Direct Growth of Light-Emitting III–V Nanowires on Flexible Plastic Substrates

Abstract

Semiconductor nanowires are routinely grown on high-priced crystalline substrates as it is extremely challenging to grow directly on plastics and flexible substrates due to high-temperature requirements and substrate preparation. At the same time, plastic substrates can offer many advantages such as extremely low price, light weight, mechanical flexibility, shock and thermal resistance, and biocompatibility. We explore the direct growth of high-quality III–V nanowires on flexible plastic substrates by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE). We synthesize InAs and InP nanowires on polyimide and show that the fabricated NWs are optically active with strong light emission in the mid-infrared range. We create a monolithic flexible nanowire-based p–n junction device on plastic in just two fabrication steps. Overall, we demonstrate that III–V nanowires can be synthesized directly on flexible plastic substrates inside a MOVPE reactor, and we believe that our results will further advance the development of the nanowire-based flexible electronic devices.

Structural and Optical Properties of Self-Catalyzed Axially Heterostructured GaPN/GaP Nanowires Embedded into a Flexible Silicone Membrane

“…Moreover, geometry and high refractive index of III–V semiconductor NWs can lead to appearance of waveguide and cavity effects allowing more effective light scattering and collection compared to the thin films [ 4 , 5 , 6 ]. Thus III–V semiconductor NWs were considered as a promising material for light-emitting and light-detecting applications [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ].…”

“…Nowadays, materials based on III-V NWs encapsulated into flexible polymer membranes are of great interest in a wide range of applications. Several important implementations including: solar cells [9,10,20,21], infrared laser radiation visualizer [22], light-emitting devices (LEDs) [7,8,[23][24][25], terahertz modulators [26,27], thermoelectric device [15], and other flexible devices [28] were reported recently.…”

Heterogeneous Wafer Bonding Technology and Thin-Film Transfer Technology-Enabling Platform for the Next Generation Applications beyond 5G

“…Among numerous semiconductors, III-V compound materials, such as InP, GaAs, and GaN, receive widespread attention due to the excellent electrical properties and high-electron-mobility in transistors [ 79 , 80 , 81 , 82 ]. Compared with Si, most III-V compounds have a direct bandgap, making them can be used as light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and lasers [ 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 ]. The combination of III-V materials with the Si-CMOS platform can be used as a hybrid solution for the on-chip integration of Si-based photonics.…”

Growth of long III-As NWs by hydride vapor phase epitaxy

“…Recent MOVPE work involved Si wafers precoated by metallic masks, to avoid the use of gold catalyst and reduce process costs [150]. Light emitting InAs NWs were grown directly on flexible plastic substrates by Inseeded MOVPE [151].…”