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A special issue of Nanomaterials (ISSN 2079-4991). This special issue belongs to the section "2D and Carbon Nanomaterials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2022) | Viewed by 21702

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Prof. Dr. Alexander L. Aseev

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Department of Physics, Novosibirsk State University, ul.Pirogova 2, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
Interests: semiconductor nanostructures; semiconductor devices; nanosilicon-on-insulator structures; nano-, optoelectronics and quantum devices

Prof. Dr. Anatoly V. Dvurechenskii

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Institute of Semiconductor Physics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia
Interests: radiation phenomena; atomic and electronic structures; low-dimensional semiconductor systems

Prof. Dr. Alexander V. Latyshev

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Institute of Semiconductor Physics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia
Interests: low-dimensional semiconductor systems

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Special Issue of the Journal Nanomaterials is devoted to physical aspects of properties of various semiconductor nanostructures: their atomic structure and electrical, optical, magnetic, spin and other novel physical phenomena.

The сhallenges of intensive investigations of semiconductor nanostructures mostly related with rapid progress in all main areas of modern micro- and nanoelectronics as microprocessor circuits and memory elements, high frequency and optoelectronics elements, sensors, etc. This issue will attempt to cover recent advances in modern concepts of various semiconductor devices in electronics and photonics including memristors and elements of neuromorphic computation, light emitting devices and single-photon emitters, highly sensitive photodetectors and biosensors. Principally, new physical peculiarities of semiconductor nanostructures related with quantum effects, controlled changing of energy band structure, quantization of energy spectra of charge carrier and pronounced spin phenomena will be described.

The development of advanced growth techniques as well as nanolithography fabrication methods together with nanostructures characterization using atomic resolution diagnostics tools will be under consideration.

Contributions devoted to last achievements of investigation of quantum states and formation of entangled states for application of semiconductor nanostructures with pronounced quantum effects for realization of quantum bits, nanoscale systems for quantum cryptography and quantum computing are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Alexander L. Aseev
Prof. Dr. Anatoly V. Dvurechenskii
Prof. Dr. Alexander V. Latyshev
Guest Editors

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Keywords

Semiconductor Nanostructures
Physics
Technology and Applications

Published Papers (11 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 3782 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Dislocation Filter Based on LT-GaAs Layers for Monolithic GaAs/Si Integration

by Mikhail O. Petrushkov, Demid S. Abramkin, Eugeny A. Emelyanov, Mikhail A. Putyato, Oleg S. Komkov, Dmitrii D. Firsov, Andrey V. Vasev, Mikhail Yu. Yesin, Askhat K. Bakarov, Ivan D. Loshkarev, Anton K. Gutakovskii, Victor V. Atuchin and Valery V. Preobrazhenskii

Nanomaterials 2022, 12(24), 4449; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12244449 - 14 Dec 2022

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 1646

Abstract

The use of low-temperature (LT) GaAs layers as dislocation filters in GaAs/Si heterostructures (HSs) was investigated in this study. The effects of intermediate LT-GaAs layers and of the post-growth and cyclic in situ annealing on the structural properties of GaAs/LT-GaAs/GaAs/Si(001) HSs were studied. It was found that the introduction of LT-GaAs layers, in combination with post-growth cyclic annealing, reduced the threading dislocation density down to 5 × 10⁶ cm⁻², the root-mean-square roughness of the GaAs surface down to 1.1 nm, and the concentration of non-radiative recombination centers in the near-surface GaAs/Si regions down to the homoepitaxial GaAs level. Possible reasons for the improvement in the quality of near-surface GaAs layers are discussed. On the one hand, the presence of elastic deformations in the GaAs/LT-GaAs system led to dislocation line bending. On the other hand, gallium vacancies, formed in the LT-GaAs layers, diffused into the overlying GaAs layers and led to an increase in the dislocation glide rate. It was demonstrated that the GaAs/Si HSs obtained with these techniques are suitable for growing high-quality light-emitting HSs with self-assembled quantum dots. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Semiconductor Nano-Structures)

