In comparison with planar devices, nanowire photodetectors present advantages in terms of miniaturization, speed, and design flexibility. III nitride nanowires are particularly suitable for spectrally-selective UV photodetection, thanks to their band gap energy and their stability against chemical, mechanical or electrical stress. However, their UV photoresponse scales sublinearly with the optical power, which hinders their introduction in applications that require power quantification. Here, we present GaN nanowires containing a single AlN/GaN/AlN heterostructure, whose response is linear with the optical power when their diameter is small enough to ensure a complete depletion of the wire due to surface states.
On the other hand, III-nitride nanowires are also interesting for infrared photodetection using intersubband (ISB) transitions in nanodisks inserted in the wire. We systematically investigated ISB transitions in the near-infrared wavelengths focusing around 1.55 µm in GaN/AlN nanowire heterostructures. Attaining this short wavelength requires small GaN/AlN nanodisks (2 nm / 3 nm). Based on this study, we present the first single-nanowire quantum well infrared photodetector (NW-QWIP), observing photocurrent at 1.55 µm. Finally, we introduce an extension of the study to cover the mid-infrared spectral range, up to around 6 µm, using ISB transitions in GaN/AlGaN nanowires.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.