Optical properties of single ZnTe nanowires grown at low temperature

Alberto Artioli (1) , Pamela Rueda-Fonseca (2) , Petr Stepanov (1) , Edith Bellet-Amalric (2) , Martien den Hertog (3) , Catherine Bougerol (1) , Yann Genuist (4) , Fabrice Donatini (5) , Régis André (1) , Gilles Nogues (1) , Kuntheak Kheng (2) , Serge Tatarenko (1) , David Ferrand (1) , Joel Cibert (1)

1 NEEL - NPSC - Nanophysique et Semiconducteurs
2 NPSC - Nanophysique et Semiconducteurs
3 NEEL - MRS - Matériaux, Rayonnements, Structure
4 NEEL- EpiCM - Epitaxie et couches minces
5 NEEL - POM - Optique & Microscopies

Optically active gold-catalyzed ZnTe nanowires have been grown by molecular beam epitaxy, on a ZnTe(111) buffer layer, at low temperature 350°C under Te rich conditions, and at ultra-low density (from 1 to 5 nanowires per micrometer²). The crystalline structure is zinc blende as identified by transmission electron microscopy. All nanowires are tapered and the majority of them are <111> oriented. Low temperature micro-photoluminescence and cathodoluminescence experiments have been performed on single nanowires. We observe a narrow emission line with a blue-shift of 2 or 3 meV with respect to the exciton energy in bulk ZnTe. This shift is attributed to the strain induced by a 5 nm-thick oxide layer covering the nanowires, and this assumption is supported by a quantitative estimation of the strain in the nanowires.

Mots clés: nanowires; optical spectroscopy; cathodoluminescence; molecular beam epitaxy; semiconductors

Domaines: Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Alberto Artioli, Pamela Rueda-Fonseca, Petr Stepanov, Edith Bellet-Amalric, Martien den Hertog, et al.. Optical properties of single ZnTe nanowires grown at low temperature. Applied Physics Letters, 2013, 103 (22), pp.222106. ⟨10.1063/1.4832055⟩. ⟨hal-00832383⟩