title: Investigation of the electronic transport in GaN nanowires containing GaN/AlN quantum discs.
abstract: We report the investigation of electronic transport in GaN nanowires containing GaN/AlN quantum discs (QDiscs). The nanowires were grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy and contacted by electron-beam lithography. Three nanowire samples containing QDiscs are analyzed and compared to a reference binary n-i-n GaN nanowire sample. The current-voltage measurements on single nanowires show that if the QDiscs are covered with a lateral GaN shell, the current mainly flows through the shell close to the lateral surface and the wire conductivity is extremely sensitive to the environmental conditions. On the contrary, if no GaN shell is present, the current flows through the QDisc region and a reproducible negative differential resistance related to electron tunneling through the QDiscs can be observed for temperatures up to 250 K. The demonstration of the resonant tunneling in GaN/AlN superlattices is of major importance for the development of nitride-based far-infrared quantum cascade lasers operating at high temperature.
authors.affiliation: Institut d'Electronique Fondamentale, University of Paris Sud XI, UMR 8622 CNRS, Orsay, France. Lorenzo.Rigutti@u-psud.fr
authors.forename: Lorenzo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rigutti
authors.forename: Gwénolé
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jacopin
authors.forename: Andres De Luna
authors.initials: Ade L
authors.lastname: Bugallo
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tchernycheva
authors.forename: Elias
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Warde
authors.forename: François H
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Julien
authors.forename: Rudeesun
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Songmuang
authors.forename: Elisabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Galopin
authors.forename: Ludovic
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Largeau
authors.forename: Jean-Christophe
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Harmand