Electronic Structure and Epitaxy of CdTe Shells on InSb Nanowires

Ghada Badawy, Bomin Zhang, Tomáš Rauch, Jamo Momand, Sebastian Koelling, Jason Jung, Sasa Gazibegovic, Oussama Moutanabbir, Bart J. Kooi, Silvana Botti, Marcel A. Verheijen, Sergey M. Frolov, Erik P.A.M. Bakkers (Corresponding author)

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)
75 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Indium antimonide (InSb) nanowires are used as building blocks for quantum devices because of their unique properties, that is, strong spin-orbit interaction and large Landé g-factor. Integrating InSb nanowires with other materials could potentially unfold novel devices with distinctive functionality. A prominent example is the combination of InSb nanowires with superconductors for the emerging topological particles research. Here, the combination of the II–VI cadmium telluride (CdTe) with the III–V InSb in the form of core–shell (InSb–CdTe) nanowires is investigated and potential applications based on the electronic structure of the InSb–CdTe interface and the epitaxy of CdTe on the InSb nanowires are explored. The electronic structure of the InSb–CdTe interface using density functional theory is determined and a type-I band alignment is extracted with a small conduction band offset (⩽0.3 eV). These results indicate the potential application of these shells for surface passivation or as tunnel barriers in combination with superconductors. In terms of structural quality, it is demonstrated that the lattice-matched CdTe can be grown epitaxially on the InSb nanowires without interfacial strain or defects. These shells do not introduce disorder to the InSb nanowires as indicated by the comparable field-effect mobility measured for both uncapped and CdTe-capped nanowires.

Original languageEnglish
Article number2105722
Number of pages8
JournalAdvanced Science
Volume9
Issue number12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 25 Apr 2022

Funding

This work received support from the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM), the European Research Council (ERC HELENA 617256), and Microsoft Corporation Station‐Q. Solliance and the Dutch province of Noord‐Brabant are acknowledged for funding the TEM facility. S.M.F. is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences grant DE‐SC0022073 for transport measurements. S.B. and T.R. acknowledge funding from the Volkswagen Stiftung (Momentum) through the project ”dandelion” and from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) through the project BO 4280/8‐1. The Atom probe tomography work was supported by NSERC Canada (Discovery, SPG, and CRD Grants), Canada Research Chairs, Canada Foundation for Innovation, Mitacs, PRIMA Québec, and Defence Canada (Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security, IDEaS) and was performed at the Northwestern University Center for Atom‐Probe Tomography (NUCAPT). NUCAPT is supported by the MRSEC program (NSF DMR‐1720139), the SHyNE Resource (NSF ECCS‐2025633), and instrumentation grants from the NSF‐MRI (DMR‐0420532) and ONR‐DURIP (N00014‐0400798, N00014‐0610539, N00014‐0910781, N00014‐1712870) programs. This work received support from the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM), the European Research Council (ERC HELENA 617256), and Microsoft Corporation Station-Q. Solliance and the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant are acknowledged for funding the TEM facility. S.M.F. is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences grant DE-SC0022073 for transport measurements. S.B. and T.R. acknowledge funding from the Volkswagen Stiftung (Momentum) through the project ?dandelion? and from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) through the project BO 4280/8-1. The Atom probe tomography work was supported by NSERC Canada (Discovery, SPG, and CRD Grants), Canada Research Chairs, Canada Foundation for Innovation, Mitacs, PRIMA Qu?bec, and Defence Canada (Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security, IDEaS) and was performed at the Northwestern University Center for Atom-Probe Tomography (NUCAPT). NUCAPT is supported by the MRSEC program (NSF DMR-1720139), the SHyNE Resource (NSF ECCS-2025633), and instrumentation grants from the NSF-MRI (DMR-0420532) and ONR-DURIP (N00014-0400798, N00014-0610539, N00014-0910781, N00014-1712870)?programs.

FundersFunder number
U.S. Department of Energy
Northwestern UniversityNSF DMR‐1720139
Seventh Framework Programme617256
Harvard University
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
H2020 European Research Council
Deutsche ForschungsgemeinschaftBO 4280/8‐1
Stichting voor Fundamenteel Onderzoek der Materie
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek

    Keywords

    • CdTe
    • core–shell nanowires
    • density functional theory
    • heteroepitaxy
    • InSb
    • molecular beam epitaxy
    • transport

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Electronic Structure and Epitaxy of CdTe Shells on InSb Nanowires'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this