Measuring surface state density and energy distribution in InAs nanowires

Semiconducting nanowires are expected to have applications in various areas as transistors, sensors, resonators, solar cells, and thermoelectric systems. Understanding the surface properties is crucial for the fabrication of high-performance devices. Due to the large surface-to-volume ratio of nanowires, their surface electronic properties, like surface states, can a have a large effect on the performance of both electronic and optoelectronic devices. At present, determination of the surface state density depends on a combination of experimental measurements of the capacitance and/or drain current, in a nanowire field-effect transistor, and a fitting to simulation. This technique follows certain assumptions, which can severely harm the accuracy of the extracted density of states. In this report, we demonstrate a direct measurement of the surface state density of individual InAs and silicon nanowires. The method is based on measuring the surface potential of a nanowire field-effect transistor, with respect to a changing gate bias. The extracted density of states at the surface helps to explain various electronic phenomena in such devices.