Polarity driven simultaneous growth of free-standing and lateral GaAsP epitaxial nanowires on GaAs (001) substrate

Abstract

Simultaneous growth of <111> free-standing and 6[110] lateral GaAsP epitaxial nanowires on GaAs (001) substrates were observed and investigated by electron microscopy and crystallographic analysis. It was found that the growth of both free-standing and lateral ternary nanowires via Au catalysts was driven by the fact that Au catalysts prefer to maintain low-energy {111}B interfaces with surrounding GaAs(P) materials: in the case of free-standing nanowires, Au catalysts maintain {111}B interfaces with their underlying GaAsP nanowires; while in the case of lateral nanowires, each Au catalyst remain their side {111}B interfaces with the surrounding GaAs(P) material during the lateral nanowire growth Show more