Events

III-Nitride Nanowires: Emerging Materials for Lighting and Energy Applications

March 20, 2012 at 3pm/36-428

George T. Wang
Advanced Materials Science, Sandia National Laboratories

Abstract:
Nanowires based on the III nitride (AlGaInN) materials system have attracted attention as potential nanoscale building blocks in LEDs, lasers, sensors, photovoltaics, and high power and high speed electronics. Compared to planar films, III-nitride nanowires have several potential advantages including higher crystalline quality and reduced strain, which enables growth on arbitrary substrates as well as allowing for a greater range of alloy compositions and hence bandgap energies to be achieved. I will discuss results involving the aligned, bottom-up growth of Ni-catalyzed GaN and III-nitride core-shell nanowires, along with extensive results providing insights into the nanowire properties obtained using cutting-edge structural, electrical, and optical nanocharacterization techniques. I will also describe a more recent “top-down” approach for fabricating ordered arrays of high quality GaN-based nanowires with controllable height, pitch and diameter. The fabrication, structure, optical properties, lasing characteristics, and device performance of top-down-fabricated nanowires and nanowire LEDs and solar cells will be discussed.

Bio:
Dr. George T. Wang is a Principal Member of the Technical Staff in the Advanced Materials Sciences Department at Sandia National Laboratories. At Sandia, Dr. Wang’s primary research efforts have focused on the synthesis, properties, and applications of III-nitride based semiconductor nanowires. Dr. Wang is a Challenge Leader in the Solid State Lighting Science Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) at Sandia. Dr. Wang received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Stanford University in 2002 and has authored or co-authored 42 journal publications, which have received over 800 citations.