Nanofabrication of Hybrid Optoelectronic Devices

Abstract

The material requirements for optoelectronic devices can vary dramatically depending on the application. Often disparate material systems need to be combined to allow for full device functionality. At the nanometer scale, this can often be challenging because of the inherent chemical and structural incompatibilities of nanofabrication. This dissertation concerns the integration of seemingly dissimilar materials into hybrid optoelectronic devices for photovoltaic, plasmonic, and photonic applications. First, we show that combining a single strip of conjugated polymer and inorganic nanowire can yield a nanoscale solar cell, and modeling of optical absorption and exciton diffusion in this device can provide insight into the efficiency of charge separation. Second, we use an on-chip nanowire light emitting diode to pump a colloidal quantum dot coupled to a silver waveguide. The resulting device is an electro-optic single plasmon source. Finally, we transfer diamond waveguides onto near-field avalanche photodiodes fabricated from GaAs. Embedded in the diamond waveguides are nitrogen vacancy color centers, and the mapping of emission from these single-photon sources is demonstrated using our on-chip detectors, eliminating the need for external photodetectors on an optical table. These studies show the promise of hybrid optoelectronic devices at the nanoscale with applications in alternative energy, optical communication, and quantum optics.