Epitaxial Ge<sub>0.81</sub>Sn<sub>0.19</sub> Nanowires for Nanoscale Mid-Infrared Emitters.

Seifner, Michael S; Dijkstra, Alain; Bernardi, Johannes; Steiger-Thirsfeld, Andreas; Sistani, Masiar; Lugstein, Alois; Haverkort, Jos E M; Barth, Sven · ACS Nano · 2019

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Highly oriented Ge<sub>0.81</sub>Sn<sub>0.19</sub> nanowires have been synthesized by a low-temperature chemical vapor deposition growth technique. The nanostructures form by a self-seeded vapor-liquid-solid mechanism. In this process, liquid metallic Sn seeds enable the anisotropic crystal growth and act as a sole source of Sn for the formation of the metastable Ge<sub>1-<i>x</i></sub>Sn<sub><i>x</i></sub> semiconductor material. The strain relaxation for a lattice mismatch of ε = 2.94% between the Ge (111) substrate and the constant Ge<sub>0.81</sub>Sn<sub>0.19</sub> composition of nanowires is confined to a transition zone of <100 nm. In contrast, Ge<sub>1-<i>x</i></sub>Sn<sub><i>x</i></sub> structures with diameters in the micrometer range show a 5-fold longer compositional gradient very similar to epitaxial thin-film growth. Effects of the Sn growth promoters' dimensions on the morphological and compositional evolution of Ge<sub>1-<i>x</i></sub>Sn<sub><i>x</i></sub> are described. The temperature- and laser power-dependent photoluminescence analyses verify the formation of a direct band gap material with emission in the mid-infrared region and values expected for unstrained Ge<sub>0.81</sub>Sn<sub>0.19</sub> (<i>e</i>.<i>g</i>., band gap of 0.3 eV at room temperature). These materials  hold promise in applications such as thermal imaging and photodetection as well as building blocks for group IV-based mid- to near-IR photonics.