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Type-II Dirac semimetal platinum ditelluride (PtTe

Random lasers are promising, easy-to-fabricate light sources that rely on scattering instead of well-defined optical cavities. We demonstrate random lasing in GaAs nanowires using both randomly oriented and vertically aligned arrays. These configurations are shown to lase in both resonant and nonresonant modes, where aligned nanowires support predominantly resonant lasing and randomly oriented favors nonresonant lasing. On the basis of numerical simulations, aligning the nanowires increases the system's scattering efficiency leading to higher quality factor modes and thus favoring the resonant modes. We further demonstrate two methods to optically suppress resonant mode lasing by increasing the number of excited modes. The light output-light input curves show a pronounced kink for the resonant lasing mode while the nonresonant mode is kink-free. The resonant lasing modes may be used as tunable lasers, and the nonresonant modes exhibit near-thresholdless amplification. Switching between lasing modes opens up new opportunities to use lasers in broader applications.

Random lasers lase in two types of modes: resonant and nonresonant modes. The resonant modes could be used in tunable lasers while the nonresonant modes could lase at low thresholds. Here, methods to manage modes in nanowires based random lasers are shown and discussed.

Broadband photodetectors have attracted substantial attention in recent years. The ternary chalcogenide Ta2NiSe5 is a layered material with a direct narrow-band gap (Eg ~ 0.33 eV) which possesses greatly potential to broadband photodetectors. Here, high-quality bulk Ta2NiSe5 was synthesized by Chemical Vapor Transport (CVT) method. We demonstrate a photodetector based on exfoliated Ta2NiSe5 nanoflake, which exhibits a broadband photo-response from 405 nm to 4300 nm. Meanwhile, its main characteristics are superior to other typical 2D materials: high responsivity ~198.1 A W−1 at 1350 nm and ultrafast response time of ~27.4 µs. Long-time photocurrent reproducibility shows that the photodetector has excellent stability under atmosphere. Furthermore, the scanning photocurrent mapping reveals the photoconductive mechanism of Ta2NiSe5 photodetector. In addition, the anisotropic ratio of the photocurrent is ~1.46. The broadband photodetection, high responsivity, anisotropic and environmental stability achieved simultaneously in Ta2NiSe5 photodetector, which are promising for neotype electronics and optoelectronics field.

Heterojunction solar cells with transition-metal–oxide-based carrier-selective contacts have been gaining considerable research interest owing to their amenability to low-cost fabrication methods and elimination of parasitic absorption and complex semiconductor doping process. In this work, we propose tantalum oxide (Ta2O5) as a novel electron-selective contact layer for photo-generated carrier separation in InP solar cells. We confirm the electron-selective properties of Ta2O5 by investigating band energetics at the InP–Ta2O5 interface using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Time-resolved photoluminescence and power dependent photoluminescence reveal that the Ta2O5 inter-layer also mitigates parasitic recombination at the InP/transparent conducting oxide interface. With an 8 nm Ta2O5 layer deposited using an atomic layer deposition (ALD) system, we demonstrate a planar InP solar cell with an open circuit voltage, Voc, of 822 mV, a short circuit current density, Jsc, of 30.1 mA cm−2, and a fill factor of 0.77, resulting in an overall device efficiency of 19.1%. The Voc is the highest reported value to date for an InP heterojunction solar cells with carrier-selective contacts. The proposed Ta2O5 material may be of interest not only for other solar cell architectures including perovskite cells and organic solar cells, but also across a wide range of optoelectronics applications including solid state emitting devices, photonic crystals, planar light wave circuits etc.

Phonon polaritons-light coupled to lattice vibrations-in polar van der Waals crystals offer unprecedented opportunities for controlling light at the nanoscale due to their anisotropic and ultralow-loss propagation. While their analog plasmon polaritons-light coupled to electron oscillations-have long been studied and exhibit interesting reflections at geometrical edges and electronic boundaries, whether phonon polaritons can be reflected by such barriers has been elusive. Here, the effective and tunable reflection of phonon polaritons at embedded interfaces formed in hydrogen-intercalated α-MoO3 flakes is elaborated upon. Without breaking geometrical continuity, such intercalation interfaces can reflect phonon polaritons with low losses, yielding the distinct phase changes of -0.8π and -0.3π associated with polariton propagation, high efficiency of 50%, and potential electrical tunability. The results point to a new approach to construct on-demand polariton reflectors, phase modulators, and retarders, which may be transplanted into building future polaritonic circuits using van der Waals crystals.

