High-dimensional acousto-optoelectric correlation spectroscopy reveals coupled carrier dynamics in polytypic nanowires

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel high-resolution spectroscopy technique combining acousto-optoelectric and photon correlation methods to study carrier dynamics in nanowires influenced by surface acoustic waves.

Contribution

It develops a new multi-channel photon correlation spectroscopy method for probing coupled carrier dynamics with sub-nanosecond resolution in nanosystems.

Findings

Validated method on polytypic nanowires on LiNbO3

Revealed SAW-driven carrier correlation dynamics

Applicable to various nanoscale charge processes

Abstract

The authors combine acousto-optoelectric and multi-channel photon correlation spectroscopy to probe spatio-temporal carrier dynamics induced by a piezoelectric surface acoustic wave (SAW). The technique is implemented by combining phase-locked optical micro-photoluminescence spectroscopy and simultaneous three-channel time resolved detection. From the recorded time correlated single photon counting data the time transients of individual channels and the second and third order correlation functions are obtained with sub-nanosecond resolution. The method is validated by probing the correlations SAW-driven carrier dynamics between three decay channels of a single polytypic semiconductor nanowire on a conventional LiNbO$_\mathrm{3}$ SAW delay line chip. The method can be readily applied to other types of nanosystems and probe SAW-regulated charge state preparation in quantum dots, charge transfer processes in van der Waals heterostructures or other types of hybrid nanoarchitectures.