Letter abstract
Nature Materials 2, 517 - 520 (2003)
Published online: 20 July 2003 | doi:10.1038/nmat942
Subject Categories: Semiconductors | Nanoscale materials
Two- versus three-dimensional quantum confinement in indium phosphide wires and dots
Heng Yu1, Jingbo Li2, Richard A. Loomis1, Lin-Wang Wang2 & William E. Buhro1
The size dependence of the bandgap is the most identifiable aspect of quantum confinement in semiconductors; the bandgap increases as the nanostructure size decreases1, 2, 3. The bandgaps in one-dimensional (1D)-confined wells, 2D-confined wires, and 3D-confined dots should evolve differently with size as a result of the differing dimensionality of confinement1. However, no systematic experimental comparisons of analogous 1D, 2D or 3D confinement systems have been made. Here we report growth of indium phosphide (InP) quantum wires having diameters in the strong-confinement regime, and a comparison of their bandgaps with those previously reported for InP quantum dots4, 5, 6, 7. We provide theoretical evidence to establish that the quantum confinement observed in the InP wires is weakened to the expected extent, relative to that in InP dots, by the loss of one confinement dimension. Quantum wires sometimes behave as strings of quantum dots8, and we propose an analysis to generally distinguish quantum-wire from quantum-dot behaviour.
- Department of Chemistry, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130-4899, USA
- Computational Research Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
Correspondence to: Lin-Wang Wang2 e-mail: lwwang@lbl.gov
Correspondence to: William E. Buhro1 e-mail: buhro@wuchem.wustl.edu
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