Bipolar Photothermoelectric Effect Across Energy Filters in Single Nanowires
(2017) In Nano Letters 17(7). p.4055-4060- Abstract
The photothermoelectric (PTE) effect uses nonuniform absorption of light to produce a voltage via the Seebeck effect and is of interest for optical sensing and solar-to-electric energy conversion. However, the utility of PTE devices reported to date has been limited by the need to use a tightly focused laser spot to achieve the required, nonuniform illumination and by their dependence upon the Seebeck coefficients of the constituent materials, which exhibit limited tunability and, generally, low values. Here, we use InAs/InP heterostructure nanowires to overcome these limitations: first, we use naturally occurring absorption "hot spots" at wave mode maxima within the nanowire to achieve sharp boundaries between heated and unheated... (More)
The photothermoelectric (PTE) effect uses nonuniform absorption of light to produce a voltage via the Seebeck effect and is of interest for optical sensing and solar-to-electric energy conversion. However, the utility of PTE devices reported to date has been limited by the need to use a tightly focused laser spot to achieve the required, nonuniform illumination and by their dependence upon the Seebeck coefficients of the constituent materials, which exhibit limited tunability and, generally, low values. Here, we use InAs/InP heterostructure nanowires to overcome these limitations: first, we use naturally occurring absorption "hot spots" at wave mode maxima within the nanowire to achieve sharp boundaries between heated and unheated subwavelength regions of high and low absorption, allowing us to use global illumination; second, we employ carrier energy-filtering heterostructures to achieve a high Seebeck coefficient that is tunable by heterostructure design. Using these methods, we demonstrate PTE voltages of hundreds of millivolts at room temperature from a globally illuminated nanowire device. Furthermore, we find PTE currents and voltages that change polarity as a function of the wavelength of illumination due to spatial shifting of subwavelength absorption hot spots. These results indicate the feasibility of designing new types of PTE-based photodetectors, photothermoelectrics, and hot-carrier solar cells using nanowires.
(Less)
- author
- organization
- publishing date
- 2017-07-12
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- heterostructure nanowires, hot carriers, III-V, photodetectors, Photothermoelectric effect
- in
- Nano Letters
- volume
- 17
- issue
- 7
- pages
- 6 pages
- publisher
- The American Chemical Society (ACS)
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85024395801
- pmid:28598628
- ISSN
- 1530-6984
- DOI
- 10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b00536
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 2b7efc6a-3126-45c2-bd1e-88c15647c38a
- date added to LUP
- 2018-01-24 10:56:50
- date last changed
- 2025-01-08 04:11:20
@article{2b7efc6a-3126-45c2-bd1e-88c15647c38a, abstract = {{<p>The photothermoelectric (PTE) effect uses nonuniform absorption of light to produce a voltage via the Seebeck effect and is of interest for optical sensing and solar-to-electric energy conversion. However, the utility of PTE devices reported to date has been limited by the need to use a tightly focused laser spot to achieve the required, nonuniform illumination and by their dependence upon the Seebeck coefficients of the constituent materials, which exhibit limited tunability and, generally, low values. Here, we use InAs/InP heterostructure nanowires to overcome these limitations: first, we use naturally occurring absorption "hot spots" at wave mode maxima within the nanowire to achieve sharp boundaries between heated and unheated subwavelength regions of high and low absorption, allowing us to use global illumination; second, we employ carrier energy-filtering heterostructures to achieve a high Seebeck coefficient that is tunable by heterostructure design. Using these methods, we demonstrate PTE voltages of hundreds of millivolts at room temperature from a globally illuminated nanowire device. Furthermore, we find PTE currents and voltages that change polarity as a function of the wavelength of illumination due to spatial shifting of subwavelength absorption hot spots. These results indicate the feasibility of designing new types of PTE-based photodetectors, photothermoelectrics, and hot-carrier solar cells using nanowires.</p>}}, author = {{Limpert, Steven and Burke, Adam and Chen, I. Ju and Anttu, Nicklas and Lehmann, Sebastian and Fahlvik, Sofia and Bremner, Stephen and Conibeer, Gavin and Thelander, Claes and Pistol, Mats Erik and Linke, Heiner}}, issn = {{1530-6984}}, keywords = {{heterostructure nanowires; hot carriers; III-V; photodetectors; Photothermoelectric effect}}, language = {{eng}}, month = {{07}}, number = {{7}}, pages = {{4055--4060}}, publisher = {{The American Chemical Society (ACS)}}, series = {{Nano Letters}}, title = {{Bipolar Photothermoelectric Effect Across Energy Filters in Single Nanowires}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b00536}}, doi = {{10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b00536}}, volume = {{17}}, year = {{2017}}, }