Formation and properties of metallic nanoparticles on compound semiconductor surfaces

When electromagnetic radiation is incident upon metallic nanoparticles (NPs), a collective oscillation, termed a surface plasmon resonance (SPR), is generated. Recently, metallic NPs on semiconductor surfaces have enabled the generation of SPR, promising for enhanced light emission, efficient solar energy harvesting, biosensing, and metamaterials. Metallic NPs have been fabricated by focused ion beam (FIB) which has an advantage of cost-effectiveness over conventional lithography process requiring multi-step processes. Here, we report formation and properties of FIB-induced metallic NPs on compound semiconductor surfaces. Results presented in this thesis study suggest that FIB-induced Ga NPs can be a promising alternative plasmonic material.;In particular, using a combined experimental-computational approach, we discovered a universal mechanism for ion-induced NP formation, which is governed by the sputtering yield of semiconductor surfaces. We also discovered a governing mechanism for ion-induced NP motion, which is driven by thermal fluctuation and anisotropic mass transport. Furthermore, we demonstrated Ga NP arrays with plasmon resonances with performance comparable to those of traditionally-used silver and gold NPs. We then finally demonstrated the Ga NP plasmoninduced enhancement of light emission from GaAs, which is the first ever combination of a new plasmonic material (Ga) and a new fabrication method (FIB) for the plasmon-enhanced light emission.