Recent Advances in Group III–V Nanowire Infrared Detectors

Abstract

Abstract1D III–V semiconductor nanowires (NWs) attract significant interests in fundamental physics and promising applications of high‐performance room‐temperature infrared (IR) detectors. Here, a comprehensive overview of recent advances in the study of III–V NW‐based IR detectors is presented, starting from the rationale of III–V NWs for IR detectors, the controllable synthesis of III–V NWs to the precise manipulation of III–V NW‐based IR detector performances. With a bandgap covering the whole IR wavelength range and a high carrier mobility, III–V NWs are considered as the most optimal channel materials for high‐performance IR detectors. The synthesis methods and growth mechanisms of high quality III–V NWs are discussed, emphasizing the low‐cost solid source chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique, which is developed as the two‐step and surfactant‐assisted CVD methods in the growth of various III–V NWs. Next, the representative types of III–V NW IR detectors are discussed and typical strategies to resolve main challenges limiting the performance of III–V NW‐based IR detectors are reviewed, including high density of surface trap states, large dark current, etc. Finally, the possible challenges and opportunities in the future development of III–V NW‐based IR detectors are discussed.

Review on III-V Semiconductor Single Nanowire-Based Room Temperature Infrared Photodetectors

“…In this section, typical III-V single nanowire infrared photodetectors are discussed based on their device structures and operating wavelengths. The associated performance metrics such as responsivity (R), specific detectivity (D * ), gain (G), external quantum efficiency (EQE), and response time (t) [1,34] under room temperature are summarized and compared in Table 1.…”

“…In particular, III-V semiconductor nanowires have direct and widely tunable bandgap, high absorption coefficient and carrier mobility, as well as flexibility to form heterostructures, making them excellent candidates for photodetection [1,33]. Moreover, it is found that the enhanced photocarrier lifetime and decreased transit time in nanowire detectors lead to much higher gain in nanowires in comparison to bulk structures [34]. Researchers have also implemented transistor structures [11,[35][36][37], metal-semiconductor (M-S) or metal-semiconductor-metal (M-S-M) Schottky junctions [38][39][40][41], p-n junctions [42,43], and heterostructures [42][43][44][45][46] in nanowire-based photodetectors to further reduce dark current and enhance I light /I dark ratio for infrared photodetection.…”

Recent advances in Sb-based III–V nanowires

“…On the other hand, GaSb shows the highest hole mobility of 1000 cm 2 V −1 s −1 [36]. Figure 1(b) shows bandgaps and band alignment for the selected III-V binary semiconductors plotted as a function of the cubic lattice constant [47]. With the large lattice constants, InSb, AlSb and GaSb show narrow bandgaps compared to the other III-V semiconductors.…”

“…Moreover, the 1D NWs nanostructure with the large surface-to-volume ratios and Debye length typically shows superior ability of light absorption, prolonged photocarrier lifetime and shortened transit time during photoelectric processes [45,46]. Therefore, the 1D semiconductor NWs-based photodetectors facilitate highly integrated and miniature devices, showing the advantages of high responsivity, specific detectivity, fast response, high spectral selection, good flexibility, and low energy consumption [11,47,48]. In this case, both InSb and GaSb NWs have been demonstrated in the application of IR detectors in the past few years [12,49,50].…”

Nanowire-assisted microcavity in a photonic crystal waveguide and the enabled high-efficiency optical frequency conversions

“…Semiconductor nanowires (NWs) have attracted intense research for constructing miniaturized nanophotonic and optoelectronic devices, including passive waveguides and resonators [1][2][3], and active light-emitting devices [4][5][6], photodetectors [7], and photovoltaic devices [8]. Unfortunately, the very poor couplings between NWs and light make it difficult to realize devices with high performance [9].…”