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| Author(s): |
Luiz Henrique Galvão Tizei
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Doctoral Thesis |
| Press: | Campinas, SP. |
| Institution: | Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Física Gleb Wataghin |
| Defense date: | 2011-04-28 |
| Examining board members: |
Daniel Mário Ugarte;
Edson Roberto Leite;
Paulo Fernando Papaleo Fichtner;
Pascoal José Giglio Pagliuso;
Fernando Iikawa
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| Advisor: | Daniel Mário Ugarte |
| Abstract | |
The development of new materials has great interest due to the possibility of finding new phenomena and properties, which can be used in technological applications. In particular, in the last decades, huge efforts have been made in order to understand nanomaterials and, the effects of size and dimensionality reduction. Among different advances, it is worth noting the significant development of semiconductor nanowires (quasi-one dimensional structures) with tens or hundreds of nanometers in diameter and thousands of nanometers in length. The catalytic method VLS (Vapor-Liquid-Solid) is the most used approach for nanowire preparation, in which a metal nanoparticle serves as a preferential sink for atoms from a vapor and, also, as the position for the solid nucleation; this method was proposed by Wagner and Ellis in the 60s. In our work, we have focused on the study of III-V semiconductor nanowires grown by Chemical Beam Epitaxy (CBE) catalyzed by Au nanoparticles. Specifically, we have studied different III-V nanowires (InP, InAs, InGaP and InAsP), as ell as, some heterostructured wires (InP/InAs/InP). As the quality of interfaces and the chemical homogeneity of materials directly influence the optical and electrical properties of nanowires, our research have led us to assess the limit of applicability of several characterization techniques based on transmission electron microscopy: TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy), STEM (Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy), HRTEM (High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy), EDS (Energy Dispersed X-Ray Spectroscopy) and EELS (Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy). As a consequence, we have determined the detection limit for the measurement of chemical composition variations and interface widths. In particular, due to the limitations imposed by radiation damage on III-V nanowires, we have proposed the use of Plasmon chemical shifts (EELS) to the chemical characterization of III-V nanostructures. We have analyzed the cross sections of InAsP nanowires and we have been able to reveal a difference between the semiconductors materials produced by the axial (catalytic) and radial (bidimensional) growth. Through the detailed chemical analysis of InP/InAs/InP heterostructures we have detected an unexpected concentration of As in the last InP segment of the heterostructure. We have interpreted this result as an indication that As diffuses through the catalytic nanoparticle during growth. This demonstrates an incorporation route for group V atoms in nanowires grown by VLS. Finally, we have studied the effects of extended structural defects, like dislocations, in the morphology and structural distortions of nanowires. In this sense, we have observed the Eshelby twist in InP nanowires containing a single screw dislocation. Our results show that measured twist rates are much larger (up to 100%) than the predictions from the elasticity theory. This shows the significant change of mechanical and structural properties in nanoscale and, illustrates the important role of a careful electron microscopy studies to analyze deformations in nanostructures (AU) | |