Defect tolerant zero-bias topological photocurrent in a ferroelectric semiconductor

Lattice defect is a major cause of energy dissipation in conventional electric current due to the drift and diffusion motions of electrons. Different nature of current emerges when noncentrosymmetric materials are excited by light. This current, called the shift current, originates from the change in the Berry connection of electrons’ wave functions during the interband optical transition. Here, we demonstrate the defect tolerance of shift current using single crystals of ferroelectric semiconductor antimony sulfoiodide (SbSI). Although the dark conductance spreads over several orders of magnitude in each crystal due to the difference in the density of defect levels, the observed shift current converges to an identical value. We also reveal that the shift current is scarcely disturbed by the surface defects while they drastically suppress the conventional photocurrent. The defect tolerance is a manifestation of the topological nature of shift current, which will be a crucial advantage in optoelectronic applications.

Spectral dynamics of shift current in ferroelectric semiconductor SbSI

Photoexcitation in solids brings about transitions of electrons/holes between different electronic bands. If the solid lacks an inversion symmetry, these electronic transitions support spontaneous photocurrent due to the geometric phase of the constituting electronic bands: the Berry connection. This photocurrent, termed shift current, is expected to emerge on the timescale of primary photoexcitation process. We observe ultrafast evolution of the shift current in a prototypical ferroelectric semiconductor antimony sulfur iodide (SbSI) by detecting emitted terahertz electromagnetic waves. By sweeping the excitation photon energy across the bandgap, ultrafast electron dynamics as a source of terahertz emission abruptly changes its nature, reflecting a contribution of Berry connection on interband optical transition. The shift excitation carries a net charge flow and is followed by a swing over of the electron cloud on a subpicosecond timescale. Understanding these substantive characters of the shift current with the help of first-principles calculation will pave the way for its application to ultrafast sensors and solar cells.

Light Emission Induced by the Indium Distribution in InGaN Nanowires

The InGaN nanowires (NWs) have attracted intense attention for their huge potential in applications such as light emitting diodes, laser diodes and solar cells. Although lots of work are focused on improving their optical performance, little is known about the influence of the In distribution and the surface states on the microscopic light emission mechanism. In order to give an atomic level understanding, we investigate the electronic structures of the wurtziteGa-rich InGaN NWs with different In distributions using first-principles calculations. We find that the In-atoms are apt to distribute on the surface of the NWs and the short surface In-N chains can be easily formed. For the unsaturated NWs, several new bands are induced by the surface states, which can be modified by the surface In microstructures. The randomly formed surface In-N chains can highly localize the electrons/holes at the band edges and dominate the interband optical transition. For the saturated NWs, the band edges are determined by the inner atoms. Our work is useful to improve the performance of the InGaN NW-based optoelectronic devices.

OPTICAL AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF MgCl2 ADDED TRIGLYCINE SULPHATE SINGLE CRYSTALS

This paper discusses the optical and mechanical properties of triglycine sulphate (TGS) and MgCl 2 added TGS single crystals (McTGS) grown from aqueous solution at room temperature using slow evaporation solution growth technique. The grown crystals were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction technique and the cell parameter values are found to be a = 9.405 Å, b = 12.623 Å and c = 5.721 Å; β = 110.347° with V = 637.001 Å3. UV-Vis-NIR study shows the direct type transition is involved in these materials and indirect, phonon energy gap of McTGS crystals have also been calculated, and these values are less than the TGS crystals. Refractive index and real and imaginary part of the dielectric constant have been discussed for grown crystals. The value of interband optical transition and oscillator energy has been determined by analyzing refractive index with incident energy. Vickers microhardness test was used to determine hardness number, fracture toughness, brittleness index, yield strength and types of crack formed in the crystals.

Positive and Negative Donor Impurity in an InAs/AlAs Quantum Wire

Binding energies of positive and negative charged donor impurities in an InAs/AlAs cylindrical quantum wire are investigated. Numerical calculations are performed using the variational procedure within the single band effective mass approximation. We assume that the impurity is located at the axis of the wire. The interband optical transition with and without the exciton is computed as a function of wire radius. The valence-band anisotropy is included in our theoretical model by using different hole masses in different spatial directions. Neutral shallow donors comprise a positively charged donor and a single bound electron. It is observed that (i) negative trions have a higher binding energy than positive trions, (ii) the binding energy of the heavy-hole exciton is much larger than that of the light-hole exciton due to different hole mass values (iii) the exciton binding energy and the interband emission energy are both increased when the radius of the cylindrical quantum wire is decreased and (iv) the effect of exciton influences the interband emission energy. Our results are in good agreement with the recent published results. Keywords: Quantum wire; Impurity level; Binding energy; Excitons. © 2010 JSR Publications. ISSN: 2070-0237 (Print); 2070-0245 (Online). All rights reserved. DOI: 10.3329/jsr.v2i3.4715 J. Sci. Res. 2 (3), 433-441 (2010)