Bandgap engineering of GaN nanowires

Abstract

Bandgap engineering has been a powerful technique for manipulating the electronic and optical properties of semiconductors. In this work, a systematic investigation of the electronic properties of [0001] GaN nanowires was carried out using the density functional based tight-binding method (DFTB). We studied the effects of geometric structure and uniaxial strain on the electronic properties of GaN nanowires with diameters ranging from 0.8 to 10 nm. Our results show that the band gap of GaN nanowires depends linearly on both the surface to volume ratio (S/V) and tensile strain. The band gap of GaN nanowires increases linearly with S/V, while it decreases linearly with increasing tensile strain. These linear relationships provide an effect way in designing GaN nanowires for their applications in novel nano-devices.

Effect of pore-size disorder on the electronic properties of semiconducting graphene nanomeshes

“…It has been successfully used to calculate the electronic properties of bulk, surface, and nanowire systems [48,49], molecular materials [50], as well as some biological systems [51]. The success of DFTB to describe the electronic properties of many systems has been demonstrated through numerous comparisons with DFT, for example to calculate the structural and electronic properties of 2D phosphorous carbide polymorphs [52], or to study the effect of structural changes on the electronic properties of GaN nanowires [53]. Generally, DFTB agrees well with DFT and can therefore be utilized to study large-scale systems that are impossible to study with DFT.…”

Review of GaN Nanostructured Based Devices

“…The bandgap engineering has been a powerful technique for manipulating the electronic and optical properties of semiconductors. The electronic properties of GaN nanowires have been studied by Ming et al [96]. In that study, a systematic investigation of the electronic properties of GaN nanowires was carried out using the density functional based tight binding method (DFTB).…”

“…In that study, a systematic investigation of the electronic properties of GaN nanowires was carried out using the density functional based tight binding method (DFTB). The effect of geometric structure and uniaxial strain on the electronic properties of GaN nanowires with diameters ranging from 0.8 to 10 nm have also been studied [96]. The study's results showed that the band gap of GaN nanowires depends linearly on both the surface to volume ratio (S/V) and tensile strain.…”

“…The band gap of GaN nanowires increased linearly with S/V, while it decreased linearly with increasing tensile strain. These linear relationships provide an effect way in designing GaN Figure 17 [96]. Figure 18 (a) shows the bandgap versus transverse dimension D and (b) shows the bandgap versus S/V.…”

“…The red solid line is the best fit one with slope 0.417±0.004 eV·nm. Inset of (b) is the bandgap versus S/V relation for Hex-GaN nanowires [96]. The fabrication and the characterization of GaN nanowires based vertical transistors have been demonstrated by Yu et al [97].…”