Electromagnetic field emitted by core-shell semiconductor nanowires driven by an alternating current

Abstract

We consider tubular nanowires with a polygonal cross-section. In this geometry the lowest energy states are separated in two sets, one of corner and one of side-localized states, respectively. The presence of an external magnetic field transverse to the nanowire imposes an additional localization mechanism, the electrons being pushed sideways relatively to the direction of the field. This effect has important implications on the current density, as it creates current loops induced by the Lorentz force. We calculate numerically the electromagnetic field radiated by hexagonal, square, and triangular nanowires. We demonstrate that, because of the aforementioned localization properties, the radiated field can have a complex distribution determined by the internal geometry of the nanowire. We suggest that measuring the field in the neighborhood of the nanowire could be the basic idea of a tomography of the electron distribution inside it, if a smaller receiver antenna could be placed in that zone.