide silicon into silicon carbide. Energy reduction per one cell is calculated for this ‘collapse’ process, and bond breaking energy is also found. Hence, it is concluded that the smallest size of the collapsing islet is 30 nm. It is shown that the chemical bonds of the initial silicon crystal are coordinately replaced by the bonds between Si and C in silicon carbide, which leads to a high quality of epitaxy and a low concentration of misfit dislocations.

Single nitride nanowire core/shell n-p photodetectors are fabricated and analyzed. Nanowires consisting of an n-doped GaN stem, a radial InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well system and a p-doped GaN external shell were grown by catalyst-free metal–organic vapour phase epitaxy on sapphire substrates. Single nanowires were dispersed and the core and the shell regions were contacted with a metal and an ITO deposition, respectively, defined using electron beam lithography. The single wire photodiodes present a response in the visible to UV spectral range under zero external bias. The detector operation speed has been analyzed under different bias conditions. Under zero bias, the  −3 dB cut-off frequency is ~200 Hz for small light modulations. The current generation was modeled using non-equilibrium Green function formalism, which evidenced the importance of phonon scattering for carrier extraction from the quantum wells.

The data on growth peculiarities and physical properties of GaAs insertions embedded in AlGaAs nanowires grown on different (1 1 1) substrates by Au-assisted molecular beam epitaxy are presented. The influence of nanowires growth conditions on structural and optical properties is studied in detail. It is shown that by varying the growth parameters it is possible to form structures like quantum dots that emit in a wide wavelengths range. These quantum dots show sharp and intense emission lines when an optical signal is collected from a single nanowire. The technology proposed opens new possibilities for integration of direct-band A^IIIB^V materials on silicon platform.

Scanning thermal microscopy (SThM) is an attractive technique for nanoscale thermal measurements. Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) can be used to enhance a SThM probe in order to drastically increase spatial resolution while keeping required thermal sensitivity. However, an accurate prediction of the thermal resistance at the interface between the MWCNT-enhanced probe tip and a sample under study is essential for the accurate interpretation of experimental measurements. Unfortunately, there is very little literature on Kapitza interfacial resistance involving carbon nanotubes under SThM configuration. We propose a model for heat conductance through an interface between the MWCNT tip and the sample, which estimates the thermal resistance based on phonon and geometrical properties of the MWCNT and the sample, without neglecting the diamond-like carbon layer covering the MWCNT tip. The model considers acoustic phonons as the main heat carriers and account for their scattering at the interface based on a fundamental quantum mechanical approach. The predicted value of the thermal resistance is then compared with experimental data available in the literature. Theoretical predictions and experimental results are found to be of the same order of magnitude, suggesting a simplified, yet realistic model to approximate thermal resistance between carbon nanotube and sample in SThM, albeit low temperature measurements are needed to achieve a better match between theory and experiment. As a result, several possible avenues are outlined to achieve more accurate predictions and to generalize the model.