Phononic and Photonic Properties of Shape-Engineered Silicon Nanoscale Pillar Arrays
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Nanotechnology LETTER Phononic and photonic properties of shape-engineered silicon nanoscale pillar arrays To cite this article: Chun Yu Tammy Huang et al 2020 Nanotechnology 31 30LT01 View the article online for updates and enhancements. This content was downloaded from IP address 138.23.233.164 on 15/05/2020 at 21:37 Nanotechnology Nanotechnology 31 (2020) 30LT01 (10pp) https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6528/ab85ee Letter Phononic and photonic properties of shape-engineered silicon nanoscale pillar arrays Chun Yu Tammy Huang1, Fariborz Kargar1, Topojit Debnath2, Bishwajit Debnath2, Michael D Valentin3, Ron Synowicki4, Stefan Schoeche4, Roger K Lake2 and Alexander A Balandin1 1 Phonon Optimized Engineered Materials (POEM) Center, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, United States of America 2 Laboratory for Terascale and Terahertz Electronics (LATTE), Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, United States of America 3 Sensors and Electron Devices, CCDC Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, Maryland 20783, United States of America 4 J A Woollam Co., Inc., Lincoln, Nebraska 68508, United States of America E-mail: [email protected] and [email protected] Received 3 February 2020, revised 7 March 2020 Accepted for publication 2 April 2020 Published 8 May 2020 Abstract We report the results of Brillouin–Mandelstam spectroscopy and Mueller matrix spectroscopic ellipsometry of the nanoscale ‘pillar with the hat’ periodic silicon structures, revealing intriguing phononic and photonic—phoxonic—properties. It has been theoretically shown that periodic structures with properly tuned dimensions can act simultaneously as phononic and photonic crystals, strongly affecting the light-matter interactions. Acoustic phonon states can be tuned by external boundaries, either as a result of phonon confinement effects in individual nanostructures, or as a result of artificially induced external periodicity, as in the phononic crystals. The shape of the nanoscale pillar array was engineered to ensure the interplay of both effects. The Brillouin–Mandelstam spectroscopy data indicated strong flattening of the acoustic phonon dispersion in the frequency range from 2 GHz to 20 GHz and the phonon wave vector extending to the higher-order Brillouin zones. The specifics of the phonon dispersion dependence on the pillar arrays’ orientation suggest the presence of both periodic modulation and spatial localization effects for the acoustic phonons. The ellipsometry data reveal a distinct scatter pattern of four-fold symmetry due to nanoscale periodicity of the pillar arrays. Our results confirm the dual functionality of the nanostructured shape-engineered structure and indicate a possible new direction for fine-tuning the light–matter interaction in the next generation of photonic, optoelectronic, and phononic devices. Supplementary material for this article is available online Keywords: Brillouin-Mandelstam spectroscopy, Brillouin light scattering, phonon engineering, phononic crystals, photonic crystals, metamaterials, periodic pillar arrays, ellipsometry (Some figures may appear in colour only in the online journal) 1361-6528/20/30LT01+10$33.00 1 © 2020 IOP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UK Nanotechnology 31 (2020) 30LT01 1. Introduction acoustic (TA) phonons, which have zero energy at the BZ cen- ter (! (q = 0) = 0) and a linear dispersion close to the BZ cen- Phoxonic crystals (PxC) are referred to as artificial materials, ter. The quasi-optical phonons are similar to the true optical which exhibit simultaneous modulation of the elastic and elec- phonons but have the energies much lower than the optical tromagnetic properties within a single structure as a result of phonons. The quasi-optical phonon modes are generally char- externally induced periodic boundaries [1–4]. One can con- acterized by the hybridized vibrational displacement profiles. sider PxC to be a structure with a concurrent dual functional- These modes change the phonon density of states (PDOS), ity of the phononic crystals (PnC) and photonic crystals (PtC). and influence the thermal transport, especially at low tem- Separately, PnCs [5–8] and PtCs [9–12] have been the subjects peratures, where the wave nature of phonons starts to dom- of intense theoretical and experimental investigations for the inate the phonon scattering processes. Generally, it is believed past two decades. Despite differences in intended applications, that the thermal conductivity in thin-film PnCs reduces due to the structures share common physical characteristics. In PnC, the nanostructuring [24, 25, 