An In0.5Ga0.5N nanowire photoanode for harvesting deep visible light photons

Abstract

III-nitride semiconductors hold tremendous promise for realizing high efficiency photoelectrodes. However, previously reported InGaN photoelectrodes generally exhibit very low photocurrent densities, due to the presence of extensive defects, dislocations, and indium phase separation. Here, we show that In0.5Ga0.5N nanowires with nearly homogeneous indium distribution can be achieved by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. Under AM1.5G one sun illumination, the InGaN nanowire photoanode exhibits a photocurrent density of 7.3 mA/cm2 at 1.2 V (vs. NHE) in 1M HBr. The incident-photon-to-current efficiency is above 10% at 650 nm, which is significantly higher than previously reported values of metal oxide photoelectrodes.