CHAPTER I

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Quantum confinement effect-an overview

The most popular term in the nano world is quantum confinement effect
which is essentially due to changes in the atomic structure as a result of direct
influence of ultra-small length scale on the energy band structure (Takagahara and
Takeda 1992a, Wise 2000, Zhao et al. 2004). The length scale corresponds to the
regime of quantum confinement ranges from 1 to 25 nm for typical semiconductor
groups of IV, III-V and II-VI. In which the spatial extent of the electronic wave
function is comparable with the particle size. As a result of these “geometrical”
constraints, electrons “feel” the presence of the particle boundaries and respond to
changes in particle size by adjusting their energy. This phenomenon is known as the
quantum-size effect. Quantization effects become most important when the particle
dimension of a semiconductor near to and below the bulk semiconductor Bohr
exciton radius which makes materials properties size dependent. In general, the
Bohr radius of a particle is defined as (Yoffe 1993),
m
aB   a ---------------------- (1)
m*
where ε is the dielectric constant of the material, m* is the mass of the particle, m is
the rest mass of the electron, and aо is the Bohr radius of the hydrogen atom. When
the particle size approaches Bohr exciton radius, the quantum confinement effect
causes increasing of the excitonic transition energy and blue shift in the absorption
and luminescence band gap energy (Yoffe 1993). For example, 4.8 nm diameter
PbSe NCs show an effective band gap of approximately 0.82 eV, exhibiting a
strong confinement induced blue shift of >500 meV compared to the bulk PbSe
band gap of 0.28 eV (the Bohr exciton radius in PbSe is 46 nm) (Wise 2000). In
addition, quantum confinement leads to a collapse of the continuous energy bands
of a bulk material into discrete, atomic like energy levels. The discrete structure of

1
Fig. 1.1: A schematic of the discrete energy level of a semiconductor.

energy states leads to a discrete absorption spectrum, which is in contrast to the

continuous absorption spectrum of a bulk semiconductor as shown in Fig. 1.1. A
quantum confined structure is one in which the motion of the carriers (electron and
hole) are confined in one or more directions by potential barriers (Miller et al.
1984). Based on the confinement direction, a quantum confined structure will be
classified into three categories as quantum well, quantum wire and quantum dots or
nanocrystals. The basic type of quantum confined structure is shown in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1: Classification of quantum confined structures.

Structure Quantum Number of free
confinement dimension
Bulk 0 3
Quantum well/superlattices 1 2
Quantum wire 2 1
Quantum dot/Nanocrystals 3 0

2
 In QDs, the charge carriers are confined in all three dimensions which the
electrons exhibit a discrete atomic-like energy spectrum. Quantum wires are formed
when two dimensions of the system are confined. In quantum well, charge carriers
(electrons and holes) are confined to move in a plane and are free to move in a two-
dimensional. Also the energy level of one of the quantum numbers changes from
continuous to discrete. Compared with bulk semiconductors, the quantum well has a
higher density of electronic states near the edges of the conduction and valence
bands, and therefore a higher concentration of carriers can contribute to the band-
edge emission (Chen et al. 2012). As more number of the dimension is confined,
more discrete energy levels can be found, in other words, carrier movement is
strongly confined in a given dimension. Density of electron states in bulk, 2D, 1D
and 0D semiconductor structure is shown in Fig. 1.2. 0D structures has very well
defined and quantized energy levels. The quantum confinement effect
corresponding to the size of the nanostructure can be estimated via a simple
effective-mass approximation model.

Fig. 1.2: Density of electron states of a semiconductor as a function of dimension.

The optical absorption spectrum is roughly proportional to the density of states.

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This method can predict the confined energy levels of nanostructures by solving
Schrodinger equation assuming the barriers have an infinite confining potential. The
“effective mass” solutions of the Schrödinger equation for electrons confined in a
quantum dot or NCs, quantum wire and quantum well are,

Quantum dot or Nanocrystals:

2  n2 m2 l 2 
2
En,m,l      ,    z    y    x  --------------------------- (2)
2m *  Lz 2 Ly 2 Lx 2 

Quantum wire:

2 n2 m2  2 k x 2
2
En,m  k x      ,    z    y  exp  ik x x  ----------------- (3)
2m *  Lz 2 Ly 2  2m *

Quantum well:
 2 2 n2 2
En  k x k y  
2m * Lz 2

2m *
k x
2
 k y 2  ,    z  exp  ik x x  ik y y  --------------- (4)

where n, m, l = 1, 2 … the quantum confinement numbers, Lx, Ly and Lz are the

confining dimensions, exp  ikx x  ik y y  is the wave function describing the electronic

motion in x and y direction, similar to free electron wave functions. A brief

reference to quantum wells and its properties follows in the next section.

