
- Photonics Research
- Vol. 9, Issue 9, 1811 (2021)
Abstract
1. INTRODUCTION
In the past two decades, nanowires (NWs) have been employed as versatile building blocks [1–3] used in various optoelectrical devices [4–7] because of their tailored optical and electronic properties [8,9]. Semiconductor NWs exhibit many unique physical characteristics such as significant surface and size effects [10], building blocks for nanoelectronics [7], and Majorana fermions [11]. For example, the electrical and optical properties of semiconductor NWs can be tuned by controlling their sizes, shapes, and compositions [12,13]. For instance, alloyed III–V semiconductor ternary
Owing to the large electron g-factor and small electron effective mass [17–19], III–V semiconductor NWs have been applied in nanoscale optoelectronic devices [17], infrared detectors [18], and spin electronics [19]. Known as the representative of the III–V semiconductor family, InAsP NWs which were first synthesized by Pettersson in 2006 [3] show great potential for infrared photodetectors due to the high carrier mobility. Since then, great efforts have been devoted to pursuing InAsP NW-based optoelectronic devices, such as high-speed electronics [20,21] and near-infrared light emitters and detectors [22–24]. In theory, the bandgap of InAsP NWs can be tailored from 0.35 to 1.35 eV by adjusting the alloy composition, covering the important telecommunication wavelength band from 1.3 to 1.55 μm [25]. Besides, the growth of InAsP NWs has larger tolerance for lattice mismatch than thin-film epitaxial growth, which allows adjusting the optical nonlinear sensitivity through external bending or twisting strain [26,27] and has more flexibility in substrate selection and mechanical properties. Thus, there is a demand to study the intrinsic optical properties (e.g., carrier dynamics, nonlinear optical absorption) of InAsP NWs in the near-infrared wavelength range, which remains unexplored.
In this work, we fabricate high-quality InAsP NWs by directly growing them on a quartz substrate using the Au nanoparticle-assisted vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) method. Then, the carrier dynamics of InAsP NWs is investigated by nondegenerate pump-probe measurements, which show that the excited carrier in InAsP NWs exhibits one fast (
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2. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Preparation and Characterization of InAsP NWs
InAsP NWs samples are grown on quartz substrates inside a horizontal flow atmospheric pressure metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) system. The detailed process can be found in Appendix A.1. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is used to examine the surface morphology of the prepared NWs. Figure 1(a) depicts the as-grown InAsP NWs that have an average diameter of
Figure 1.(a) SEM image of InAsP NWs on quartz substrate. The inset is a higher-resolution SEM image, which shows the NW diameter of
B. Ultrafast Carrier Dynamics of InAsP NWs
Figure 2.(a) Experimental setup of the nondegenerate pump-probe measurement. (b) Differential transmission of InAsP NWs at different pump pulse energies with a 675 nm probe laser. (c) Relationship between maximum differential transmission and initial photoinduced carrier density. (d) Linear fit to
The photoinduced carrier dynamics relaxed from the excited states to the valence band is commonly described by a three-term rate equation [32–34]:
After converting the measured
C. Nonlinear Optical Response of InAsP NWs
Figure 3.Characterization of the NLO properties of the InAsP NWs. OA Z-scan measurements of the InAsP NWs at (a) 532 nm and (c) 1064 nm. CA Z-scan measurements of the InAsP NWs at (b) 532 nm and (d) 1064 nm.
