Anomalous ambipolar transport in depleted GaAs nanowires

TL;DR

This study reveals that in depleted GaAs nanowires, photocarrier drift driven by unexpectedly large internal electric fields enables long-distance charge and spin transport, influenced by band fluctuations and nanowire length.

Contribution

It demonstrates that internal electric fields significantly enhance transport in depleted GaAs nanowires, challenging traditional ambipolar models.

Findings

Long-distance charge and spin transport observed at 6K

Internal electric fields are nearly 100 times larger than predicted by standard models

Spatial fluctuations in band edges activate electron mobility

Abstract

We have used a polarized microluminescence technique to investigate photocarrier charge and spin transport in n-type depleted GaAs nanowires ($ \approx 10^{17}$ cm$^{-3}$ doping level). At 6K, a long-distance tail appears in the luminescence spatial profile, indicative of charge and spin transport, only limited by the length of the NW. This tail is independent on excitation power and temperature. Using a self-consistent calculation based on the drift-diffusion and Poisson equations as well as on photocarrier statistics (Van Roosbroeck model), it is found that this tail is due to photocarrier drift in an internal electric field nearly two orders of magnitude larger than electric fields predicted by the usual ambipolar model. This large electric field appears because of two effects. Firstly, for transport in the spatial fluctuations of the conduction band minimum and valence band maximum, the electron mobility is activated by the internal electric field. This implies, in a counter intuitive way, that the spatial fluctuations favor long distance transport. Secondly, the range of carrier transport is further increased because of the finite NW length, an effect which plays a key role in one-dimensional systems.