Title: Strain-Induced Lateral Heterostructures in Patterned Semiconductor Nanomembranes for Micro- and Optoelectronics

Abstract

The ability to tailor the energy band lineup of semiconductor materials plays a key role in the development of many electronic and optoelectronic devices, and normally relies on heteroepitaxy. Here we report a different method, based on strain engineering, for the controlled introduction of variations in bandgap energy with lateral position in thin films. External stress is applied on Ge nanomembranes stacked with an array of amorphous-Si pillars, in order to create a non-uniform strain (and therefore bandgap energy) distribution commensurate with the sample thickness variations. The resulting strain profiles are mapped using Bragg diffraction with a hard x-ray probe featuring nanoscale spatial resolution. Compared with traditional heterostructures grown by epitaxial techniques, these strain-engineered samples involve a single chemical composition, and are not limited in the choice of compatible materials by any restriction imposed by lattice-matching requirements. Furthermore, their energy band lineups can be patterned in nearly arbitrary shapes using nanolithography to control the thickness profile, and can be tuned actively by varying the applied stress. As a result, these structures are attractive for a wide range of device applications (including lasers, LEDs, solar cells, and thermoelectrics) that require complex heterostructure lineups with multiple bandgap energies.

Authors:

Gok, Abdullah ^[1]; Wang, Xiaowei  ^[1];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Wang, Xiaowei"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-0420-9659"

Scott, Shelley  ^[2];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Scott, Shelley"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-1263-011X"

Bhat, Abhishek ^[2]; Yan, Hanfei ^[3]; Pattammattel, Ajith  ^[3];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Pattammattel, Ajith"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-5956-7808"

Nazaretski, Evgeny  ^[3];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Nazaretski, Evgeny"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-1207-8174"

Chu, Yong S. ^[3]; Huang, Zicong ^[4]; Osgood, Richard M. ^[5]; Lagally, Max G. ^[2]; Paiella, Roberto  ^[1]

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Paiella, Roberto"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-7183-6249"

---

+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Boston Univ., MA (United States)
2. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
3. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II)
4. Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)
5. Boston Univ., MA (United States); Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)

Publication Date:

Thu Jun 10 00:00:00 EDT 2021

Research Org.:

Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF)

OSTI Identifier:

1812500

Alternate Identifier(s):

OSTI ID: 1832529

Report Number(s):

BNL-221958-2021-JAAM
Journal ID: ISSN 2574-0970

Grant/Contract Number:  

SC0012704; FG02-03ER46028; DMR-1121288

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

ACS Applied Nano Materials

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 4; Journal Issue: 6; Journal ID: ISSN 2574-0970

Publisher:

American Chemical Society (ACS)

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; strain engineering; semiconductor nanomembranes; nanofabrication patterning; X-ray nanodiffraction imaging; energy band lineups