Highly tensile-strained Ge/InAlAs nanocomposites

Self-assembled nanocomposites have been extensively investigated due to the novel properties that can emerge when multiple material phases are combined. Growth of epitaxial nanocomposites using lattice-mismatched constituents also enables strain-engineering, which can be used to further enhance mate...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2017-01, Vol.8 (1), p.14204-7, Article 14204
Main Authors: Jung, Daehwan, Faucher, Joseph, Mukherjee, Samik, Akey, Austin, Ironside, Daniel J., Cabral, Matthew, Sang, Xiahan, Lebeau, James, Bank, Seth R., Buonassisi, Tonio, Moutanabbir, Oussama, Lee, Minjoo Larry
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
140/133
639/301/357/1016
639/925/357/341
639/925/357/537
Computer engineering
Humanities and Social Sciences
Investigations
Molecular beam epitaxy
multidisciplinary
Nanocomposites
Nanowires
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Spectrum analysis
Temperature
Transmission electron microscopy
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Summary:Self-assembled nanocomposites have been extensively investigated due to the novel properties that can emerge when multiple material phases are combined. Growth of epitaxial nanocomposites using lattice-mismatched constituents also enables strain-engineering, which can be used to further enhance material properties. Here, we report self-assembled growth of highly tensile-strained Ge/In 0.52 Al 0.48 As (InAlAs) nanocomposites by using spontaneous phase separation. Transmission electron microscopy shows a high density of single-crystalline germanium nanostructures coherently embedded in InAlAs without extended defects, and Raman spectroscopy reveals a 3.8% biaxial tensile strain in the germanium nanostructures. We also show that the strain in the germanium nanostructures can be tuned to 5.3% by altering the lattice constant of the matrix material, illustrating the versatility of epitaxial nanocomposites for strain engineering. Photoluminescence and electroluminescence results are then discussed to illustrate the potential for realizing devices based on this nanocomposite material. Self-ordered heterogeneous nanostructures are of broad interest for both fundamental studies and technological applications. Here authors show that segregation in a multicomponent system during growth can yield highly strained germanium nanowire arrays embedded within a ternary semiconductor matrix.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/ncomms14204