1.2. Quantum well structures and its properties

A quantum well is a particular kind of heterostructure in which one thin
"well" layer is surrounded by two "barrier" layers. Both electrons and holes see
lower energy in the "well" layer, hence the name by analogy with a "potential well".
This layer, in which both electrons and holes are confined, is so thin (typically
about 100 Å or about 40 atomic layers) that we cannot neglect the fact that the
electron and hole are both waves. In fact, the allowed states in this structure
correspond to standing waves in the direction perpendicular to the layers. Because

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only particular waves are standing waves, the system is quantized, hence the name
"quantum well"(Scully et al. 1999).
One-dimensional quantum wells are formed through epitaxial growth of
alternating layers of semiconductor materials with different band gaps. A single
quantum well is formed from one semiconductor sandwiched between two layers of
a second semiconductor having a larger band gap. The centre layer with the smaller
band gap semiconductor forms the QW, while the two layers sandwiching the centre
layer create the potential barriers as shown in Fig. 1.3. Two potential wells are
actually formed in the QW structure; one well is for conduction-band electrons, the
other for valence-band holes. The well depth for electrons is the difference (i.e. the
offset) between the conduction-band edges of the well and barrier semiconductors,
while the well depth for holes is the corresponding valence-band offset. Multiple
quantum well structures consist of a series of QWs (i.e. a series of alternating layers
of wells and barriers). If the barrier thickness between adjacent wells is sufficient to
prevent significant electronic coupling between the wells, then each well is
electronically isolated; this type of structure is termed as multiple quantum well.
Quantum wells are thin layered semiconductor structures in which we can observe
and control many quantum mechanical effects. They derive most of their special
properties from the quantum confinement of charge carriers (electrons and "holes")
in thin layers (e.g 40 atomic layers thick) of one semiconductor "well" material
sandwiched between other semiconductor "barrier" layers. We can understand the
basic properties of a quantum well through the simple "particle in a box" model.
Here we consider Schrödinger's equation (Neuhasuer and Baer 1989) in one
dimension for the particle of interest (e.g., electron or hole),
2
d 2n
 V ( z )n  Enn ----------------------- (5)
2m d Z 2

where V(z) is the structural potential (i.e., the "quantum well" potential) seen by the
particle along the direction of interest (z), m is the particle's (effective) mass, and En
and ɸn are the Eigen energy and Eigen function associated with the nth solution to

5
Fig. 1.3: One-dimensionally confined quantum well created by a thin small-band
gap semiconductor layer sandwiched between two larger band gap semiconductor
Well barrier
layers. Eg is the band gap of the well material and Eg that of the barrier
material.

Fig. 1.4: Infinite quantum well and associated wave functions.

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the equation. The simplest case is shown in Fig. 1.4. In this "infinite well" case, we
presume for simplicity that the barriers on either side of the quantum well are
infinitely high. Then the wave function must be zero at the walls of the quantum
well. The solution is then particularly simple:
 2 2 n2 n z
En  2
n  1, 2..... n  A sin( ) --------- (6)
2m * Lz LZ

The energy levels (or "confinement energies") are quadratically spaced, and the
wave functions are sine waves. In this formula, the energy is referred to the energy
of the bottom of the well. Note that the first allowed energy (corresponding to n=1)
is above the bottom of the well. We see that the energy level spacing becomes large
for narrow wells (small Lz) and small effective mass m. The actual energy of the
first allowed electron energy level in a typical 100 Å GaAs quantum well is about
40 meV, which is close to the value that would be calculated by this simple
formula. This scale of energy is easily seen, even at room temperature. The solution
of the problem of an actual quantum well with finite height of barriers is a
straightforward mathematical exercise. It does, however, require that we choose
boundary conditions to match the solutions in the well and the barriers. One
boundary condition is obvious, which is that the wave function must be continuous.

Fig. 1.5: Comparison of "infinite" quantum well and “finite" quantum well
behaviour.

