Polarity assignment in ZnTe, GaAs, ZnO, and GaN-AlN nanowires from direct dumbbell analysis
Author
Mata, Maria de la
Magen, Cesar
Gazquez, Jaume
Utama, Muhammad Iqbal Bakti
Heiss, Martin
Lopatin, Sergei
Furtmayr, Florian
Fernández-Rojas, Carlos J.
Peng, Bo
Morante, Joan Ramon
Rurali, Riccardo
Eickhoff, Martin
Morral, Anna Fontcuberta i.
Xiong, Qihua
Arbiol, Jordi
Date of Issue
2012School
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
Abstract
Aberration corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) with high angle annular dark field (HAADF) imaging and the newly developed annular bright field (ABF) imaging are used to define a new guideline for the polarity determination of semiconductor nanowires (NWs) from binary compounds in two extreme cases: (i) when the dumbbell is formed with atoms of similar mass (GaAs) and (ii) in the case where one of the atoms is extremely light (N or O: ZnO and GaN/AlN). The theoretical fundaments of these procedures allow us to overcome the main challenge in the identification of dumbbell polarity. It resides in the separation and identification of the constituent atoms in the dumbbells. The proposed experimental via opens new routes for the fine characterization of nanostructures, e.g., in electronic and optoelectronic fields, where the polarity is crucial for the understanding of their physical properties (optical and electronic) as well as their growth mechanisms.
Type
Journal Article
Series/Journal Title
Nano letters
Rights
© 2012 American Chemical Society.
Collections
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/nl300840q
Get published version (via Digital Object Identifier)