The coupling efficiency of a micro-disk with the dark excitons in an atomically thin semiconductor is strengthened by Purcell enhanced out-of-plane resonator modes. This work proposes the engineering of these modes through the tapered disks.

We present a route to selective coupling of dark and bright excitons in atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenide alloys to planar microstructures via anisotropic Purcell enhanced out-of-plane resonator modes engineered by tapering of micro-disks.

Recently, n-n junction with large bandgap offset has been reported to be able to realize rectifier function and improve photoresponse in optoelectronic applications. In this work, we demonstrate a simple way to engineer photodetector based on a MoSe2/ZnO heterojunction. ZnO thin film deposited by DC magnetron sputtering and mechanically exfoliated MoSe2 was coupled to form vertical stacking heterostructure. An atomically sharp n-n junction with type-II band alignment and current rectification behaviour is realised. The MoSe2/ZnO based photodetector exhibits a fast photoresponse speed of 40 μs, and a peak responsivity of 2.7 A/W. It is also demonstrated that the MoSe2/ZnO photodiode can operate under self-powered mode over a broad spectrum.

Random lasers, which rely on random scattering events unlike traditional Fabry-Pérot cavities, are much simpler and cost-effective to fabricate. However, because of the chaotic fluctuations and instability of the lasing modes, controlling the lasing properties is challenging. In this study, we use random InP nanowire (NW) arrays that operate in the Anderson localization regime with stable modes as the random lasers. We show that by changing the design parameters of the NW arrays, such as filling factor, dimensions of the NWs, degree of randomness, and the size of the array, the properties of the lasing modes including the number of modes, lasing wavelengths, and lasing threshold can be controlled.

Disorder is generally considered an undesired element in lasing action. However, in random lasers whose feedback mechanism is based on random scattering events, disorder plays a very important and critical role. Even though some unique properties in random lasers such as large-angle emission, lasing from different surfaces, large-area manufacturability, and wavelength tunability can be advantageous in certain applications, the applicability of random lasers has been limited due to the chaotic fluctuations and instability of the lasing modes because of weak confinement. To solve this, mode localization could reduce the spatial overlap between lasing modes, thus preventing mode competition and improving stability, leading to laser sources with high quality factors and very low thresholds. Here, by using a random array of III-V nanowires, high-quality-factor localized modes are demonstrated. We present the experimental evidence of strong light localization in multi-mode random nanowire lasers which are temporally stable at low temperatures.

Heterojunction solar cells with transition-metal-oxide-based carrier-selective contacts have been gaining considerable research interest owing to their amenability to low-cost fabrication methods and elimination of parasitic absorption and complex semiconductor doping process. In this work, we propose tantalum oxide (Ta2O5) as a novel electron-selective contact layer for photo-generated carrier separation in InP solar cells. We confirm the electron-selective properties of Ta2O5 by investigating band energetics at the InP-Ta2O5 interface using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Time-resolved photoluminescence and power dependent photoluminescence reveal that the Ta2O5 inter-layer also mitigates parasitic recombination at the InP/transparent conducting oxide interface. With an 8 nm Ta2O5 layer deposited using an atomic layer deposition (ALD) system, we demonstrate a planar InP solar cell with an open circuit voltage, Voc, of 822 mV, a short circuit current density, Jsc, of 30.1 mA cm-2, and a fill factor of 0.77, resulting in an overall device efficiency of 19.1%. The Voc is the highest reported value to date for an InP heterojunction solar cells with carrier-selective contacts. The proposed Ta2O5 material may be of interest not only for other solar cell architectures including perovskite cells and organic solar cells, but also across a wide range of optoelectronics applications including solid state emitting devices, photonic crystals, planar light wave circuits etc.