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Since the Schrödinger equation is a second order equation, we need a second
boundary condition, and it is not actually obvious what it should be. Fig. 1.5
illustrates the differences between the idealized "infinite" quantum well, the actual
"finite" well.
In contrast to bulk semiconductors, excitonic effects are very clear in
quantum wells at room temperature, and have a significant influence on device
performance. The simplest model for absorption between the valence and
conduction bands in a bulk semiconductor is to say that we can raise an electron
from the valence band to a state of essentially the same momentum in the
conduction band (a "vertical" transition) by absorbing a photon. The state in the
conduction band has to have essentially the same momentum because the photon
has essentially no momentum on the scale usually of interest in semiconductors. In
this simple model, we also presume that all such transitions have identical strength,
although they will have different energies corresponding to the different energies
for such vertical transitions. The optical absorption spectrum therefore has a form
that follows directly from the density of states in energy, and in bulk
semiconductors the result is an absorption edge that rises as the square root of
energy, as shown in Fig. 1.6.(Reed et al. 1988).
In a quantum well, the electrons and holes are still free to move in the
directions parallel to the layers; hence, we do not really have discrete energy states
for electrons and holes in quantum wells; we have instead "sub-bands" that start at
the energies calculated for the confined states. The electron in a given confined state
can in addition have any amount of kinetic energy for its in-plane motion in the
quantum well, and so can have any energy greater than or equal to the simple
confined-state energy for that sub-band. The density of states for motion in the
plane of the quantum well layers turns out to be constant with energy, so the density
of states for a given sub-band really is a "step" that starts at the appropriate
confinement energy.

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Fig. 1.6: Optical absorption in bulk (i.e., 3D) semiconductors and in quantum wells.

Optical transitions must still conserve momentum in this direction and just as
for bulk semiconductors; the optical absorption must still therefore follow the
density of states. Hence, in this simple model, the optical absorption in a quantum
well is a series of steps, with one step for each quantum number, n. It is easily
shown, from the known densities of states, that the corners of the steps "touch" the
square root bulk absorption curve (when that curve is scaled to the thickness of this
infinite quantum well). Thus, as we imagine increasing the quantum well thickness,
we will make a smooth transition to the bulk behaviour, with the steps becoming
increasingly close until they merge into the continuous absorption edge of the bulk
material. For example, room temperature absorption spectrum of a GaAs/
Al0.28Ga0.72As MQW structure containing 40 periods with 7.6 GaAs quantum well is
shown in Fig. 1.7(Han et al. 1998). The spectrum of GaAs at the same temperature
is shown for comparison. We see from Fig. 1.7 that the quantum well absorption is
indeed a series of steps, and simple calculations based on the particle-in-a-box
models will correctly give the approximate positions of the steps.

9
Fig. 1.7: Room temperature absorption spectrum of GaAs/ Al0.28Ga0.72As MQW
structure (Courtesy:(Han et al. 1998).

Detailed analysis reveals that the binding energies of the quantum well excitons
are about 10 meV, higher than the value of 4.2 meV in bulk GaAs. The
enhancement is a consequence of the quantum confinement of the electrons and
holes in the QW. The excitons are still stable at room temperature in the QW. The
bulk sample merely shows a weak shoulder at band edge, but the MQW shows
strong peaks for both the heavy and the light hole excitons. The lifting of the
degeneracy originates from the different effective masses of the heavy and light
holes and the lower symmetry of the QW sample.

1.3. Quantum wells in optoelectronic devices

Semiconductor quantum wells are excellent examples of quantum mechanics
in action. The reduced dimensionality has led to major advances in both the
understanding of 2-D physics and the applied science of optoelectronics. In this
section the applications of QW for optoelectronic devices is discussed. The
discussion will also show how these optoelectronic devices incorporated with QW
ultimately attain the best of both electronic and optical worlds. A new physical

10
mechanism in such thin layered QW structures make real devices with very
attractive performance characteristics and impressive yields. The special properties
of very thin layers come from the relatively simple quantum mechanical problem of
confining particles in a box or well. Here we describe a few kinds of optoelectronic
devices incorporated with QW structure namely LED and laser diode, quantum
cascade laser, Detectors such as inter sub-band detector and solar cells.

