Ensembles of indium phosphide nanowires: physical properties and functional devices integrated on non-single crystal platforms

A new route to grow an ensemble of indium phosphide single-crystal semiconductor nanowires is described. Unlike conventional epitaxial growth of single-crystal semiconductor films, the proposed route for growing semiconductor nanowires does not require a single-crystal semiconductor substrate. In the proposed route, instead of using single-crystal semiconductor substrates that are characterized by their long-range atomic ordering, a template layer that possesses short-range atomic ordering prepared on a non-single-crystal substrate is employed. On the template layer, epitaxial information associated with its short-range atomic ordering is available within an area that is comparable to that of a nanowire root. Thus the template layer locally provides epitaxial information required for the growth of semiconductor nanowires. In the particular demonstration described in this paper, hydrogenated silicon was used as a template layer for epitaxial growth of indium phosphide nanowires. The indium phosphide nanowires grown N.P. Kobayashi ( ) · A. Lohn · T. Onishi Baskin School of Engineering, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA e-mail: [email protected] N.P. Kobayashi · A. Lohn · T. Onishi Nanostructured Energy Conversion Technology and Research (NECTAR), Advanced Studies Laboratories, Univ. of California Santa Cruz, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA S. Mathai · X. Li · J. Straznicky · S.-Y. Wang · R.S. Williams Information and Quantum Systems Laboratory, Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Palo Alto, CA 94034, USA V.J. Logeeswaran · M.S. Islam Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA on the hydrogenerated silicon template layer were found to be single crystal and optically active. Simple photoconductors and pin-diodes were fabricated and tested with the view towards various optoelectronic device applications where group III–V compound semiconductors are functionally integrated onto non-single-crystal platforms. PACS 61.46.Km · 62.23.Hj · 63.22.Gh · 81.15.Gh · 71.55.Eq · 78.55.Cr · 78.66.Ed · 81.05.Ea · 81.05.Gc · 95.55.Rg · 81.10.-h · 91.60.Ed