The CA Z-scan technique is used to characterize the refractive index (
D. Ultrafast Photonic Applications
Because InAsP NWs exhibit strong third-order nonlinear optical response and ultrafast saturation recovery time, it is meaningful to further explore their ability on the generation of ultrashort pulses. Here, a mode-locked solid-state laser based on InAsP NWs saturable absorber is assembled. Based on the mode-locking theory, when the mode-locking pulse energy is larger than the minimum intracavity pulse energy, the stable continuous-wave (CW) laser can be demonstrated. Therefore, considering the SA parameters, the following formula should be satisfied [41]:
When the absorbed pump power exceeds 4.26 W, stable CW mode-locked (CWML) operation is established. Figure 4(a) depicts the relationship between the absorbed pump power and average output power. The obtained maximum average output power is 333 mW under the absorbed pump power of 7.17 W. Once the absorbed pump power exceeds 7.17 W, the CWML operation is broken. The output power instabilities (RMS) are measured to be less than 2% over 1 h. By
Figure 4.Mode-locked laser results based on InAsP NWs. (a) Average output power versus absorbed pump power. (b) The measured pulse width by autocorrelation spectroscopy is
3. CONCLUSIONS
In summary, we fabricate InAsP NWs by using an Au nanoparticle-assisted VLS growth method. The NLO properties and ultrafast carrier dynamics of InAsP NWs have been studied by Z-scan and nondegenerate pump-probe measurements for the first time. The excited carriers of InAsP NWs exhibit two characteristic carrier lifetimes (fast
Acknowledgment
Acknowledgment. H.Y. acknowledges the support from EU. V.K. acknowledges the support of Aalto University Doctoral School, Walter Ahlström Foundation, Elektroniikkainsinöörien Säätiö, Sähköinsinööriliiton Säätiö, and Nokia Foundation Finnish Foundation for Technology Promotion (Tekniikan Edistämissäätiö) and Waldemar Von Frenckells foundation. H.L. and V.K. acknowledge support from the Academy of Finland Flagship Programme, Photonics Research and Innovation (PREIN), decision number: 320167. V.K. and H.Y. acknowledge the provision of facilities and technical support by Aalto University at Micronova Nanofabrication Centre.
APPENDIX A: EXPERIMENTAL METHODS
InAsP NWs were grown on quartz substrates inside a horizontal flow atmospheric pressure metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) system using an Au nanoparticle–assisted vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) growth method. Trimethylindium (TMIn), tertiarybutylarsene (TBAs) and tertiarybutylphosphine (TBP) were used as precursors. First, the substrates were cleaned in an ultrasonic bath with isopropanol (IPA) and acetone, rinsed in deionized water, and then treated with a poly-L-lysine (PLL) solution for 120 s. Next, the surface was treated with 40 nm diameter colloidal gold (Au) nanoparticles solution (BBI International, UK) for 120 s. Prior to the growth, the substrates were annealed in situ at 600°C for 10 min under hydrogen flow to desorb surface contaminants. The NW growth temperature was fixed at 410°C for 5 min with the TMIn, TBAs, and TBP flows of 2.8, 14.4, and 1276 μmol/min, respectively. The nominal V/III ratio during the growth was
The setup was established using Ti:sapphire oscillators (800 nm, 80 MHz, 150 fs), separated to two components. One beam was used to drive the optical parametric oscillator to generate the pulses from 1000 to 1500 nm. After frequency doubling through a BBO crystal, the wavelength of the beam was changed to 500–750 nm. The wavelength of 650 nm was used as the probe light. The other beam was fixed at 400 nm and was used as the pump light. Both the pump and probe light were focused onto the sample by a
Z-scan measurements were performed using a homemade mode-locked Yb fiber laser (center wavelength 1064 nm, repetition rate 100 kHz–1 MHz, pulse duration 10 ps), which can generate a signal with the wavelength of 532 nm by doubling the frequency through a BBO crystal. The pulses were divided to two parts: one was set as a reference light, collected by a power meter (Thorlabs S470C); the other was focused by a lens into the samples. Lenses of different focusing lengths were used for different wavelength of incident light,
We transferred the as-grown InAsP NWs grown on quartz onto a mirror with high-reflection (HR) coating at 1020–1100 nm via a PMMA-mediated method.
APPENDIX B: THE FITTING PARAMETERS OBTAINED FROM Z-SCAN CHARACTERIZATION
As shown in Table
Fitting Parameters Obtained from Z-Scan Characterization of InAsP NWs under Different Excitation Energies
Wavelength | Input | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
532 | 0.25 | ||||||
0.16 | |||||||
0.055 | |||||||
1064 | 1.01 | ||||||
0.55 | |||||||
0.33 |
APPENDIX C: THE NONLINEAR TRANSMITTANCE CURVE OF InAsP NWS
As shown in Fig.
Figure 5.(a)–(c) Nonlinear transmittance of the InAsP NWs at the wavelength of 532 nm with different incident pulse energies. (d)–(f) Nonlinear transmittance of the InAsP NWs at the wavelength of 1064 nm with different incident pulse energies.
APPENDIX D: THE EXPERIMENTAL SETUP OF THE MODE-LOCKED SOLID-STATE LASER
In our experiment, a z-type resonator with the cavity length of 3.49 m is applied, as shown in Fig.
Figure 6.Experimental setup of the mode-locked solid-state bulk laser based on an InAsP NWs SA.
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