Large-area GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wire array grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition on a GaAs substrate with submicron gratings

A large-area array of 20 nm thick and 40 nm wide quantum wires (QWRs) was achieved by a combination of holographic lithography, conventional chemical wet etching, and metal organic chemical-vapor deposition (MOCVD) on a GaAs substrate with submicron gratings. The structure and the optical properties of the quantum wire array (QWA) were investigated using scanning electron micrographs (SEM) and low temperature photoluminescence (PL). An exceptionally large PL signal was detected from the QWR regions and may have resulted from sufficient optical-mode coupling of neighboring QWRs and/or a densely packed QWA, while the strong polarization dependence of the PL peak intensities of the QWA and its room-temperature detection support the formation of well-fabricated QWA.