1.3.1. Light emitting diodes and Laser diodes

Quantum wells have found widespread use in LED and laser diode
applications for a number of years now (Vinokurov et al. 2010). There are three
main reasons for this. Firstly, the ability to control the quantum-confinement energy
provides an extra degree of freedom to engineer the emission wavelength. Secondly,
the change of the density of states and the enhancement of the electron–hole overlap
leads to superior performance. Finally, the ability to grow strained layers of high
optical quality greatly increases the variety of material combinations that can be
employed, thus providing much greater flexibility in the design of the active
regions. Much of the early work concentrated on lattice matched combinations such
as GaAs/AlGaAs (Tomioka et al. 2010, Vinokurov et al. 2010). GaAs/AlGaAs QW
lasers operating around 800 nm has now become industry-standard for applications
in laser printers and compact discs. Furthermore, the development of high power
arrays has opened up new applications for pumping solid-state lasers such as Nd:
YAG. Other types of lattice-matched combinations can be used to shift the
wavelength into the visible spectral region and also further into the infrared. QWs
based on the quaternary alloy (AlyGa1−y)x In1−xP, are used for red-emitting laser
pointers while Ga0.47 In 0.53 As QWs and its variants incorporating Al are used for
the important telecommunication wavelengths of 1300 nm and 1550 nm (Akimoto
et al. 2005). A major application of quantum wells is in vertical cavity surface-
emitting lasers (Grabherr et al. 1997). Fig.1.8 gives a schematic diagram of a typical
GaAs-based VCSEL. The device contains an active QW region inserted between
two distributed Bragg reflector mirrors consisting of AlGaAs quarter wave stacks

11
made of alternating high and low refractive index layers. The structure is grown on
an n-type GaAs substrate, and the mirrors are appropriately doped with p-type to
form a p–n junction. Electrons and holes are injected into the active region under
forward bias, where they are captured by the QWs and produce gain at the lasing
wavelength λ. The quantum wells are contained within a transparent layer of
thickness λ / 2n0, where n0 is the average refractive index of the active region.

Fig. 1.8: Schematic diagram of a VCSEL. The QWs that comprise the gain medium
are placed at the centre of the cavity formed between two distributed Bragg
reflector mirrors. Oxidised or proton-implanted regions provide the lateral
confinement for both the current and the optical mode.

The light at the design wavelength is reflected back and forth through the
gain medium and added up constructively, forming a laser resonator. Oxidised or
proton-implanted regions provide lateral confinement of both the current and the
optical mode. The conventional VCSEL structures grown on GaAs substrates
operate in the wavelength range 700 –1100 nm (Grabherr et al. 1997). Some of
these structures are lattice matched, but others notably the longer wavelength
devices which incorporate strained InGaAs quantum wells are not. Much work is
currently focussed on extending the range of operation to the telecommunication

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wavelengths of 1300 nm and 1550 nm. Resonator structures such as the VCSEL
shown in Fig. 1.8 can be operated below threshold as resonant cavity LEDs. The
presence of the cavity reduces the emission line width and hence increases the
intensity at the peak wavelength. Furthermore, the narrower line width leads to an
increase in the bandwidth of the fibre communication system due to the reduced
chromatic dispersion.

1.3.2. Quantum Cascade Lasers

The principles of infrared emission by inter sub-band transitions that
electrons must first be injected into an upper confined electron level (Liu et al.
2003). Radiative transitions to lower confined states with different parities can then
occur. ISB emission is usually very weak, as the radiative transitions have to
compete with very rapid non radiative decay by phonon emission. However, when
the electron density in the upper level is large enough, population inversion can
occur, giving rapid stimulated emission and subsequent laser operation. This is the
operating concept of the quantum cascade laser first demonstrated in 1994 (Faist et
al. 1994). The laser operated at 4.2μm at temperatures up to 90K. Although the
threshold current for the original device was high, progress in the field had been
very rapid. The quantum well structures used in QC lasers are very complicated,
and often contain hundreds of different layers. Fig. 1.9 illustrates a relatively simple
design based on lattice-matched In0.47Ga0.53As/Al0.48In0.52. As quantum wells grown
on an InP substrate (Yang et al. 2013). The diagram shows two active regions and
the miniband injector region that separates them. A typical operational laser might
contain 20-30 such repeat units. The population inversion is achieved by resonant
tunnelling between the n = 1 ground state of one active region and the n = 3 upper
laser level of the next one. The basic principles of this process were enunciated as
early as 1971, but it took more than 20 years to demonstrate the ideas in the
laboratory. The active regions contain asymmetric coupled quantum wells, and the
laser transition takes place between the n = 3 and n = 2 states of the coupled system.