38]. However, a recent theoretical a periodic modulation of the elastic constants and mass density study suggested that the thermal conductivity can be increased define the phonon propagation, while in PtC a periodic mod- at low temperatures via fine-tuning of PnC dimensions and ulation of the dielectric constants define the photon propaga- nanopatternings [24, 25]. tion. The PnC and PtC arrays are tailored through construc- Tuning the phonon dispersion in the PnC structures and tion of periodic lattices of holes or pillars, or a combination of in individual nanostructures can affect the optical and elec- both, with fine-tuned dimensions and unit cells. Since modu- trical properties of the material. Engineering the dispersion lation of visible light and acoustic phonons of a certain energy in PnCs in such a way that the PDOS attains its maximum range both require structure dimensions of the order of a few or minimum within the energy required to trigger the carrier hundreds of nanometers one can envision a structure with the transition between the defect, i.e. the trapping state and the dual phonon—photon functionality. A proper selection of the conduction or valence band can result in either enhanced or periodic structure, with contrasting acoustic and optical prop- suppressed G-R center recombination [39]. A recent experi- erties, as well as a specific design of the lattice geometry and mental study found that modification of the phonon dispersion dimensions set up the common platform for PxCs, where novel in the core–shell GaAs0.7Sb0.3/InP nano-pillar arrays affects phonon and photon characteristics and enhanced light–matter the hot carrier relaxation in such structures [34]. In another interactions are observed [13–15]. This approach has already example, opening up a band gap in a certain phonon frequency been utilized in designing new types of optoelectronic devices, range with an accurate design of the hole PnCs can strongly such as phoxonic sensors [16–18] and optomechanical cav- influence the quasiparticle recombination lifetime in a super- ities [13, 19]. It has been theoretically shown that a silicon conductor [40]. slab with patterned holes can perform as a phoxonic crystal, The periodic modulation of the dielectric constant in PtCs which can be used to sense, separately, the light and sound can lead to localization of electromagnetic waves, e.g. visible velocity of surrounding unknown liquids [18]. In this regard, light, of a certain frequency range. In PtCs, a photonic energy phoxonic crystal sensors can be used as efficient biosensors stop band or a complete band gap can emerge, suppressing the to acquire data on the properties of bulk liquids in physiolo- electromagnetic wave propagation [10]. A common criterion gical environments [16]. A possibility of confinement of elec- for designing PtCs is utilization of the periodic structures with tromagnetic and acoustic waves, i.e. phonons, makes phoxonic materials of the highest contrast in the refractive index [10]. crystals a platform for the emerging field of cavity optomech- Conventionally, PtCs, similar to PnCs, are fabricated in two anics with potential applications in highly sensitive gravita- configurations—the arrays of the air-holes [41] or the lattices tional and mass sensors [17]. of the pillars [42]. In the pillar-based structures, silicon nano- Engineering the phonon states of materials, i.e. chan- pillars are fabricated on a layer of a low refractive index mater- ging the phonon properties by imposing spatial confinement ial, e.g. SiO2, to minimize the optical damping by the substrate in individual [20–23] or by inducing artificial periodicity [43]. However, recent studies demonstrated silicon-on-silicon as in PnCs [5–8], has proven to be beneficial for thermal PtCs with symmetric spheroidal-like nano-pillars, which are management, particularly at low temperatures [24–27], acous- optically separated from the substrate and have low optical tic filtering [28], and in wave guiding [29] applications. Acous- losses [44]. The coexistence of localized phonon and photon tic phonons are the main heat carriers in electrically insu- modes in these structures enhance the light–matter interaction, lating and semiconducting materials, contribute strongly to which can be beneficial for certain photonic, optoelectronic, or the electron–phonon interactions in technologically import- optomechanical devices [13]. ant materials [30–34], and participate in the non-radiative In this letter, we report the results of Brillouin–Mandelstam generation–recombination processes [35]. The external peri- spectroscopy (BMS), also referred to as Brillouin light scat- odicity of the pillar-based PnCs, additional to the crystal tering (BLS), and Mueller matrix spectroscopic ellipsometry atomic periodicity,