Self-assembly of Silver Nanoparticles and Multiwall Carbon Nanotubes on Decomposed GaAs Surfaces.

Atomic Force Microscopy complemented by Photoluminescence and Reflection High Energy Electron Diffraction has been used to study self-assembly of silver nanoparticles and multiwall carbon nanotubes on thermally decomposed GaAs (100) surfaces. It has been shown that the decomposition leads to the formation of arsenic plate-like structures. Multiwall carbon nanotubes spin coated on the decomposed surfaces were mostly found to occupy the depressions between the plates and formed boundaries. While direct casting of silver nanoparticles is found to induce microdroplets. Annealing at 300°C was observed to contract the microdroplets into combined structures consisting of silver spots surrounded by silver rings. Moreover, casting of colloidal suspension consists of multiwall carbon nanotubes and silver nanoparticles is observed to cause the formation of 2D compact islands. Depending on the multiwall carbon nanotubes diameter, GaAs/multiwall carbon nanotubes/silver system exhibited photoluminescence with varying strength. Such assembly provides a possible bottom up facile way of roughness controlled fabrication of plasmonic systems on GaAs surfaces.

Electrical conduction of CdSe nanocrystals embedded in silicon oxide films.

In this paper we report on the structural, optical and electrical properties of CdSe nanocrystals (NCs) embedded in silica matrix grown by the rf-magnetron sputtering technique with subsequent annealing under argon flux. Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD), Photoluminescence (PL) and Raman spectroscopy, as well as current-voltage (I-V) measurements were used to characterize the CdSe NCs. The PL spectra of annealed samples demonstrate the presence of peaks in the range of 550-620 nm, indicating the quantum confinement effect in CdSe NCs. This quantum confinement effect in CdSe NCs was also confirmed by Raman spectroscopy. Finally, I-V behavior was explained by different concentrations and sizes of CdSe NCs.

Interface gap states and Schottky barrier inhomogeneity at metal/n-type GaN Schottky contacts.

The barrier heights (BH) of various metals including Pd, Pt and Ni on n-type GaN (M/n-GaN) have been measured in the temperature range 80-400 K with using a current-voltage (I-V) technique. The temperature dependence of the I-V characteristics of M/n-GaN have shown non-ideal behaviors and indicate the presence of a non-uniform distribution of surface gap states, resulting from the residual defects in the as grown GaN. The surface gap states density N(ss), as well as its temperature dependence were obtained from the bias and temperature dependence of the ideality factor n(V,T) and the barrier height Φ(Bn)(V,T). Further, a dependence of zero-bias BH Φ(0Bn) on the metal work function (Φ(m)) with an interface parameter coefficient of proportionality of 0.47 is found. This result indicates that the Fermi level at the M/n-GaN interface is unpinned. Additionally, the presence of lateral inhomogeneities of the BH, with two Gaussian distributions of the BH values is seen. However, the non-homogeneous SBH is found to be correlated to the surface gap states density, in that Φ(0Bn) becomes smaller with increasing N(ss). These findings suggest that the lateral inhomogeneity of the SBH is connected to the non-uniform distribution of the density of surface gap states at metal/GaN which is attributed to the presence of native defects in the as grown GaN. Deep level transient spectroscopy confirms the presence of native defects with discrete energy levels at GaN and provides support to this interpretation.