Crystal Phase Quantum Dots in Nanowires
Contact: Federico PANCIERA, Jean-Christophe HARMAND
Bulk semiconductors generally exist in only one crystal phase, but at the nanoscale, multiple crystal phases can coexist. This occurs, for example, when GaAs nanowires (NWs) are grown using the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) method. In these wires, the stable zincblende (ZB) phase coexists with metastable wurtzite (WZ) structure, resulting in NWs having a mixed-phase structure. Remarkably, the valence and conduction bands of the two phases are misaligned so that small sections of one phase within the other effectively confine charge carriers. These heterostructures are defined as CPQDs and have been proposed for several potential applications in photonics and quantum computing thanks to their extraordinary properties. They feature sharp and intense spectral lines, single-photon emission, and two-photon cascade biexciton-exciton complex. Moreover, in contrast to compositional heterojunctions, CPQDs have intrinsically strain-free and abrupt interfaces, hence do not suffer from alloy intermixing, which hampers precise control of the electronic properties in compositional heterostructures.
Video Gallery
Selected Publications (since 2018)
Members of the group highlighted
- 3D Shape Reconstruction of Ge Nanowires during Vapor–Liquid–Solid Growth under Modulating Electric Field. Ivan Erofeev, Khakimjon Saidov, Zhaslan Baraissov, Hongwei Yan, Jean-Luc Maurice, Federico Panciera, Utkur Mirsaidov, ACS nano 18 (34), 22855-22863 (2024) [PDF]
- Debra P Wilson, A S Sokolovskii, Ray R LaPierre, Federico Panciera, Frank Glas, Vladimir G Dubrovskii. Modeling the dynamics of interface morphology and crystal phase change in self-catalyzed GaAs nanowires. Nanotechnology, 2020. Source Document
- Federico Panciera, Zhaslan Baraissov, Gilles Patriarche, Vladimir G Dubrovskii, Frank Glas, Laurent Travers, Utkur Mirsaidov, Jean-Christophe Harmand. Phase selection in self-catalysed GaAs nanowires. Nano Letters, 2020. PDF Project Source Document
- Zhaslan Baraissov, Federico Panciera, Laurent Travers, Jean-Christophe Harmand, Utkur Mirsaidov. Growth Dynamics of Gallium Nanodroplets Driven by Thermally Activated Surface Diffusion. The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 2019. PDF Source Document
- Federico Panciera, Jerry Tersoff, Andrew D Gamalski, Mark C Reuter, Dmitri Zakharov, Eric A Stach, Stephan Hofmann, Frances M Ross. Surface crystallization of liquid Au-Si and its impact on catalysis. Advanced Materials, 2018. PDF Video Source Document
- Jean-Christophe Harmand, Gilles Patriarche, Frank Glas, Federico Panciera, Ileana Florea, Jean-Luc Maurice, Laurent Travers, Yannick Ollivier. Atomic step flow on a nanofacet. PRL, 2018. Video Source Document
