Studies of growth of metal nanostructures on single crystal surfaces

Abstract

The need to attain energy security has prompted intense research in the fields of solid state lighting and full spectrum solar cells. In addition to conventional systems, wide band gap semiconductors are explored for their great potential via band gap engineering, where different regions are suitably alloyed to have a different band gap, so that the device can cover the entire visible range and also in the IR and UV. However, controlling defects, interface properties, morphology and inherent strain are challenges that need to be overcome to improve the luminous efficiencies of these optoelectronic devices. Recently, the focus has been on metal or surface plasmon induced local field enhancements [4, 5]. It is believed that as the surface plasmon energy of the metals matches with the emitted photon energy of the surrounding materials, the resulting resonance can lead to an energy transfer from the metal surface to the surrounding or vice-versa [6, 7].