Hot Electron Dynamics in InAs–AlAsSb Core–Shell Nanowires

Semiconductor nanowires (NWs) have shown evidence of robust hot-carrier effects due to their small dimensions, making them attractive for advanced photoenergy conversion concepts. Especially, indium arsenide (InAs) NWs are promising candidates for harvesting hot carriers due to their high absorption coefficient, high carrier mobility, and large effective electron-to-hole mass difference. Here, we investigate the cooling and recombination dynamics of photoexcited hot carriers in pure and passivated InAs NWs by using ultrafast near-infrared pump–probe spectroscopy. We observe reduced Auger recombination in pure InAs NWs compared to that in passivated ones and associate this with charge-carrier separation by surface band bending. Similarly, faster carrier cooling by electron–hole scattering is observed in passivated InAs–AlAsSb NWs at high carrier densities in excess of 1018 cm–3, where hot electron lifetimes in this regime increase substantially with the pump fluence due to Auger heating. These results emphasize the importance of type-II alignment for charge-carrier separation in hot-carrier devices to suppress carrier-mediated cooling channels. In addition, a separate charge-carrier population lasting up to several nanoseconds is observed for photoexcitation of the NW shell. Despite the high conduction band offset, carrier migration is not observed in the range of 40 ps to 2 ns. This observation may open avenues for core–shell NW multijunction solar cells.