title: Growth and optical properties of axial hybrid III-V/silicon nanowires.
abstract: Hybrid silicon nanowires with an integrated light-emitting segment can significantly advance nanoelectronics and nanophotonics. They would combine transport and optical characteristics in a nanoscale device, which can operate in the fundamental single-electron and single-photon regime. III-V materials, such as direct bandgap gallium arsenide, are excellent candidates for such optical segments. However, interfacing them with silicon during crystal growth is a major challenge, because of the lattice mismatch, different expansion coefficients and the formation of antiphase boundaries. Here we demonstrate a silicon nanowire with an integrated gallium-arsenide segment. We precisely control the catalyst composition and surface chemistry to obtain dislocation-free interfaces. The integration of gallium arsenide of high optical quality with silicon is enabled by short gallium phosphide buffers. We anticipate that such hybrid silicon/III-V nanowires open practical routes for quantum information devices, where for instance electronic and photonic quantum bits are manipulated in a III-V segment and stored in a silicon section.
authors.affiliation: Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology, 2628CJ Delft, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Moïra
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hocevar
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Immink
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Verheijen
authors.forename: Nika
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Akopian
authors.forename: Val
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Zwiller
authors.forename: Leo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kouwenhoven
authors.forename: Erik
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bakkers