Measuring the electronic properties of single semiconductor nanowire heterostructures using advanced optical spectroscopies – Leigh M. Smith

Date: Mon. October 10th, 2011, 12:30 pm-1:30 pm
Location: Rockefeller 221

There has been intense interest in recent years to control the electronic structure in quasi one-dimensional nanowires through the fabrication of novel axial and radial heterostructures. Unlike materials in higher dimensions, nanowires have the unique ability to grow axial or radial heterostructures between almost any two materials regardless of lattice mismatch or strain. Understanding exactly how the electronic properties of the nanowire are changed through this control is extremely important and requires spectroscopies with high spatial, temporal and spectral resolution. I will discuss a number of examples in which the electronic structure in nanowire heterostructures can be modified either through strain, crystal structure, or quantum confinement, and what insights can be provided by a number of single nanowire optical spectroscopies.