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Direct measurement of dopant distribution in an individual vapour–liquid–solid nanowire

Nature Nanotechnology volume 4, pages 315–319 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Semiconductor nanowires show promise for many device applications1,2,3, but controlled doping with electronic and magnetic impurities remains an important challenge4,5,6,7,8. Limitations on dopant incorporation have been identified in nanocrystals9, raising concerns about the prospects for doping nanostructures9,10. 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 nanowires11,12. 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.

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Figure 1: Atomically resolved three-dimensional reconstruction of a germanium nanowire.
Figure 2: Distribution of dopant atoms.
Figure 3: Dopant incorporation pathways and distribution.
Figure 4: Core phosphorus concentration versus temperature and precursor ratio.

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Acknowledgements

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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, 60208, Illinois, USA

    Daniel E. Perea, Eric R. Hemesath, Edwin J. Schwalbach, Jessica L. Lensch-Falk, Peter W. Voorhees & Lincoln J. Lauhon

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  1. Daniel E. Perea
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  2. Eric R. Hemesath
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  3. Edwin J. Schwalbach
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  5. Peter W. Voorhees
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  6. Lincoln J. Lauhon
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Contributions

D.E.P. performed the atom probe experiments and data analysis. E.R.H. and J.L.F. synthesized the nanowires. E.R.H. performed TEM analysis. E.J.S and P.W.V. developed the growth model. L.J.L. coordinated the design and execution of the experiments. D.E.P. and L.J.L. co-wrote the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Lincoln J. Lauhon.

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Perea, D., Hemesath, E., Schwalbach, E. et al. Direct measurement of dopant distribution in an individual vapour–liquid–solid nanowire. Nature Nanotech 4, 315–319 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2009.51

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