Abstract
Nanowires and nanotubes carry charge and excitons efficiently, and are therefore potentially ideal building blocks for nanoscale electronics and optoelectronics1,2. Carbon nanotubes have already been exploited in devices such as field-effect3,4 and single-electron5,6 transistors, but the practical utility of nanotube components for building electronic circuits is limited, as it is not yet possible to selectively grow semiconducting or metallic nanotubes7,8. Here we report the assembly of functional nanoscale devices from indium phosphide nanowires, the electrical properties of which are controlled by selective doping. Gate-voltage-dependent transport measurements demonstrate that the nanowires can be predictably synthesized as either n- or p-type. These doped nanowires function as nanoscale field-effect transistors, and can be assembled into crossed-wire p–n junctions that exhibit rectifying behaviour. Significantly, the p–n junctions emit light strongly and are perhaps the smallest light-emitting diodes that have yet been made. Finally, we show that electric-field-directed assembly can be used to create highly integrated device arrays from nanowire building blocks.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Hu, J., Odom, T. W. & Lieber, C. M. Chemistry and physics in one dimension: synthesis and properties of nanowires and nanotubes. Acc. Chem. Res. 32, 435–445 (1999).
Dekker, C. Carbon nanotubes as molecular quantum wires. Phys. Today 52(5), 22–28 (1999).
Tans, S. J., Verschueren, R. M. & Dekker, C. Room temperature transistor based on a single carbon nanotube. Nature 393, 49– 52 (1998).
Martel, R., Schmidt, T., Shea, H. R., Hertel, T. & Avouris, P. Single- and multi-wall carbon nanotube field effect transistors. Appl. Phys. Lett. 73, 2447– 2449 (1998).
Tans, S. J. et al. Individual single-wall carbon nanotubes as quantum wires. Nature 386, 474–477 (1997).
Bockrath, M. et al. Single electron transport in ropes of carbon nanotubes. Science 275, 1922–1925 ( 1997).
Odom, T. W., Huang, J.-L., Kim, P. & Lieber, C. M. Atomic structure and electronic properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes. Nature 391, 62–64 ( 1998).
Wildoer, J. W. G., Venema, L. C., Rinzler, A. G., Smalley, R. E. & Dekker, C. Electronic structure of atomically resolved carbon nanotubes. Nature 391, 59 –62 (1998).
Morales, A. M. & Lieber, C. M. A laser ablation method for the synthesis of crystalline semiconductor nanowires. Science 279, 208–211 (1998).
Duan, X. & Lieber, C. M. General synthesis of compound semiconductor nanowires. Adv. Mater. 12, 298–302 (2000).
Cui, Y., Duan, X., Hu, J. & Lieber, C. M. Doping and electrical transport in silicon nanowires. J. Phys. Chem. B 104 , 5213–5216 (2000).
Sze, S. M. Physics of Semiconductor Devices (Wiley, New York, 1981).
Alivisatos, A. P. Semiconductor clusters, nanocrystal, and quantum dots. Science 271, 933–937 ( 1996).
Bolm, G. M. & Woodall, J. M. Efficient electroluminescence from InP diodes grown by liquid-phase epitaxy. Appl. Phys. Lett. 17, 373–376 ( 1970).
Bessolov, V. N. & Lebedev, M. V. Chalcogenide passivation of III-V semiconductor surfaces. Semiconductors 32, 1141–1156 (1998).
Micic, O. I., Sprague, J., Lu, Z. & Nozik, A. J. Highly efficient band edge emission from InP quantum dots. Appl. Phys. Lett. 68, 3150–3152 (1996).
Smith, P. A. Electric-field assisted assembly and alignment of metallic nanowires. Appl. Phys. Lett. 77, 1399–1401 (2000).
Xia, Y. N., Rogers, J. A., Paul K. E. & Whitesides, G. M. Unconventional methods for fabricating and patterning nanostructures. Chem. Rev. 99, 1823–1848 ( 1999).
Duan, X. & Lieber, C. M. Laser assisted catalytic growth of single crystal GaN nanowires. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 122, 188–189 (2000).
Duan, X., Wang, J. & Lieber, C. M. Synthesis and optical properties of GaAs nanowires. Appl. Phys. Lett. 76, 1116– 1168 (2000).
Acknowledgements
We thank H. Park, M.S. Gudiksen, J.-L. Huang, K. Kim, T. Oosterkamp & S.-I. Yang for discussions. This work was supported by the US Office of Naval Research, Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency, and the National Science Foundation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Supplementary information
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Duan, X., Huang, Y., Cui, Y. et al. Indium phosphide nanowires as building blocks for nanoscale electronic and optoelectronic devices. Nature 409, 66–69 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35051047
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/35051047
This article is cited by
-
Influence of Strain on Thermoelectric Properties of NaYX (X=C,Ge) Half-Heusler Compounds
Journal of Superconductivity and Novel Magnetism (2024)
-
Synthesis and optical properties of II–VI semiconductor quantum dots: a review
Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics (2023)
-
Dielectric study of pure CuO nanoparticles prepared through exploding wire technique
Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics (2023)
-
Progress in group-IV semiconductor nanowires based photonic devices
Applied Physics A (2023)
-
Interface catalytic reduction of alumina by nickle for the aluminum nanowire growth: Dynamics observed by in situ TEM
Nano Research (2023)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.