Fabrication and characterization of SiGe coaxial quantum wells on ordered Si nanopillars

Controlled SiGe coaxial quantum wells (CQWs) on periodic Si(001) nanopillars in a large area are explored systematically. The periodic SiGe CQW nanopillars are fabricated by a combination of nanosphere lithography, metal assisted chemical etching and epitaxial growth. The period, the radius, the height, the composition and the thickness of the SiGe alloy layer can all be intentionally modified. Considerably enhanced photoluminescence (PL) from the SiGe CQW nanopillars is observed, which is composed of four peaks. Such PL features are explained by the coupling between the spontaneous emissions of the SiGe CQW and the Mie resonant modes of the nanopillars, which can be further improved by optimizing the structural parameters of the SiGe CQW and the nanopillars. Our results demonstrate a feasible route to obtaining controlled SiGe CQW nanopillars, which have potential applications in optoelectronic devices. (paper)