In this work, InP nanowire (NW) array solar cells with different axial p‐i‐n junction designs were investigated. The optical properties of the different NW structures were characterized through a series of microphotoluminescence measurements to extract important material parameters such as minority carrier lifetimes and internal quantum efficiencies. A glancing angle sputtering deposition technique has been developed to enable a direct visualization of the p‐n junctions in the vertical array of InP NW solar cells (NWSCs) using electron beam‐induced current (EBIC) technique. Based on EBIC and electrical simulation, it is found that the background doping in NWSC significantly affects the junction position. By modifying the junction design, the width and position of the p‐n junction can be varied effectively. By employing a p‐p−‐n structure, a high junction position (>1 μm from the substrate) and wide depletion width have been achieved as confirmed by EBIC measurement. Moreover, the NW growth substrate does not show any influence on the device behavior due to the fully decoupled junction position, indicating a promising structural design for future development of high‐performance, low‐cost flexible NW devices.

Semiconductor nanowires suffer from significant non-radiative surface recombination, however, heavy p-type doping has proven to be a viable option to increase the radiative recombination rate and hence quantum efficiency of emission, allowing demonstration of room-temperature lasing. Using a large-scale optical technique, we have studied Zn-doped GaAs nanowires to understand and quantify the effect of doping on growth and lasing properties. We measure the non-radiative recombination rate (knr) to be (0.14 ± 0.04) ps−1 by modelling the internal quantum efficiency (IQE) as a function of doping level. By applying a correlative method, we identify doping and nanowire length as key controllable parameters determining lasing behavior, with reliable room-temperature lasing occurring for p &3 × 1018 cm−3 and lengths & 4 µm. We report a best-in-class core-only near-infrared nanowire lasing threshold of ∼ 10 µJ cm−2 , and using a data-led filtering step, we present a method to simply identify sub-sets of nanowires with over 90% lasing yield.

In this work we demonstrate single axial p-i-n junction InP nanowire (NW) solar cells grown by selective-area metal organic vapor phase epitaxy (SA-MOVPE) technique. A power conversion efficiency of up to 6.5% was realized in the single NW solar cell (horizontally lying on substrate) without any surface passivation. Electron beam induced current (EBIC) and photocurrent mapping were performed to investigate the electrical properties of the NW solar cells and their influence on device performance, which are essential for an in-depth understanding of the design requirements for NW solar cells. A further conformal SiNx layer was deposited on the single NW solar cell devices by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). Overall efficiency improvement has been obtained in the SiNx-coated devices with a remarkable up to 62% increase to a peak efficiency of 10.5%, which to our knowledge is the highest efficiency reported for horizontal single NW solar cells. This has been attributed to an enhanced optical antenna effect and effective surface passivation due to SiNx coating, as respectively confirmed by numerical simulation and time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) measurements. Our work demonstrates that dielectric coating is a promising simple approach to achieve high performance III–V NW solar cells.

We report and explain the photoluminescence (PL) spectra from crystalline silicon (c-Si) wafers passivated by hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films under various measurement conditions, utilizing the different absorption coefficients and radiative recombination mechanisms in c-Si and a-Si:H. By comparison with the luminescence properties of a-Si:H, we also demonstrate that SiNx films deposited under certain silicon-rich conditions yield luminescence spectra similar to those of a-Si:H, indicating the presence of an a-Si:H-like phase in the SiNx films. This causes a reduction in the blue response of the solar cells via parasitic absorption. In addition, with the ability to detect the specific emission from heavily-doped silicon via band-gap narrowing effects, we can unambiguously separate individual spectral PL signatures of three different layers in a single substrate: the SiNx passivation films, the diffused layers, and the underlying c-Si substrate. Finally, we apply this technique to evaluate parasitic absorption in the passivation films, and the doping density of the diffused layers on different finished solar cells, highlighting the value of this nondestructive contactless, micron-scale technique for photovoltaic applications.

Crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells have been dominating the photovoltaic (PV) market for decades, and c-Si based photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells are regarded as one of the most promising routes for water splitting and renewable production of hydrogen. In this work, we demonstrate a nanoscale tantalum oxide (TaOx, ∼6 nm) as an electron-selective heterocontact, simultaneously providing high-quality passivation to the silicon surface and effective transport of electrons to either an external circuit or a water-splitting catalyst. The PV application of TaOx is demonstrated by a proof-of-concept device having a conversion efficiency of 19.1%. In addition, the PEC application is demonstrated by a photon-to-current efficiency (with additional applied bias) of 7.7%. These results represent a 2% and 3.8% absolute enhancement over control devices without a TaOx interlayer, respectively. The methods presented in this Letter are not limited to c-Si based devices and can be viewed as a more general approach to the interface engineering of optoelectronic and photoelectrochemical applications.

