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Light absorption enhancement of photocathode with subwavelength GaN nanopillar array

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Abstract

Light management capabilities of the photocathode with square, hexagonal GaN nanopillar array are studied, in which square array with r = 60 nm and D = 200 nm has a low reflectivity of 1.14% and a high absorption of 97%. Compared to GaN planar photocathode, it has an enhancement of absorption, about 20%. Fabry–Perot interference fringes are found in the optical generation distribution density of the inclined GaN nanopillar array, indicating that the interaction between the subwavelength nanostructures and incident light increases the optical state density. This work means nanostructures could enhance absorption and electron emission surfaces.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province-China (Grant No. BK20211193), Qing Lan Project of Jiangsu Province-China (Grant No. 2017-AD41779), the Six Talent Peaks Project in Jiangsu Province-China (Grant No. 2015-XCL-008).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Optoelectronic Technology, School of Electronic and Optical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, China

    Lei Liu, Feifei Lu, Jian Tian, Xingyue Zhangyang & Zhisheng Lv

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  1. Lei Liu
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  2. Feifei Lu
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  3. Jian Tian
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  4. Xingyue Zhangyang
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Correspondence to Lei Liu.

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Liu, L., Lu, F., Tian, J. et al. Light absorption enhancement of photocathode with subwavelength GaN nanopillar array. MRS Communications 11, 931–935 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1557/s43579-021-00119-8

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