Abstract
Free-standing nanostructures such as suspended carbon nanotubes1, graphene layers2, III-V nanorod photonic crystals3 and three-dimensional structures4 have recently attracted attention because they could form the basis of devices with unique electronic, optoelectronic and electromechanical characteristics. Here we report the growth by molecular beam epitaxy of free-standing nanoplates of InAs that are close to being atomically plane. The structural and transport properties of these semiconducting nanoplates have been examined with scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and low-temperature electron transport measurements. The carrier density of the nanoplates can be reduced to zero by applying a voltage to a nearby gate electrode, creating a new type of suspended quantum well that can be used to explore low-dimensional electron transport. The electronic and optical properties of such systems also make them potentially attractive for photovoltaic and sensing applications5.
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge support from the Danish Research Councils FTP (grant number 274-05-0178) and FNU (grant number 272-05-0358) and the EC projects SECOQC, ULTRA-1D and CARDEQ. We thank Thomas Sand Jespersen for discussions.
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Aagesen, M., Johnson, E., Sørensen, C. et al. Molecular beam epitaxy growth of free-standing plane-parallel InAs nanoplates. Nature Nanotech 2, 761–764 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2007.378
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2007.378
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