Scanning tunneling microscope and electron beam induced luminescence in quantum wires

TLDR: In this paper, a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) induces local luminescence in the sample structure, and spectrally resolve STM-induced luminecence for the tip in different positions relative to the wires.

Abstract: Quantum wire structures of GaAs/AlGaAs have been grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy in V grooves using pre‐etched corrugated substrates and have been characterized by high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy. Low‐temperature cathodoluminescence (CL) identifies luminescence peaks with the spatial distributions of the different recombinations, achieving a top view spatial resolution of ≊0.2 μm in the CL images. Principally we report how a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) induces local luminescence in the sample structure, and we spectrally resolve STM‐induced luminescence for the tip in different positions relative to the wires. We have recorded the luminescence from a single wire and observed band‐filling effects resulting from varying levels of excitation into a wire. We have demonstrated the difference between recombination of electron‐hole pairs generated in CL and the recombination of injected holes from the STM tip with a thermalized distribution of accumulated electrons in scanning tunneling luminescence.