High-Throughput Single-Nanowire Optoelectronic Characterization Using Microfluidic Technology

Abstract

Technologies relying on single optoelectronic nanoparticles require characterization of individual particle performance, often demanding destructive dispersal of particles from solution. A microfluidic chip with an ultrathin channel (8 μm) provides a platform for the sequential high-speed single-particle characterization of functional nanomaterials using correlative spectroscopy and imaging. This platform is shown to allow study of semiconductor nanowires with measurement rates of up to 240 nanowires/minute in continuous operation, enabling a dramatically improved and statistically robust comparison of intrawire disorder with interwire homogeneity. An analysis of over 15 k GaAs/AlGaAs nanowires reveals that ensemble measurements overestimate the full-width at half-maximum of emission by more than 4× and statistical dispersion of electronic disorder by 28%, demonstrating the importance of single-particle studies.