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9 pages, 3650 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Enhanced Field-Effect Control of Single-Layer WS₂ Optical Features by hBN Full Encapsulation

by Anna Di Renzo, Onur Çakıroğlu, Felix Carrascoso, Hao Li, Giuseppe Gigli, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Carmen Munuera, Aurora Rizzo, Andres Castellanos-Gomez, Rosanna Mastria and Riccardo Frisenda

Nanomaterials 2022, 12(24), 4425; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12244425 - 12 Dec 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1727

Abstract

The field-effect control of the electrical and optical properties of two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals semiconductors (vdW) is one important aspect of this novel class of materials. Thanks to their reduced thickness and decreased screening, electric fields can easily penetrate in a 2D semiconductor and thus modulate their charge density and their properties. In literature, the field effect is routinely used to fabricate atomically thin field-effect transistors based on 2D semiconductors. Apart from the tuning of the electrical transport, it has been demonstrated that the field effect can also be used to modulate the excitonic optical emission of 2D transition metal dichalcogenides such as MoS₂ or WSe₂. In this paper, we present some recent experiments on the field-effect control of the optical and excitonic properties of the monolayer WS₂. Using the deterministic transfer of van der Waals materials, we fabricate planar single-layer WS₂ devices contacted by a gold electrode and partially sandwiched between two insulating hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) flakes. Thanks to the planar nature of the device, we can optically access both the hBN encapsulated and the unencapsulated WS₂ regions and compare the field-effect control of the exciton population in the two cases. We find that the encapsulation strongly increases the range of tunability of the optical emission of WS₂, allowing us to tune the photoluminescence emission from excitons-dominated to trions-dominated. We also discuss how the full encapsulation of WS₂ with hBN helps reduce spurious hysteretic effects in the field-effect control of the optical properties, similar to what has been reported for 2D vdW field-effect transistors. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Semiconductor Nano-Structures)

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8 pages, 692 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Light-Trapping-Enhanced Photodetection in Ge/Si Quantum Dot Photodiodes Containing Microhole Arrays with Different Hole Depths

by Andrew I. Yakimov, Victor V. Kirienko, Dmitrii E. Utkin and Anatoly V. Dvurechenskii

Nanomaterials 2022, 12(17), 2993; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12172993 - 30 Aug 2022

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1396

Abstract

Photodetection based on assemblies of quantum dots (QDs) is able to tie the advantages of both the conventional photodetector and unique electronic properties of zero-dimensional structures in an unprecedented way. However, the biggest drawback of QDs is the small absorbance of infrared radiation due to the low density of the states coupled to the dots. In this paper, we report on the Ge/Si QD pin photodiodes integrated with photon-trapping hole array structures of various thicknesses. The aim of this study was to search for the hole array thickness that provided the maximum optical response of the light-trapping Ge/Si QD detectors. With this purpose, the embedded hole arrays were etched to different depths ranging from 100 to 550 nm. By micropatterning Ge/Si QD photodiodes, we were able to redirect normal incident light laterally along the plane of the dots, therefore facilitating the optical conversion of the near-infrared photodetectors due to elongation of the effective absorption length. Compared with the conventional flat photodetector, the responsivity of all microstructured devices had a polarization-independent improvement in the 1.0–1.8-μm wavelength range. The maximum photocurrent enhancement factor (≈50× at 1.7 μm) was achieved when the thickness of the photon-trapping structure reached the depth of the buried QD layers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Semiconductor Nano-Structures)

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12 pages, 4240 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Radiation-Induced Nucleation and Growth of CaSi₂ Crystals, Both Directly during the Epitaxial CaF₂ Growth and after the CaF₂ Film Formation

by Anatoly V. Dvurechenskii, Aleksey V. Kacyuba, Gennadiy N. Kamaev, Vladimir A. Volodin and Zhanna V. Smagina

Nanomaterials 2022, 12(9), 1407; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12091407 - 20 Apr 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1351

