Ultralow Surface Recombination Velocity in Passivated InGaAs/InP Nanopillars.
The III-V semiconductor InGaAs is a key material for photonics because it provides optical emission and absorption in the 1.55 μm telecommunication wavelength window. However, InGaAs suffers from pronounced nonradiative effects associated with its surface states, which affect the performance of nanophotonic devices for optical interconnects, namely nanolasers and nanodetectors. This work reports the strong suppression of surface recombination of undoped InGaAs/InP nanostructured semiconductor pillars using a combination of ammonium sulfide, (NH4)2S, chemical treatment and silicon oxide, SiOx, coating. An 80-fold enhancement in the photoluminescence (PL) intensity of submicrometer pillars at a wavelength of 1550 nm is observed as compared with the unpassivated nanopillars. The PL decay time of ∼0.3 μm wide square nanopillars is dramatically increased from ∼100 ps to ∼25 ns after sulfur treatment and SiOxcoating. The extremely long lifetimes reported here, to our knowledge the highest reported to date for undoped InGaAs nanostructures, are associated with a record-low surface recombination velocity of ∼260 cm/s. We also conclusively show that the SiOxcapping layer plays an active role in the passivation. These results are crucial for the future development of high-performance nanoscale optoelectronic devices for applications in energy-efficient data optical links, single-photon sensing, and photovoltaics.
Institute for Photonic Integration, ‡Photonic Integration, Department of Electrical Engineering, §Photonics and Semiconductor Nanophysics, Department of Applied Physics, ∥Plasma and Materials Processing, Department of Applied Physics, and ⊥NanoLab@TU/e Eindhoven University of Technology , Postbus 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
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Higuera-Rodriguez
Institute for Photonic Integration, ‡Photonic Integration, Department of Electrical Engineering, §Photonics and Semiconductor Nanophysics, Department of Applied Physics, ∥Plasma and Materials Processing, Department of Applied Physics, and ⊥NanoLab@TU/e Eindhoven University of Technology , Postbus 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
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0000-0002-1485-6665
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Romeira
Institute for Photonic Integration, ‡Photonic Integration, Department of Electrical Engineering, §Photonics and Semiconductor Nanophysics, Department of Applied Physics, ∥Plasma and Materials Processing, Department of Applied Physics, and ⊥NanoLab@TU/e Eindhoven University of Technology , Postbus 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
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Birindelli
Institute for Photonic Integration, ‡Photonic Integration, Department of Electrical Engineering, §Photonics and Semiconductor Nanophysics, Department of Applied Physics, ∥Plasma and Materials Processing, Department of Applied Physics, and ⊥NanoLab@TU/e Eindhoven University of Technology , Postbus 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
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Black
Institute for Photonic Integration, ‡Photonic Integration, Department of Electrical Engineering, §Photonics and Semiconductor Nanophysics, Department of Applied Physics, ∥Plasma and Materials Processing, Department of Applied Physics, and ⊥NanoLab@TU/e Eindhoven University of Technology , Postbus 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
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Smalbrugge
Institute for Photonic Integration, ‡Photonic Integration, Department of Electrical Engineering, §Photonics and Semiconductor Nanophysics, Department of Applied Physics, ∥Plasma and Materials Processing, Department of Applied Physics, and ⊥NanoLab@TU/e Eindhoven University of Technology , Postbus 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
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van Veldhoven
Institute for Photonic Integration, ‡Photonic Integration, Department of Electrical Engineering, §Photonics and Semiconductor Nanophysics, Department of Applied Physics, ∥Plasma and Materials Processing, Department of Applied Physics, and ⊥NanoLab@TU/e Eindhoven University of Technology , Postbus 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
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Kessels
Institute for Photonic Integration, ‡Photonic Integration, Department of Electrical Engineering, §Photonics and Semiconductor Nanophysics, Department of Applied Physics, ∥Plasma and Materials Processing, Department of Applied Physics, and ⊥NanoLab@TU/e Eindhoven University of Technology , Postbus 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
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Smit
Institute for Photonic Integration, ‡Photonic Integration, Department of Electrical Engineering, §Photonics and Semiconductor Nanophysics, Department of Applied Physics, ∥Plasma and Materials Processing, Department of Applied Physics, and ⊥NanoLab@TU/e Eindhoven University of Technology , Postbus 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
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Fiore
InGaAs; nanopillars; surface passivation; surface recombination velocity