Control of conductivity of In x Ga 1-x As nanowires by applied tension and surface states

The electronic properties of semiconductor AIIIBV nanowires (NWs) due to high surface/volume ratio in NWs can be effectively controlled by NW strain and surface electronic states. We study effect of the applied tension on the conductivity of wurtzite In Ga As (x~0.8) NWs. Experimentally, conductive...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nano letters 2019-07, Vol.19 (7), p.4463-4469
Main Authors: Alekseev, Prokhor Anatolevich, Sharov, Vladislav A, Dunaevskiy, Mikhail, Kirilenko, Demid A, Ilkiv, Igor V, Reznik, Rodion R, Cirlin, George E, Berkovits, Vladimir
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:The electronic properties of semiconductor AIIIBV nanowires (NWs) due to high surface/volume ratio in NWs can be effectively controlled by NW strain and surface electronic states. We study effect of the applied tension on the conductivity of wurtzite In Ga As (x~0.8) NWs. Experimentally, conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) is used to measure the I-V curves of vertically-standing NWs covered by native oxide. To apply tension, the microscope probe touching the NW side is shifted laterally to produce a tensile strain in the nanowire. The NW strain significantly increases the forward current in the measured I-V curves. When the strain reaches 4%, the I-V curve becomes almost linear, and the forward current increases by three orders of magnitude. In the latter case, the tensile strain is supposed to shift conduction band minima below the Fermi level, whose position, in turn, is fixed by surface states. Consequently, the surface conductivity channel appears. The observed effects confirm that the surface excess arsenic is responsible for the Fermi level pinning at oxidized surfaces of III-As NWs.
ISSN:1530-6984
1530-6992
DOI:10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b01264