OPTICAL-PROPERTIES OF SI/SI1-XGEX HETEROSTRUCTURE BASED WIRES

We report for the first time a study of the optical properties of nanostructured wires fabricated by using electron beam lithography and reactive ion etching in SiCl4 from a modulation doped p+-Si/Si1-xGex heterojunction structure. Both photoreflectance and photoluminescence at 4K show a fabrication process-induced partial strain relaxation and a quasi-one dimensional (1D) behavior when the wire width.reduces to less than about 40nm. A strong emission from electron-hole droplets in the quasi-1D wires is also detected