The evolution of real-time medical diagnostic tools such as angiography and computer tomography from radiography based on photographic plates was enabled by the development of integrated solid-state ...X-ray photon detectors made from conventional solid-state semiconductors. Recently, for optoelectronic devices operating in the visible and near-infrared spectral regions, solution-processed organic and inorganic semiconductors have also attracted a great deal of attention. Here, we demonstrate a possibility to use such inexpensive semiconductors for the sensitive detection of X-ray photons by direct photon-to-current conversion. In particular, methylammonium lead iodide perovskite (CH3 NH3 PbI3 ) offers a compelling combination of fast photoresponse and a high absorption cross-section for X-rays, owing to the heavy Pb and I atoms. Solution-processed photodiodes as well as photoconductors are presented, exhibiting high values of X-ray sensitivity (up to 25 μC mGyair-1 cm-3 ) and responsivity (1.9 × 104 carriers/photon), which are commensurate with those obtained by the current solid-state technology.
Silicon crystallized in the usual cubic (diamond) lattice structure has dominated the electronics industry for more than half a century. However, cubic silicon (Si), germanium (Ge) and SiGe alloys ...are all indirect-bandgap semiconductors that cannot emit light efficiently. The goal
of achieving efficient light emission from group-IV materials in silicon technology has been elusive for decades
. Here we demonstrate efficient light emission from direct-bandgap hexagonal Ge and SiGe alloys. We measure a sub-nanosecond, temperature-insensitive radiative recombination lifetime and observe an emission yield similar to that of direct-bandgap group-III-V semiconductors. Moreover, we demonstrate that, by controlling the composition of the hexagonal SiGe alloy, the emission wavelength can be continuously tuned over a broad range, while preserving the direct bandgap. Our experimental findings are in excellent quantitative agreement with ab initio theory. Hexagonal SiGe embodies an ideal material system in which to combine electronic and optoelectronic functionalities on a single chip, opening the way towards integrated device concepts and information-processing technologies.
Nanoparticles exhibiting localized
surface plasmon resonances (LSPR)
are valuable tools traditionally used in a wide field of applications
including sensing, imaging, biodiagnostics and medical ...therapy. Plasmonics
in semiconductor nanocrystals is of special interest because of the
tunability of the carrier densities in semiconductors, and the possibility
to couple the plasmonic resonances to quantum confined excitonic transitions.
Here, colloidal Cu
2–
x
Se nanocrystals
were synthesized, whose composition was shown by Rutherford backscattering
analysis and electron dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, to exhibit Cu
deficiency. The latter results in
p
-type doping causing
LSPRs, in the present case around a wavelength of 1100 nm, closely
matching the indirect band gap of Cu
2–
x
Se. By partial exchange of the organic ligands to specific
electron trapping or donating species the LSPR is fine-tuned to exhibit
blue or red shifts, in total up to 200 nm. This tuning not only provides
a convenient tool for post synthetic adjustments of LSPRs to specific
target wavelength but the sensitive dependence of the resonance wavelength
on surface charges makes these nanocrystals also interesting for sensing
applications, to detect analytes dressed by functional groups.
The tailoring of the physical properties of semiconductor nanomaterials by strain has been gaining increasing attention over the last years for a wide range of applications such as electronics, ...optoelectronics and photonics. The ability to introduce deliberate strain fields with controlled magnitude and in a reversible manner is essential for fundamental studies of novel materials and may lead to the realization of advanced multi-functional devices. A prominent approach consists in the integration of active nanomaterials, in thin epitaxial films or embedded within carrier nanomembranes, onto Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3-based piezoelectric actuators, which convert electrical signals into mechanical deformation (strain). In this review, we mainly focus on recent advances in strain-tunable properties of self-assembled InAs quantum dots (QDs) embedded in semiconductor nanomembranes and photonic structures. Additionally, recent works on other nanomaterials like rare-earth and metal-ion doped thin films, graphene and MoS2 or WSe2 semiconductor two-dimensional materials are also reviewed. For the sake of completeness, a comprehensive comparison between different procedures employed throughout the literature to fabricate such hybrid piezoelectric-semiconductor devices is presented. It is shown that unprocessed piezoelectric substrates (monolithic actuators) allow to obtain a certain degree of control over the nanomaterials' emission properties such as their emission energy, fine-structure-splitting in self-assembled InAs QDs and semiconductor 2D materials, upconversion phenomena in BaTiO3 thin films or piezotronic effects in ZnS:Mn films and InAs QDs. Very recently, a novel class of micro-machined piezoelectric actuators have been demonstrated for a full control of in-plane stress fields in nanomembranes, which enables producing energy-tunable sources of polarization-entangled photons in arbitrary QDs. Future research directions and prospects are discussed.
Group III−V nanowires offer the exciting possibility of epitaxial growth on a wide variety of substrates, most importantly silicon. To ensure compatibility with Si technology, catalyst-free growth ...schemes are of particular relevance, to avoid impurities from the catalysts. While this type of growth is well-documented and some aspects are described, no detailed understanding of the nucleation and the growth mechanism has been developed. By combining a series of growth experiments using metal−organic vapor phase epitaxy, as well as detailed in situ surface imaging and spectroscopy, we gain deeper insight into nucleation and growth of self-seeded III−V nanowires. By this mechanism most work available in literature concerning this field can be described.