© 2015 American Chemical Society. We experimentally determine the lasing mode(s) in optically pumped semiconductor nanowire lasers. The spatially resolved and angle-resolved far-field emission profiles of single InP nanowire lasers lying horizontally on a SiO2 substrate are characterized in a microphotoluminescence (μ-PL) setup. The experimentally obtained polarization dependent far-field profiles match very well with numerical simulations and enable unambiguous identification of the lasing mode(s). This technique can be applied to characterize lasing modes in other type of nanolasers that are integrated on a substrate in either vertical or horizontal configurations.

In this paper, we perform coupled optical and electrical simulation for core–shell junction GaAs nanowire array solar cells to obtain the important physical insights of how the cell efficiency is affected by various key parameters, including core–shell doping, junction position, carrier lifetime, and surface effect. Our study reveals that junction design in core–shell nanowires in terms of doping and geometry is largely restricted and affected by the small nanowire dimension, requiring different optimization from those of conventional planar solar cells. To take advantage of the radial p-n junction, high core and shell doping are essential to achieve effective radial carrier collection. Moreover, maintaining thin nanowire shell could effectively offset the detrimental surface effect for improved efficiency.

We demonstrate 900% relative enhancement in the quantum efficiency (QE) of surface passivated GaAs nanowires by coupling them to resonant nanocavities that support hybrid photonic-plasmonic modes. This nonconventional approach to increase the QE of GaAs nanowires results in QE enhancement over the entire nanowire volume and is not limited to the near-field of the plasmonic structure. Our cavity design enables spatially and spectrally tunable resonant modes and efficient in- and out-coupling of light from the nanowires. Furthermore, this approach is not fabrication intensive; it is scalable and can be adapted to enhance the QE of a wide range of low QE semiconductor nanostructures.

Single nanowire lasers based on bottom-up III-V materials have been shown to exhibit room-temperature near-infrared lasing, making them highly promising for use as nanoscale, silicon-integrable and coherent light sources. While lasing behavior is reproducible, small variations in growth conditions across a substrate arising from the use of bottom-up growth techniques can introduce inter-wire disorder, either through geometric or material inhomogeneity. Nanolasers critically depend on both high material quality and tight dimensional tolerances, and as such, lasing threshold is both sensitive to, and a sensitive probe of such inhomogeneity. We present an all-optical characterization technique coupled to statistical analysis to correlate geometrical, and material parameters with lasing threshold. For these multiple-quantum-well nanolasers, it is found that low threshold is closely linked to longer lasing wavelength caused by losses in the core, providing a route to optimized future low-threshold devices. A best-in-group room temperature lasing threshold of 43 uJcm-2 under pulsed excitation was found, and overall device yields in excess of 50% are measured, demonstrating a promising future for the nanolaser architecture.

© 2017 American Chemical Society. The tightly bound biexcitons found in atomically thin semiconductors have very promising applications for optoelectronic and quantum devices. However, there is a discrepancy between theory and experiment regarding the fundamental structure of these biexcitons. Therefore, the exploration of a biexciton formation mechanism by further experiments is of great importance. Here, we successfully triggered the emission of biexcitons in atomically thin MoSe2, via the engineering of three critical parameters: dielectric screening, density of trions, and excitation power. The observed binding energy and formation dynamics of these biexcitons strongly support the model that the biexciton consists of a charge attached to a trion (excited state biexciton) instead of four spatially symmetric particles (ground state biexciton). More importantly, we found that the excited state biexcitons not only can exist at cryogenic temperatures but also can be triggered at room temperature in a freestanding bilayer MoSe2. The demonstrated capability of biexciton engineering in atomically thin MoSe2 provides a route for exploring fundamental many-body interactions and enabling device applications, such as bright entangled photon sources operating at room temperature.

