Abstract
Semiconductor nanowires show promise for many device applications, but controlled doping with electronic and magnetic impurities remains an important challenge. Limitations on dopant incorporation have been identified in nanocrystals, raising concerns about the prospects for doping nanostructures. Progress has been hindered by the lack of a method to quantify the dopant distribution in single nanostructures. Recently, we showed that atom probe tomography can be used to determine the composition of isolated nanowires. Here, we report the first direct measurements of dopant concentrations in arbitrary regions of individual nanowires. We find that differences in precursor decomposition rates between the liquid catalyst and solid nanowire surface give rise to a heavily doped shell surrounding an underdoped core. We also present a thermodynamic model that relates liquid and solid compositions to dopant fluxes.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 315-319 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Nature nanotechnology |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - May 2009 |
Funding
This work was supported by the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation through the CAREER and NIRT programs. D.E.P. acknowledges the support of a Ford Foundation fellowship, J.L.L. acknowledges the support of a NSF Graduate Fellowship, E.J.S. acknowledges support of a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship, and L.J.L. acknowledges support of an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship. We acknowledge the NUANCE and NUCAPT facilities for the use of instrumentation and D. Isheim for useful discussions.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Bioengineering
- Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
- Biomedical Engineering
- General Materials Science
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering