Spatially resolved study of polarized micro-photoluminescence spectroscopy on single GaAs nanowires with mixed zincblende and wurtzite phases

Localized and polarized photoluminescence spectra are observed in single GaAs nanowires with mixed zincblende and wurtzite phases, grown using molecular beam epitaxy. For low excitation intensities, the photoluminescence emission exhibits narrow spectral features predominantly polarized perpendicular to the nanowire axis. For high excitation intensities, the photoluminescence spectra transform into dominant broadened features, which exhibit different peak energies and polarization properties. The strongly polarized emission at high excitation intensities is identified as being due to a spatially direct transition in wurtzite sections of the nanowires. The analysis, including band structure calculations suggests that carriers in the wurtzite sections diffuse into regions where the average low-temperature peak emission energy and crystal field parameter are 1.535 eV and 20 meV, respectively.