The tightly bound biexcitons found in atomically thin semiconductors have very promising applications for optoelectronic and quantum devices. However, there is a discrepancy between theory and experiment regarding the fundamental structure of these biexcitons. Therefore, the exploration of a biexciton formation mechanism by further experiments is of great importance. Here, we successfully triggered the emission of biexcitons in atomically thin MoSe

Quantum confinement in semiconductor nanowires is of contemporary interest. Enhancing the quantum efficiency of quantum wells in nanowires and minimizing intrinsic absorption are necessary for reducing the threshold of nanowire lasers and are promising for wavelength tunable emitters and detectors. Here, we report on growth and optimization of GaAs1–xSbx/Al1–yGayAs quantum well heterostructures formed radially around pure zinc blende GaAs core nanowires. The emitted photon energy from GaAs0.89Sb0.11 quantum well (1.371 eV) is smaller than the GaAs core, thus showing advantages over GaAs/Al1–yGayAs quantum well nanowires in photon emission. The high optical quality quantum well (internal quantum efficiency reaches as high as 90%) is carefully positioned so that the quantum well coincides with the maximum of the transverse electric (TE01) mode intensity profile. The obtained superior optical performance combined with the supported Fabry–Perot (F–P) cavity in the nanowire leads to the strong amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). Detailed studies of the amplified cavity mode are carried out by spatial–spectral photoluminescence (PL) imaging, where emission from nanowire is resolved both spatially and spectrally. Resonant emission is generated at nanowire ends and is polarized perpendicular to the nanowire, in agreement with the simulated polarization characteristics of the TE01 mode in the nanowire. The observation of strong ASE for single QW nanowire at room temperature shows the potential application of GaAs1–xSbx QW nanowires as low threshold infrared nanowire lasers.

Developing single-nanowire terahertz (THz) electronics and employing them as sub-wavelength components for highly-integrated THz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) applications is a promising approach to achieve future low-cost, highly integrable and high-resolution THz tools, which are desirable in many areas spanning from security, industry, environmental monitoring and medical diagnostics to fundamental science. In this work, we present the design and growth of n

© 2014 American Chemical Society. We report the growth of stacking-fault-free and taper-free wurtzite InP nanowires with diameters ranging from 80 to 600 nm using selective-area metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy and experimentally determine a quantum efficiency of μ50%, which is on par with InP epilayers. We also demonstrate room-temperature, photonic mode lasing from these nanowires. Their excellent structural and optical quality opens up new possibilities for both fundamental quantum optics and optoelectronic devices.

We present an overview of our work on improving the crystal quality and carrier lifetimes of our GaAs-based nanowires. These two properties are crucial for optoelectronic device applications and which we report by showing two examples of nanowire lasers and nanowire solar cells.

The optimal geometries for reducing the radiative recombination lifetime and thus enhancing the quantum efficiency of III-V semiconductor nanowires by coupling them to plasmonic nanoparticles are established. The quantum efficiency enhancement factor due to coupling to plasmonic nanoparticles reduces as the initial quality of the nanowire increases. Significant quantum efficiency enhancement is observed for semiconductors only within about 15 nm from the nanoparticle. It is also identified that the modes responsible for resonant enhancement in the quantum efficiency of an emitter in the nanowire are geometric resonances of surface plasmon polariton modes supported at the nanowire/nanoparticle interface.

The effect of the silver nanoparticle size distribution on the performance of plasmonic polycrystalline Si thin-film solar cells is studied. Monodisperse particle arrays are fabricated using nanoimprint lithography. Multidispersed particle arrays are fabricated using thermal evaporation followed by annealing. The short-circuit current enhancement for the cells without a back reflector is 24% and 18% with the multidisperse array and the monodispersed array, respectively. For the cells with a back reflector, the current enhancement increases to 34% and 30%, respectively, compared with 13% enhancement due to the reflector alone. Better performance of multidisperse Ag nanoparticle arrays is attributed to a broader scattering cross section of the array owing to a broad particle size distribution and a higher nanoparticle coverage.

