III–V semiconductor nanowires for optoelectronic device applications

III–V semiconductor nanowires are promising candidates for optoelectronic device applications due to their unique one dimensional geometry. High quantum efficiency, defined as QE=τ
nr
/(τ
nr
+τ
r
), where τ
nr
is the non-radiative lifetime and τ
r
is the radiative lifetime of minority carriers in the nanowires is necessary for device applications. Due to the large surface area to volume ratio in the nanowires, non-radiative recombination associated with surface states often results in low quantum efficiency. The quantum efficiency of the nanowires can be increased either by increasing τ
nr
or by reducing τ
r
. We present experimental results on these two different approaches to increase the quantum efficiency of semiconductor nanowires.