Intersubband excitations in ultrathin core-shell nanowires in the one-dimensional quantum limit probed by resonant inelastic light scattering

The observation of electronic Raman scattering in one-dimensional semiconductors has so far been limited to arrays of laterally structured quantum wells. Recent progress in the growth of core-shell nanowires has opened the possibility to reach the quantum confinement regime for single nanowires. Here, the authors present measurements of the one-dimensional subband structure of single wurtzite-phase GaAs nanowires by resonant Raman spectroscopy. The obtained energetic distances between consecutive electron or hole subbands are nicely reproduced by realistic k∙p band structure calculations.