We demonstrate luminescence from both the core and the shell of III-V semiconductor photonic nanowires by coupling them to plasmonic silver nanoparticles. This demonstration paves the way for increasing the quantum efficiency of large surface area nanowire light emitters. The relative emission intensity from the core and the shell is tuned by varying the polarization of the excitation source since their polarization response can be independently controlled. Independent control on emission wavelength and polarization dependence of emission from core-shell nanowire heterostructures opens up opportunities that have not yet been imagined for nanoscale polarization sensitive, wavelength-selective, or multicolor photonic devices based on single nanowires or nanowire arrays.

Near-infrared lasers are important for optical data communication, spectroscopy and medical diagnosis. Semiconductor nanowires offer the possibility of reducing the footprint of devices for three-dimensional device integration and hence are being extensively studied in the context of optoelectronic devices. Although visible and ultraviolet nanowire lasers have been demonstrated widely, progress towards room-temperature infrared nanowire lasers has been limited because of material quality issues and Auger recombination. (Al)GaAs is an important material system for infrared lasers that is extensively used for conventional lasers. GaAs has a very large surface recombination velocity, which is a serious issue for nanowire devices because of their large surface-to-volume ratio. Here, we demonstrate room-temperature lasing in core-shell-cap GaAs/AlGaAs/GaAs nanowires by properly designing the Fabry-Pérot cavity, optimizing the material quality and minimizing surface recombination. Our demonstration is a major step towards incorporating (Al)GaAs nanowire lasers into the design of nanoscale optoelectronic devices operating at near-infrared wavelengths. © 2013 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.

The effects of AlGaAs shell thickness and growth time on the minority carrier lifetime in the GaAs core of GaAs/AlGaAs core-shell nanowires grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition are investigated. The carrier lifetime increases with increasing AlGaAs shell thickness up to a certain value as a result of reducing tunneling probability of carriers through the AlGaAs shell, beyond which the carrier lifetime reduces due to the diffusion of Ga-Al and/or impurities across the GaAs/AlGaAs heterointerface. Interdiffusion at the heterointerface is observed directly using high-angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy. We achieve room temperature minority carrier lifetimes of 1.9 ns by optimizing the shell growth with the intention of reducing the effect of interdiffusion.

In this work, solar cells based on III-V compound semiconductor quantum dots and nanowires are demonstrated. Experimental results based on material and device studies will be presented and discussed for high efficiency photovoltaic applications. © OSA 2013.

We review our results on integrated photonic devices fabricated using In GaAs quantum-dots. Selective-area metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) is used to grow the active region with quantum dots emitting at different wavelengths for fabrication of the integrated devices. We will also review the structural and optical properties of III-V nanowires, and axial and radial nanowire heterostructures grown by MOCVD. In addition to binary nanowires, such as GaAs, In As, and InP, we have demonstrated ternary In GaAs and Alga as nanowires. Core-shell nanowires consisting of GaAs cores with Alga as shells, and core-multi shell nanowires with several alternating shells of Alga as and GaAs, exhibit strong photoluminescence. Axial segments of In GaAs have been incorporated within GaAs nanowires to form GaAs/In GaAs nanowire superlattices.

We present the design and room-temperature lasing characteristics of single nanowires containing coaxial GaAs/AlGaAs multiple quantum well (MQW) active regions. The TE01 mode, which has a doughnut-shaped intensity profile and is polarized predominantly in-plane to the MQWs, is predicted to lase in these nanowire heterostructures and is thus chosen for the cavity design. Through gain and loss calculations, we determine the nanowire dimensions required to minimize loss for the TE01 mode and determine the optimal thickness and number of QWs for minimizing the threshold sheet carrier density. In particular, we show that there is a limit to the minimum and maximum number of QWs that are required for room-temperature lasing. Based on our design, we grew nanowires of a suitable diameter containing eight uniform coaxial GaAs/AlGaAs MQWs. Lasing was observed at room temperature from optically pumped single nanowires and was verified to be from TE01 mode by polarization measurements. The GaAs MQW nanowire lasers have a threshold fluence that is a factor of 2 lower than that previously demonstrated for room-temperature GaAs nanowire lasers.