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Fig. 1.9: Conduction band diagram for two active regions of an InGaAs/AlInAs
quantum cascade laser, together with the intermediate mini-band injector region.
The levels in each active region are labelled according to their quantum number n,
and the corresponding wave function probability densities are indicated. Laser
transitions are indicated by the wavy arrows, while electron tunnelling processes
are indicated by the straight arrows.

The separation of the n = 2 and n = 1 levels is carefully designed to coincide

with the LO-phonon energy, so that very rapid relaxation to the ground state occurs
and the system behaves as a four-level laser. This latter point is crucial, since the
lifetime of the upper laser level is very short (typically ≈ 1 ps), and population
inversion is only possible when the lifetime of the lower laser level is shorter than
that of the upper one. The lasing wavelength can be varied by detailed design of the
coupled QW active region. A very interesting development has been the
demonstration of a QC laser operating in the far-infrared spectral region at 87μm
(Yang et al. 2013). Previous work in this spectral region had been hampered by high
losses due to free-carrier absorption and the difficulties involved in designing the
optical waveguides. The device operated up to 50K and delivered 2mW. These

14
long-wavelength devices are required for applications in the THz frequency range
that bridges between long wavelength optics and high frequency electronics.

1.3.3. Quantum well Solar Cells

Photo detectors for the visible and near-infrared spectral regions are
generally made from bulk silicon or III-V alloys such as GaInAs. Since these
devices work very well, the main application for QW photo detectors is in the
infrared spectral region and for especially demanding applications such as ISB
photo detector and solar cells.
The power generated by a solar cell is determined by the product of the
photocurrent and the voltage across the diode. In conventional solar cells, both of
these parameters are determined by the band gap of the semiconductors used. Large
photocurrents are favoured by narrow gap materials, because semiconductors only
absorb photons with energies greater than the band gap, and narrow gap materials
therefore absorb a larger fraction of the solar spectrum (López et al. 2011).
However, the largest open circuit voltage that can be generated in a p-n device is the
built in voltage which increases with the band gap of the semiconductor. Quantum
well devices can give better performance than their bulk counterparts because they
permit separate optimisation of the current and voltage generating factors
(Anderson 1995). This is because the built in voltage is primarily determined by the
band gap of the barrier regions, whereas the absorption edge is determined by the
band gap of the quantum wells. The quantum well solar cell is composed of a p-i-n
diode with quantum wells located in the intrinsic region of the device. A schematic
representation of the cell is shown in Fig. 1.10(a), while Fig. 1.10(b) shows the
associated band diagram together with the main carrier photo generation and
recombination paths in the barrier and QW layers.

15
Fig. 1.10: (a) Quantum well p-i-n layer structure. (b) Band diagram for the
quantum well p-i-n solar cell showing the photogeneration and recombination
processes, together with the carrier capture and escape routes. (courtesy: (Ekins-
Daukes et al. 2013)).

The light absorbed in the quantum wells results in the generation of electron–
hole pairs in the confined well. Before these electrons and holes can contribute to
the photocurrent, the carriers must escape from the quantum well through a
combination of thermal and tunnelling processes shown schematically in Fig 1.10
together with the corresponding carrier capture process. The carrier escape is
efficient providing that there is sufficient thermal energy and the transverse electric
field is sufficiently strong (Ekins-Daukes et al. 2013). In many quantum well solar
cells at room temperature, both the carrier capture and escape processes proceed
faster than competing recombination processes, resulting in an equilibration within
the conduction and valance bands between carriers in the barrier and QW layers.
From a practical standpoint, this means that all photogenerated carriers in shallow
quantum well can be assumed to escape and contribute towards the photocurrent
(Araujo et al. 1999).