Abstract

The radiation-induced phenomena of CaSi₂ crystal growth were investigated, both directly during the epitaxial CaF₂ growth on Si (111) and film irradiation with fast electrons on Si (111) after its formation, while maintaining the specified film thickness, substrate temperature and radiation dose. Irradiation in the process of the epitaxial CaF₂ film growth leads to the formation of CaSi₂ nanowhiskers with an average size of 5 µm oriented along the direction <110>. The electron irradiation of the formed film, under similar conditions, leads to the homogeneous nucleation of CaSi₂ crystals and their proliferation as inclusions in the CaF₂ film. It is shown that both approaches lead to the formation of CaSi₂ crystals of the 3R polymorph in the irradiated region of a 10 nm thick CaF₂ layer. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Semiconductor Nano-Structures)

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15 pages, 1954 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Rashba Spin Splitting in HgCdTe Quantum Wells with Inverted and Normal Band Structures

by Svetlana V. Gudina, Vladimir N. Neverov, Mikhail R. Popov, Konstantin V. Turutkin, Sergey M. Podgornykh, Nina G. Shelushinina, Mikhail V. Yakunin, Nikolay N. Mikhailov and Sergey A. Dvoretsky

Nanomaterials 2022, 12(7), 1238; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12071238 - 06 Apr 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1930

Abstract

In quantum wells (QWs) formed in HgCdTe/CdHgTe heterosystems with a variable composition of Cd(Hg), Shubnikov-de-Haas (SdH) oscillations are investigated to characterize the Rashba-type spin-orbit coupling in QWs with both a normal and inverted band structure. Several methods of extracting the Rashba spin-splitting at zero magnetic field and their magnetic field dependences from the beatings of SdH oscillations are used for greater reliability. The large and similar Rashba splitting (25–27 meV) is found for different kinds of spectrum, explained by a significant fraction of the p-type wave functions, in both the E1 subband of the sample with a normal spectrum and the H1 subband for the sample with an inverted one. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Semiconductor Nano-Structures)

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11 pages, 4861 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Aqueous Solution-Processed Nanometer-Thin Crystalline Indium Ytterbium Oxide Thin-Film Transistors

by Wangying Xu, Chuyu Xu, Liping Hong, Fang Xu, Chun Zhao, Yu Zhang, Ming Fang, Shun Han, Peijiang Cao, Youming Lu, Wenjun Liu and Deliang Zhu

Nanomaterials 2022, 12(7), 1216; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12071216 - 05 Apr 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1860

Abstract

We demonstrate the growth of ultra-thin (~5 nm) indium ytterbium oxide (In-Yb-O) thin film using a simple vacuum-free aqueous solution approach for the first time. The influences of Yb addition on the microstructural, chemical, optical, and electrical properties of In₂O₃ are well investigated. The analyses indicate that Yb dopant could suppress oxygen vacancy defects effectively owing to the lower standard electrode potential, lower electronegativity, and stronger metal-oxide bond strength than that of In. The optimized In-Yb-O thin-film transistors (TFTs) exhibit excellent electrical performance (mobility of 8 cm²/Vs and on/off ratio of ~10⁸) and enhanced stability. The triumph of In-Yb-O TFTs is owing to the high quality In₂O₃ matrix, the remarkable suppressor of Yb, and the nanometer-thin and atomically smooth nature (RMS: ~0.26 nm) of channel layer. Therefore, the eco-friendly water-induced ultra-thin In-Yb-O channel provides an excellent opportunity for future large-scale and cost-effective electronic applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Semiconductor Nano-Structures)

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11 pages, 2228 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Water-Processed Ultrathin Crystalline Indium–Boron–Oxide Channel for High-Performance Thin-Film Transistor Applications

by Wangying Xu, Tao Peng, Yujia Li, Fang Xu, Yu Zhang, Chun Zhao, Ming Fang, Shun Han, Deliang Zhu, Peijiang Cao, Wenjun Liu and Youming Lu

