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Nano Research 2022, 15(5): 4575-4581 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4080-5
Research Article | Issue | Published: 21 February 2022

Bending strain effects on the optical and optoelectric properties of GaN nanowires

Show Author's Information Xuewen Fu1,§( ),  Haixia Nie1,§,  Zepeng Sun1,  Min Feng1,  Xiang Chen1,  Can Liu1,  Fang Liu1,  Dapeng Yu2,  Zhimin Liao3,4( )
Ultrafast Electron Microscopy Laboratory, The MOE Key Laboratory of Weak-Light Nonlinear Photonics, School of Physics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
Shenzhen Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering, and Department of Physics, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics and Frontiers Science Center for Nano-optoelectronics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Peking University Yangtze Delta Institute of Optoelectronics, Nantong 226010, China

§ Xuewen Fu and Haixia Nie contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
cathodoluminescence, energy band structure, bending strain, GaN nanowires, ultraviolet photoresponse
Topics:
Nanowires
Cite this article:
Fu X, Nie H, Sun Z, et al. Bending strain effects on the optical and optoelectric properties of GaN nanowires. Nano Research, 2022, 15(5): 4575-4581. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4080-5
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Elastic strain has been an important method to regulate the electronic structures and physical properties of nanoscale semiconductors due to the promising potentials in improving the performance of their optoelectronic devices. Here, we report the investigation of bending strain effects on the optical and optoelectric properties of individual gallium nitride (GaN) nanowires (NWs). By charactering the near-band emission spectrum of individual GaN NWs at different bending strains with low temperature cathodoluminescence (CL), we reveal that the near-band emission splits into two peaks, where the low energy peak displays a linear redshift with increasing the bending strain while the high energy one shows a slight blueshift. Further localized ultraviolet (UV) photoresponse measurements illustrate that the photoresponse of the GaN NWs shows a linear increase with the bending train, and the maximum enhancement is more than two orders of magnitude. The experimental observations are well interpreted by theoretical calculations on the strain modulation on the electronic band structure of GaN combined with analysis of carrier dynamics and optical waveguide effect in the bending strain field. Our results not only shed light on the bending strain effects on the optical and optoelectric properties of semiconductors, but also hold potential to help the future design of high performance nano-optoelectric devices.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Bending strain effects on the optical and optoelectric properties of GaN nanowires

Show Author's information Xuewen Fu1,§( ), Haixia Nie1,§, Zepeng Sun1, Min Feng1, Xiang Chen1, Can Liu1, Fang Liu1, Dapeng Yu2, Zhimin Liao3,4( )
Ultrafast Electron Microscopy Laboratory, The MOE Key Laboratory of Weak-Light Nonlinear Photonics, School of Physics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
Shenzhen Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering, and Department of Physics, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics and Frontiers Science Center for Nano-optoelectronics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Peking University Yangtze Delta Institute of Optoelectronics, Nantong 226010, China

§ Xuewen Fu and Haixia Nie contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Elastic strain has been an important method to regulate the electronic structures and physical properties of nanoscale semiconductors due to the promising potentials in improving the performance of their optoelectronic devices. Here, we report the investigation of bending strain effects on the optical and optoelectric properties of individual gallium nitride (GaN) nanowires (NWs). By charactering the near-band emission spectrum of individual GaN NWs at different bending strains with low temperature cathodoluminescence (CL), we reveal that the near-band emission splits into two peaks, where the low energy peak displays a linear redshift with increasing the bending strain while the high energy one shows a slight blueshift. Further localized ultraviolet (UV) photoresponse measurements illustrate that the photoresponse of the GaN NWs shows a linear increase with the bending train, and the maximum enhancement is more than two orders of magnitude. The experimental observations are well interpreted by theoretical calculations on the strain modulation on the electronic band structure of GaN combined with analysis of carrier dynamics and optical waveguide effect in the bending strain field. Our results not only shed light on the bending strain effects on the optical and optoelectric properties of semiconductors, but also hold potential to help the future design of high performance nano-optoelectric devices.

Keywords: cathodoluminescence, energy band structure, bending strain, GaN nanowires, ultraviolet photoresponse

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 30 October 2021
Revised: 30 November 2021
Accepted: 17 December 2021
Published: 21 February 2022
Issue date: May 2022

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2022

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 11974191), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2020YFA0309300), the Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin (Nos. 20JCZDJC00560 and 20JCJQJC00210), the 111 Project (No. B07013), and the “Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities”, Nankai University (Nos. 91923139, 63213040, and C029211101).

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