Increased absorption in InAsSb nanowire clusters through coupled optical modes

Johannes Svensson, Yang Chen, Nicklas Anttu, Mats Erik Pistol, Lars Erik Wernersson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Nanowires can act as efficient light absorbers where waveguide modes are resonant to specific wavelengths. This resonant wavelength can easily be tuned by the nanowire dimensions, but the absorption of infrared radiation requires diameters of hundreds of nm, which is difficult to achieve using epitaxial growth. Here, we demonstrate that infrared absorption in InAsSb nanowires with the diameters of only 140 nm grown on Si substrates can be enhanced resonantly by placing them closely packed in clusters of different sizes. We find that coating the nanowires with a dielectric to optically connect them results in an efficient absorption diameter far exceeding the diameter of the constituent nanowires and that the cut-off wavelength is redshifted with an increasing cluster diameter. Numerical simulations are in agreement with the experimental results and demonstrate that if nanowires are positioned in clusters, a peak absorptance of 20% is possible at 5.6 μm with only 3% surface coverage. This absorptance is 200 times higher than for wires placed in an equidistant pattern. Our findings have direct implications for the design of efficient nanowire based photodetectors and solar cells.

Original languageEnglish
Article number081104
JournalApplied Physics Letters
Volume110
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Feb 2017
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

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