Nanomaterials 2022, 12(7), 1125; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12071125 - 29 Mar 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1607

Abstract

Thin-film transistors (TFTs) made of solution-processable transparent metal oxide semiconductors show great potential for use in emerging large-scale optoelectronics. However, current solution-processed metal oxide TFTs still suffer from relatively poor device performance, hindering their further advancement. In this work, we create a novel ultrathin crystalline indium–boron–oxide (In-B-O) channel layer for high-performance TFTs. We show that high-quality ultrathin (~10 nm) crystalline In-B-O with an atomically smooth nature (RMS: ~0.15 nm) could be grown from an aqueous solution via facile one-step spin-coating. The impacts of B doping on the physical, chemical and electrical properties of the In₂O₃ film are systematically investigated. The results show that B has large metal–oxide bond dissociation energy and high Lewis acid strength, which can suppress oxygen vacancy-/hydroxyl-related defects and alleviate dopant-induced carrier scattering, resulting in electrical performance improvement. The optimized In-B-O (10% B) TFTs based on SiO₂/Si substrate demonstrate a mobility of ~8 cm²/(V s), an on/off current ratio of ~10⁶ and a subthreshold swing of 0.86 V/dec. Furthermore, by introducing the water-processed high-K ZrO₂ dielectric, the fully aqueous solution-grown In-B-O/ZrO₂ TFTs exhibit excellent device performance, with a mobility of ~11 cm²/(V s), an on/off current of ~10⁵, a subthreshold swing of 0.19 V/dec, a low operating voltage of 5 V and superior bias stress stability. Our research opens up new avenues for low-cost, large-area green oxide electronic devices with superior performance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Semiconductor Nano-Structures)

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17 pages, 5587 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Influence of Argon Cluster Ion Bombardment on the Characteristics of AlN Films on Glass-Ceramics and Si Substrates

by Ivan V. Nikolaev, Pavel V. Geydt, Nikolay G. Korobeishchikov, Aleksandr V. Kapishnikov, Vladimir A. Volodin, Ivan A. Azarov, Vladimir I. Strunin and Evgeny Y. Gerasimov

Nanomaterials 2022, 12(4), 670; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12040670 - 17 Feb 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1990

Abstract

In this paper, the influence of surface modification on the characteristics and properties of AlN thin films on Si and glass-ceramics substrates is investigated. The surface modification was made at various parameters of argon cluster ions. By using XRD and Raman spectroscopy, it was shown that the obtained AlN films have a hexagonal structure with a characteristic direction of texturing along the c axis and slight deviations from it. A comparison of the AlN surface morphology obtained by atomic force microscopy before and after cluster processing was demonstrated. This demonstrated that the cluster ions with low energy per atom (E/N = 10 eV/atom) have a high efficiency of surface smoothing. A decrease in the intensity of the Raman peaks and an increase in their full-width after bombardment with cluster ions were found, which may be caused by a change in the physicochemical state of the surface. The optical properties, the quality of the boundaries, and the distribution map of the thickness of the functional layer of AlN were investigated by the methods of spectral and spatial resolution ellipsometry. By using the cross-sectional SEM, the direction of crystallite texturing was demonstrated. The influence of argon cluster ion bombardment on the stoichiometry of samples was analyzed by EDX spectroscopy. The results obtained demonstrate the efficiency of the cluster ion smoothing of polycrystalline thin films for microelectronics, particularly when creating surface acoustic wave resonators. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Semiconductor Nano-Structures)

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12 pages, 2434 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Synthesis of Hexagonal Structured GaS Nanosheets for Robust Femtosecond Pulse Generation

by Kun Guo, Qiang Yu, Fangqi Liu, Haiqin Deng, Tianan Yi, Bo Ren, Wei Su, Sicong Zhu, Zhiqiang Wang, Jian Wu and Pu Zhou

Nanomaterials 2022, 12(3), 378; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12030378 - 24 Jan 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2391