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1.3.4. Inter-Sub-Band photo Detectors
Infrared detectors are required for applications in defence, night vision,
astronomy, thermal mapping, gas sensing, and pollution monitoring. Quantum well
inter-sub-band photodetectors are designed so that the energy separation of the
confined levels is matched to the chosen wavelength (Schneider et al. 1991). A
major advantage of QWIPs over the conventional approach employing narrow band
gap semiconductors is the use of mature GaAs based technologies. Furthermore, the
detection efficiency should in principle be high due to the large oscillator strength
that follows from the parallel curvature of the in plane dispersions for states within
the same bands. However, technical challenges arise from the requirement that the
electric field of the light must be polarised along the growth (z) direction. Various
approaches have been taken for optimum light coupling, such as using bevelled
edges, gratings or random reflectors. Despite their promising characteristics, QWIPs
have yet to be commercialised. The main issue is the high dark current at higher
operating temperatures. The dark current is governed by the thermionic emission of
ground-state electrons directly out of the QW above 45K. Overcoming such
technical difficulties has made possible for the demonstration of long wavelength
large format focal plane array cameras based on ISB transitions.

1.4. Problem statement and Motivation

Quantum confinement effects on PbSe have been investigated by several
authors using chemical method of preparation as a convenient method (Choi et al.
2009, Wise 2000). Reported works on PbSe NCs mainly concern with size
reduction results in strong quantum confinement confirmed only through optical
properties. On PbSe NCs, only preliminary work has been done and in fact, its
electronic coupling between the NCs itself has not been resolved yet. Drawbacks of
the chemical methods on the formation of PbSe NCs are temperature instability,
less absorption yield and sparse NCs which result in reduction of electronic
coupling between the NCs, as discussed in the introduction part. These factors are
crucial for device manufacturing, and physical methods are therefore preferred.

17
Quantum confinement of semiconductor materials using physical methods can be
realised by MQW, superlattice formation and multilayer like composite structure
(Nesheva and Hofmeister 2000, Park et al. 2003). There are very few reports
available based on PbSe MQW, and most of them are dealing with IR detectors and
optical windows rather than quantum dot solar cells (Ishida et al. 1987). Since, the
quantum size effect of PbSe using chemical method of preparation have been
understood fairly well, it is of our interest to investigate the quantum size effect by
physical method of preparation using multiple quantum well approach with
comparatively wide band gap ZnSe barrier layers.

Even though PbSe NCs are identified as a promising material for MEG, it is
strongly active in near-IR region rather than visible region. Recent solar cells
research focuses on not only carrier multiplication and fast hot electron transport,
but also on utilizing the full solar spectrum (UV-NIR). For example, polymer-ZnSe
nanocrystal hybrid photovoltaic solar cells show NIR absorption together with
improved efficiency upon insertion of PbSe NCs layers (Yun et al. 2009). In fact,
the nature of ZnSe will absorb the energy in visible region and quantum confined
2D PbSe QW layers will give complementary NIR absorption to ZnSe towards full
solar spectrum utilization. Apart from shift in optical band gap due to quantum size
effect, PbSe will generate multiple excitons from single absorbed photon (Schaller
et al. 2006, Choi et al. 2009).

For preparation of multilayers with good stability and periodicity, molecular

beam epitaxy or metal-organic chemical vapour deposition are most frequently
applied (Lee et al. 1999). However, both techniques are quite expensive and, in
MOCVD normally use dangerous gases. Beside this, high quality crystalline ZnSe,
GaAs or sapphire substrates are necessary for the epitaxial growth. Therefore a
considerable research activity has been addressed for the preparation of low-
dimensional structures by non-epitaxial film growth and application of less
expensive vapour deposition (Nesheva et al. 2012, Allen, Shih and Potter 2010).

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1.5. Objective of the work
The objective of the work is to investigate the quantum confinement effect in
PbSe/ZnSe MQW structures by simple thermal evaporation technique with well-
defined periodic structure as a function of quantum well thickness, quantum well
period and impact of annealing.

In order to achieve the objective, the following work elements have been set.

 Preparation of PbSe/ZnSe MQW structure with a QW thickness ranges

from 2.5 to 10 nm with the interval of 2.5 nm. The period of QW
structure was varied as 5, 10 and 20
 In order to investigate the size reduction of 2D layers of PbSe at the
interfaces with elongated surface morphology, mild thermal treatment
was applied to “‘break-up’” the less thermal coefficient material of PbSe
 Studying the quantum size effect by means of blue shift and energy level
splitting
 The research findings of the work came from the characterizations using
HRXRD, cross sectional TEM, optical absorption spectra,
photoluminescence and Raman scattering.

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