Integrated nanoscale electronics and optoelectronics:Exploring nanoscale science and technology through semiconductor nanowires

摘要

Semiconductor nanowires (NWs) represent an ideal system for investigating low-dimensional physics and are expected to play an important role as both interconnects and functional device elements in nanoscale electronic and optoelectronic devices.Here we review a series of key advances defining a new paradigm of bottom-up assembling integrated nanosystems using semiconductor NW building blocks.We first introduce a general approach for the synthesis of a broad range of semiconductor NWs with precisely controlled chemical composition,physical dimension,and electronic,optical properties using a metal cluster-catalyzed vapor-liquid-solid growth mechanism.Subsequently,we describe rational strategies for the hierarchical assembly of NW building blocks into functional devices and complex architectures based on electric field or micro-fluidic flow.Next,we discuss a variety of new nanoscale electronic device concepts including crossed NW p-n diode and crossed NW field effect transistors (FETs).Reproducible assembly of these scalable crossed NW device elements enables a catalog of integrated structures,including logic gates and computational circuits.Lastly,we describe a wide range of photonic and optoelectronic devices,including nanoscale light-emitting diodes (nanoLEDs),multicolor LED arrays,integrated nanoLED-nanoFET arrays,single nanowire waveguide,and single nanowire nanolaser.The potential application of these nanoscale light sources for chemical and biological analyses is discussed.