Growth, Crystal Structure, and Photoluminescent Properties of Dilute Nitride InAsN Nanowires on Silicon for Infrared Optoelectronics

Abstract

Epitaxial InAs-based nanowire (NW) arrays have recently gained attention as promising materials for infrared optoelectronics. To shift the spectral sensitivity of NW-based photodetectors, we for the first time investigated dilute nitride InAsN nanowires on Si(111). The growth of InAsN nanowires with a wurtzite phase was achieved through a self-induced mechanism using plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. Two growth strategies were employed to synthesize InAsN and InAs/InAsN core−shell nanowires, allowing for independent control over the morphology and optical properties. According to the photoluminescence measurement and performed ab initio calculations for the wurtzite InAsN structure, we estimate the atomic concentration of the incorporated nitrogen in the studied structure as 0.5−0.7%. Transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction reveal a wurtzite crystal lattice volume shrinkage with an increase in nitrogen content. Our results demonstrate the potential of dilute nitride InAsN for strain and band gap engineering in NW photodetectors on Si.