Nanolasers hold promise for applications including integrated photonics, on-chip optical interconnects and optical sensing. Key to the realization of current cavity designs is the use of nanomaterials combining high gain with high radiative efficiency. Until now, efforts to enhance the performance of semiconductor nanomaterials have focused on reducing the rate of non-radiative recombination through improvements to material quality and complex passivation schemes. Here we employ controlled impurity doping to increase the rate of radiative recombination. This unique approach enables us to improve the radiative efficiency of unpassivated GaAs nanowires by a factor of several hundred times while also increasing differential gain and reducing the transparency carrier density. In this way, we demonstrate lasing from a nanomaterial that combines high radiative efficiency with a picosecond carrier lifetime ready for high speed applications., Until now, efforts to enhance the performance of nanolasers have focused on reducing the rate of non-radiative recombination. Here, Burgess et al. employ controlled impurity doping to increase the rate of radiative recombination.

Semiconductor nanowires act as waveguides despite very small cross-section dimensions because of high refractive indices. The waveguiding properties of nanowires alter the way the semiconductor material interacts with light. We elaborate on the waveguiding properties of nanowires and the effect of these properties on the spontaneous emission characteristics of nanowires. The effect of waveguiding properties of nanowires on optoelectronic devices like nanowire solar cells and lasers is also discussed.

Dielectric scattering structures are a promising way of trapping light in solar cells. Titanium dioxide is a particularly attractive candidate material because of its high refractive index and ability to be deposited on a finished solar cell. Here, we present an experimental demonstration of photocurrent enhancement in thin film recrystallised silicon solar cells using TiO2 pillar arrays fabricated on the rear of the cells using nanoimprint lithography. A short circuit current enhancement of 19% is measured experimentally, and excellent agreement with numerical simulations is obtained. We show numerically that by replacing the Ag capping present on the cells with a detached rear Ag back reflector, the enhancement could reach 37%. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In recent years, there has been rapid development in the field of nanoscale light trapping for solar cells. This has been driven by the decrease in thickness of solar cells in order to reduce materials costs, as well as advances in fabrication technology and computer power for simulating nanoscale structures. Nanoscale light trapping offers the possibility of enhancing absorption beyond the limits achievable with geometrical optics for certain structures. It also allows the optical design to be separated from the electrical design, as for example in plasmonic solar cells. Most importantly, thin-film cell designs will need to incorporate nanophotonic light trapping in order to reach their ultimate efficiency limits. In this article, we review the major types of nanophotonic light trapping, including plasmonic, diffraction gratings, and random scattering surfaces and describe the major advantages and disadvantages of each. In addition, we describe the most important related fabrication and characterization technologies and provide an outlook on future directions in this field.

According to the Shockley–Queisser limit, the maximum achievable efficiency for a single junction solar cell is ~33.2% which corresponds to a bandgap (E g) of 1.35 eV (InP). However, the maximum reported efficiency for InP solar cells remain at 24.2% ± 0.5%, that is >25% below the standard Shockley–Queisser limit. Through a wide range of simulations, we propose a new device structure, ITO/ ZnO/i-InP/p+ InP (p-i-ZnO-ITO) which might be able to fill this efficiency gap. Our simulation shows that the use of a thin ZnO layer improves passivation of the underlying i-InP layer and provides electron selectivity leading to significantly higher efficiency when compared to their n+/i/p+ homojunction counterpart. As a proof-of-concept, we fabricated ITO/ZnO/i-InP solar cell on a p+ InP substrate and achieved an open-circuit voltage (V oc) and efficiency as high as 819 mV and 18.12%, respectively, along with ~90% internal quantum efficiency. The entire device fabrication process consists of four simple steps which are highly controllable and reproducible. This work lays the foundation for a new generation of thin film InP solar cells based solely on carrier selective heterojunctions without the requirement of extrinsic doping and can be particularly useful when p- and n-doping are challenging as in the case of III–V nanostructures.

We present a method to correlate multimodal measurements—namely optical spectroscopy and electron microscopy—over large ensembles of randomly distributed single nano-objects. Using an algorithmic approach derived from astrometry, a marker-free method of uniquely associating nano-objects characterised using multiple techniques is described. This approach is applied to nanolasers, enabling an experimental calculation of modal refractive index in sub-micron diameter nanowires. By matching the lasing spectrum and electron microscopy image of 13 nanowire lasers, the refractive index of the TE01 mode in GaAs/AlGaAs multiple-quantum well nanolasers is determined to be n g = 4.7 ± 0.3.