Influence of growth kinetics on Sn incorporation in direct band gap Ge1−xSnx nanowires
Loading...
Files
Accepted version
Supplementary information
Date
2018-07-25
Authors
Doherty, Jessica
Biswas, Subhajit
Saladukha, Dzianis
Ramasse, Quentin
Bhattacharya, Tara Shankar
Singha, Achintya
Ochalski, Tomasz J.
Holmes, Justin D.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
Published Version
Abstract
Ge1−xSnx alloys with substantial incorporation of Sn show promise as direct bandgap group IV semiconductors. This article reports the influence of growth kinetics on Sn inclusion in Ge1−xSnx alloy nanowires through manipulation of the growth constraints, i.e. temperature, precursor type and catalyst. Ge1−xSnx nanowire growth kinetics were manipulated in a vapour–liquid–solid (VLS) growth process by varying the growth temperature between 425 and 470 °C, using Au and Ag alloys as growth catalysts and different tin precursors such as allyltributytin, tertaethyltin and tetraallyltin. The profound impact of growth kinetics on the incorporation of Sn; from 7 to 9 at%; in Ge1−xSnx nanowires was clearly apparent, with the fastest growing nanowires (of comparable diameter) containing a higher amount of Sn. A kinetically dependent “solute trapping” process was assigned as the primary inclusion mechanism for Sn incorporation in the Ge1−xSnx nanowires. The participation of a kinetic dependent, continuous Sn incorporation process in the single-step VLS nanowire growth resulted in improved ordering of the Ge1−xSnx alloy lattice; as opposed to a randomly ordered alloy. The amount of Sn inclusion and the Sn impurity ordering in Ge1−xSnx nanowires has a profound effect on the quality of the light emission and on the directness of the band gap as confirmed by temperature dependent photoluminescence study and electron energy loss spectroscopy.
Description
Keywords
Growth kinetics , Catalysts , Electron energy loss spectroscopy , Electron scattering , Energy dissipation , Energy gap , Gold alloys , Kinetics , Nanowires , Semiconductor alloys , Silver alloys
Citation
Doherty, J., Biswas, S., Saladukha, D., Ramasse, Q., Bhattacharya, T. S., Singha, A., Ochalski, T. J. and Holmes, J. D. (2018) 'Influence of growth kinetics on Sn incorporation in direct band gap Ge1−xSnx nanowires', Journal of Materials Chemistry C, 6(32), pp. 8738-8750. doi: 10.1039/C8TC02423E
Link to publisher’s version
Copyright
© The Royal Society of Chemistry 2018