Growth and optical properties of axialhybrid III–V/silicon nanowires

摘要

Hybrid silicon nanowires with an integrated light-emitting segment can significantly advancenanoelectronics and nanophotonics. They would combine transport and optical characteristics in a nanoscale device, which can operate in the fundamental single-electron and singlephoton regime. III–V materials, such as direct bandgap gallium arsenide, are excellentcandidates for such optical segments. However, interfacing them with silicon during crystalgrowth is a major challenge, because of the lattice mismatch, different expansion coefficientsand the formation of antiphase boundaries. Here we demonstrate a silicon nanowire with anintegrated gallium-arsenide segment. We precisely control the catalyst composition andsurface chemistry to obtain dislocation-free interfaces. The integration of gallium arsenide ofhigh optical quality with silicon is enabled by short gallium phosphide buffers. We anticipatethat such hybrid silicon/III–V nanowires open practical routes for quantum informationdevices, where for instance electronic and photonic quantum bits are manipulated in a III–Vsegment and stored in a silicon section.