Abstract

Gallium sulfide (GaS), with a hexagonal structure, has received extensive attention due to its graphene-like structure and derived optical properties. Here, high-quality GaS was obtained via chemical vapor synthesis and then prepared as a saturable absorber by the stamp-assisted localization-transfer technique onto fiber end face. The stability of the material and the laser damage threshold are maintained due to the optimized thickness and the cavity integration form. The potential of the GaS for nonlinear optics is explored by constructing a GaS-based Erbium-doped mode-locked fiber laser. Stable femtosecond (~448 fs) mode-locking operation of the single pulse train is achieved, and the robust mode-locked operation (>30 days) was recorded. Experimental results show the potential of GaS for multi-functional ultrafast high-power lasers and promote continuous research on graphene-like materials in nonlinear optics and photonics. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Semiconductor Nano-Structures)

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9 pages, 1723 KiB

Open AccessCommunication

Photoelectromagnetic Effect Induced by Terahertz Laser Radiation in Topological Crystalline Insulators Pb_1−xSn_xTe

by Alexandra V. Galeeva, Dmitry A. Belov, Aleksei S. Kazakov, Anton V. Ikonnikov, Alexey I. Artamkin, Ludmila I. Ryabova, Valentine V. Volobuev, Gunther Springholz, Sergey N. Danilov and Dmitry R. Khokhlov

Nanomaterials 2021, 11(12), 3207; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano11123207 - 26 Nov 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1725

Abstract

Topological crystalline insulators form a class of semiconductors for which surface electron states with the Dirac dispersion relation are formed on surfaces with a certain crystallographic orientation. Pb_1−xSn_xTe alloys belong to the topological crystalline phase when the SnTe content x exceeds 0.35, while they are in the trivial phase at x < 0.35. For the surface crystallographic orientation (111), the appearance of topologically nontrivial surface states is expected. We studied the photoelectromagnetic (PEM) effect induced by laser terahertz radiation in Pb_1−xSn_xTe films in the composition range x = (0.11–0.44), with the (111) surface crystallographic orientation. It was found that in the trivial phase, the amplitude of the PEM effect is determined by the power of the incident radiation, while in the topological phase, the amplitude is proportional to the flux of laser radiation quanta. A possible mechanism responsible for the effect observed presumes damping of the thermalization rate of photoexcited electrons in the topological phase and, consequently, prevailing of electron diffusion, compared with energy relaxation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Semiconductor Nano-Structures)

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9 pages, 803 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Near-Infrared Photoresponse in Ge/Si Quantum Dots Enhanced by Photon-Trapping Hole Arrays

by Andrew I. Yakimov, Victor V. Kirienko, Aleksei A. Bloshkin, Dmitrii E. Utkin and Anatoly V. Dvurechenskii

Nanomaterials 2021, 11(9), 2302; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano11092302 - 04 Sep 2021

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2857

Abstract

Group-IV photonic devices that contain Si and Ge are very attractive due to their compatibility with integrated silicon photonics platforms. Despite the recent progress in fabrication of Ge/Si quantum dot (QD) photodetectors, their low quantum efficiency still remains a major challenge and different approaches to improve the QD photoresponse are under investigation. In this paper, we report on the fabrication and optical characterization of Ge/Si QD pin photodiodes integrated with photon-trapping microstructures for near-infrared photodetection. The photon traps represent vertical holes having 2D periodicity with a feature size of about 1 μm on the diode surface, which significantly increase the normal incidence light absorption of Ge/Si QDs due to generation of lateral optical modes in the wide telecommunication wavelength range. For a hole array periodicity of 1700 nm and hole diameter of 1130 nm, the responsivity of the photon-trapping device is found to be enhanced by about 25 times at

λ = 1.2

μm and by 34 times at

λ \approx 1.6

μm relative to a bare detector without holes. These results make the micro/nanohole Ge/Si QD photodiodes promising to cover the operation wavelength range from the telecom O-band (1260–1360 nm) up to the L-band (1565–1625 nm). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Semiconductor Nano-Structures)

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