With the continued maturation of III–V nanowire research, expectations of material quality should be concomitantly raised. Ideally, III–V nanowires integrated on silicon should be entirely free of ...extended planar defects such as twins, stacking faults, or polytypism, position-controlled for convenient device processing, and gold-free for compatibility with standard complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) processing tools. Here we demonstrate large area vertical GaAs x Sb1–x nanowire arrays grown on silicon (111) by molecular beam epitaxy. The nanowires’ complex faceting, pure zinc blende crystal structure, and composition are mapped using characterization techniques both at the nanoscale and in large-area ensembles. We prove unambiguously that these gold-free nanowires are entirely twin-free down to the first bilayer and reveal their three-dimensional composition evolution, paving the way for novel infrared devices integrated directly on the cost-effective Si platform.
Successful formation of electronic interfaces between living cells and semiconductors hinges on being able to obtain an extremely close and high surface-area contact, which preserves both cell ...viability and semiconductor performance. To accomplish this, we introduce organic semiconductor assemblies consisting of a hierarchical arrangement of nanocrystals. These are synthesised via a colloidal chemical route that transforms the nontoxic commercial pigment quinacridone into various biomimetic three-dimensional arrangements of nanocrystals. Through a tuning of parameters such as precursor concentration, ligands and additives, we obtain complex size and shape control at room temperature. We elaborate hedgehog-shaped crystals comprising nanoscale needles or daggers that form intimate interfaces with the cell membrane, minimising the cleft with single cells without apparent detriment to viability. Excitation of such interfaces with light leads to effective cellular photostimulation. We find reversible light-induced conductance changes in ion-selective or temperature-gated channels.Nanomaterials that form a bioelectronic interface with cells are fascinating tools for controlling cellular behavior. Here, the authors photostimulate single cells with spiky assemblies of semiconducting quinacridone nanocrystals, whose nanoscale needles maximize electronic contact with the cells.
Organic pigments such as indigos, quinacridones, and phthalocyanines are widely produced industrially as colorants for everyday products as various as cosmetics and printing inks. Herein we introduce ...a general procedure to transform commercially available insoluble microcrystalline pigment powders into colloidal solutions of variously sized and shaped semiconductor micro- and nanocrystals. The synthesis is based on the transformation of the pigments into soluble dyes by introducing transient protecting groups on the secondary amine moieties, followed by controlled deprotection in solution. Three deprotection methods are demonstrated: thermal cleavage, acid-catalyzed deprotection, and amine-induced deprotection. During these processes, ligands are introduced to afford colloidal stability and to provide dedicated surface functionality and for size and shape control. The resulting micro- and nanocrystals exhibit a wide range of optical absorption and photoluminescence over spectral regions from the visible to the near-infrared. Due to excellent colloidal solubility offered by the ligands, the achieved organic nanocrystals are suitable for solution processing of (opto)electronic devices. As examples, phthalocyanine nanowire transistors as well as quinacridone nanocrystal photodetectors, with photoresponsivity values by far outperforming those of vacuum deposited reference samples, are demonstrated. The high responsivity is enabled by photoinduced charge transfer between the nanocrystals and the directly attached electron-accepting vitamin B2 ligands. The semiconducting nanocrystals described here offer a cheap, nontoxic, and environmentally friendly alternative to inorganic nanocrystals as well as a new paradigm for obtaining organic semiconductor materials from commercial colorants.
For three types of colloidal magnetic nanocrystals, we demonstrate that postsynthetic cation exchange enables tuning of the nanocrystal’s magnetic properties and achieving characteristics not ...obtainable by conventional synthetic routes. While the cation exchange procedure, performed in solution phase approach, was restricted so far to chalcogenide based semiconductor nanocrystals, here ferrite-based nanocrystals were subjected to a Fe2+ to Co2+ cation exchange procedure. This allows tracing of the compositional modifications by systematic and detailed magnetic characterization. In homogeneous magnetite nanocrystals and in gold/magnetite core shell nanocrystals the cation exchange increases the coercivity field, the remanence magnetization, as well as the superparamagnetic blocking temperature. For core/shell nanoheterostructures a selective doping of either the shell or predominantly of the core with Co2+ is demonstrated. By applying the cation exchange to FeO/CoFe2O4 core/shell nanocrystals the Neél temperature of the core material is increased and exchange-bias effects are enhanced so that vertical shifts of the hysteresis loops are obtained which are superior to those in any other system.
The atomic distances in hexagonal polytypes of III−V compound semiconductors differ from the values expected from simply a change of the stacking sequence of (111) lattice planes. While these changes ...were difficult to quantify so far, we accurately determine the lattice parameters of zinc blende, wurtzite, and 4H polytypes for InAs and InSb nanowires, using X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The results are compared to density functional theory calculations. Experiment and theory show that the occurrence of hexagonal bilayers tends to stretch the distances of atomic layers parallel to the c axis and to reduce the in-plane distances compared to those in zinc blende. The change of the lattice parameters scales linearly with the hexagonality of the polytype, defined as the fraction of bilayers with hexagonal character within one unit cell.
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