Determining the electronic performance limitations in top-down-fabricated Si nanowires with mean widths down to 4 nm.

Silicon nanowires have been patterned with mean widths down to 4 nm using top-down lithography and dry etching. Performance-limiting scattering processes have been measured directly which provide new insight into the electronic conduction mechanisms within the nanowires. Results demonstrate a transition from 3-dimensional (3D) to 2D and then 1D as the nanowire mean widths are reduced from 12 to 4 nm. The importance of high quality surface passivation is demonstrated by a lack of significant donor deactivation, resulting in neutral impurity scattering ultimately limiting the electronic performance. The results indicate the important parameters requiring optimization when fabricating nanowires with atomic dimensions.

Type-II quasi phase matching in periodically intermixed semiconductor superlattice waveguides.

Second-harmonic generation using the type-II polarization configuration is demonstrated in quasi-phase-matched GaAs radicalAlGaAs superlattice waveguides. Phase-matching wavelengths and conversion efficiencies were determined for several quasi-phase-matching periods using 1.9 ps pulses. Saturation effects at high input power were concluded to be the result of third-order nonlinear effects.