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Nanowires (NWs) are ideal nanostructures for exploring the effects of low dimensionality and thermal conductivity suppression on thermoelectric behavior. However, it is challenging to accurately measure temperature gradients and heat flow in such systems. Here, using a combination of spatially resolved Raman spectroscopy and transport measurements, we determine all the thermoelectric properties of single Se-doped InSb NWs and quantify the figure of merit ZT. The measured laser-induced heating in the NWs and associated electrical response are well described by a 1D heat equation model. Our method allows the determination of the thermal contact resistances at the source and drain electrodes of the NW, which are negligible in our system. The measured thermoelectric parameters of InSb NWs agree well with those obtained based on field-effect transistor Seebeck measurements.

The adoption of graphene in electronics, optoelectronics, and photonics is hindered by the difficulty in obtaining high-quality material on technologically relevant substrates, over wafer-scale sizes, and with metal contamination levels compatible with industrial requirements. To date, the direct growth of graphene on insulating substrates has proved to be challenging, usually requiring metal-catalysts or yielding defective graphene. In this work, a metal-free approach implemented in commercially available reactors to obtain high-quality monolayer graphene on c-plane sapphire substrates via chemical vapor deposition is demonstrated. Low energy electron diffraction, low energy electron microscopy, and scanning tunneling microscopy measurements identify the Al-rich reconstruction (√31×√31) R ± 9° of sapphire to be crucial for obtaining epitaxial graphene. Raman spectroscopy and electrical transport measurements reveal high-quality graphene with mobilities consistently above 2000 cm2 V-1 s-1. The process is scaled up to 4 and 6 in. wafers sizes and metal contamination levels are retrieved to be within the limits for back-end-of-line integration. The growth process introduced here establishes a method for the synthesis of wafer-scale graphene films on a technologically viable basis.

Subwavelength nanostructured surfaces are realized with self-assembled vertically-aligned InAs nanowires, and their functionalities as optical reflectors are investigated. In our system, polarization-resolved specular reflectance displays strong modulations as a function of incident photon energy and angle. An effective-medium model allows one to rationalize the experimental findings in the long wavelength regime, whereas numerical simulations fully reproduce the experimental outcomes in the entire frequency range. The impact of the refractive index of the medium surrounding the nanostructure assembly on the reflectance was estimated. In view of the present results, sensing schemes compatible with microfluidic technologies and routes to innovative nanowire-based optical elements are discussed.

We demonstrate localization and field-effect spatial control of the plasmon resonance in semiconductor nanostructures, using scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy in the mid-infrared region. We adopt InAs nanowires embedding a graded doping profile to modulate the free carrier density along the axial direction. Our near-field measurements have a spatial resolution of 20 nm and demonstrate the presence of a local resonant feature whose position can be controlled by a back-gate bias voltage. In the present implementation, field-effect induces a modulation of the free carrier density profile yielding a spatial shift of the plasmon resonance of the order of 100 nm. We discuss the relevance of our electrically tunable nanoplasmonic architectures in view of innovative optoelectronic devices concepts.

We demonstrate localization and field-effect spatial control of the plasmon resonance in semiconductor nanostructures, using scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy in the mid-infrared region. We adopt InAs nanowires embedding a graded doping profile to modulate the free carrier density along the axial direction. Our near-field measurements have a spatial resolution of 20 nm and demonstrate the presence of a local resonant feature whose position can be controlled by a back-gate bias voltage. In the present implementation, field-effect induces a modulation of the free carrier density profile yielding a spatial shift of the plasmon resonance of the order of 100 nm. We discuss the relevance of our electrically tunable nanoplasmonic architectures in view of innovative optoelectronic devices concepts.

We present a capacitance-voltage study for arrays of vertical InAs nanowires. Metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors are obtained by insulating the nanowires with a conformal 10 nm HfO2 layer and using a top Cr/Au metallization as one of the capacitor's electrodes. The described fabrication and characterization technique enables a systematic investigation of the carrier density in the nanowires as well as of the quality of the MOS interface.

Nanowires (NWs) are ideal nanostructures for exploring the effects of low dimensionality and thermal conductivity suppression on thermoelectric behavior. However, it is challenging to accurately measure temperature gradients and heat flow in such systems. Here, using a combination of spatially resolved Raman spectroscopy and transport measurements, we determine all the thermoelectric properties of single Se-doped InSb NWs and quantify the figure of merit ZT. The measured laser-induced heating in the NWs and associated electrical response are well described by a 1D heat equation model. Our method allows the determination of the thermal contact resistances at the source and drain electrodes of the NW, which are negligible in our system. The measured thermoelectric parameters of InSb NWs agree well with those obtained based on field-effect transistor Seebeck measurements.