Wurtzite single crystal GaN nanocolumns were grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on bare Si(001) substrates. Nanocolumns with diameters in the range of 20–40nm have no traces of extended defects and they grow aligned along the [0001] direction. Photoluminescence measurements in nanocolumns evidence a very high crystal quality in terms of intense and narrow excitonic emissions. Raman scattering data show that the nanocolumns are strain-free. These results open the way to an efficient integration of optoelectronic devices with the complementary metal oxide semiconductor technology.

The oscillating piezoelectric field of a surface acoustic wave (SAW) is employed to transport photoexcited carriers, as well as to spatially control exciton recombination in GaAs-based nanowires (NWs) on a subns time scale. The experiments are carried out in core-shell NWs transferred to a SAW delay line on a LiNbO(3) crystal. Carriers generated in the NW by a focused laser spot are acoustically transferred to a second location, leading to the remote emission of subns light pulses synchronized with the SAW phase. The dynamics of the carrier transport, investigated using spatially and time-resolved photoluminescence, is well-reproduced by computer simulations. The high-frequency contactless manipulation of carriers by SAWs opens new perspectives for applications of NWs in opto-electronic devices operating at gigahertz frequencies. The potential of this approach is demonstrated by the realization of a high-frequency source of antibunched photons based on the acoustic transport of electrons and holes in (In,Ga)As NWs.

Raman measurements in high quality InN nanocolumns display a coupled LO phonon-plasmon mode together with uncoupled phonons. The coupled mode is attributed to the spontaneous accumulation of electrons on the lateral surfaces of the nanocolumns. For increasing growth temperature, the electron density decreases as the growth rate increases. The present results indicate that electron accumulation layers do not only form on polar surfaces of InN but also occur on nonpolar ones. According to recent calculations, we attribute the electron surface accumulation to the temperature dependent In-rich surface reconstruction on the nanocolumn sidewalls.

We report on the modulation of indirect excitons (IXs) as well as their transport by moving periodic potentials produced by surface acoustic waves (SAWs). The potential modulation induced by the SAW strain modifies both the band gap and the electrostatic field in the quantum wells confining the IXs, leading to changes in their energy. In addition, this potential captures and transports IXs over several hundreds of μm. While the IX packets keep to a great extent their spatial shape during transport by the moving potential, the effective transport velocity is lower than the SAW group velocity and increases with the SAW amplitude. This behavior is attributed to the capture of IXs by traps along the transport path, thereby increasing the IX transit time. The experimental results are well-reproduced by an analytical model for the interaction between trapping centers and IXs during transport.Keywords: excitons and related phenomena, quantum wells, acousto-electric phenomena and surface acoustic waves, photoluminescence properties of materials