Increased Photoconductivity Lifetime in GaAs Nanowires by Controlled n-Type and p-Type Doping.

Journal article

Controlled doping of GaAs nanowires is crucial for the development of nanowire-based electronic and optoelectronic devices. Here, we present a non-contact method based on time resolved terahertz photoconductivity for assessing n and p type doping efficiency in nanowires. Using this technique, we measure extrinsic electron and hole concentrations in excess of 10(18)cm(-3) for GaAs nanowires with n-type and p-type doped shells. Furthermore, we show that controlled doping can significantly increase the photoconductivity lifetime of GaAs nanowires by over an order of magnitude: from 0.13ns in undoped nanowires to 3.8ns and 2.5ns in n-doped and p-doped nanowires respectively. Thus, controlled doping can be used to reduce the effects of parasitic surface recombination in optoelectronic nanowire devices, which is promising for nanowire devices such as solar cells and nanowire lasers.

Authors: Boland, J; Casadei, A; Tutuncuoglu, G; Matteini, F; Davies, C

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: American Chemical Society
• Journal: ACS Nano
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 4219–4227
• Publication date: 2016-03-09
• DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.5b07579
• EISSN: 1936-086X
• ISSN: 1936-0851
• Language: English
• Keywords: surface states; p-type doping; mobility; SBTMR; nanowires; surface recombination; carrier lifetime; terahertz spectroscopy; photoconductivity; GaAs; n-type doping