Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Lithography-free variation of the number density of self-catalyzed GaAs nanowires and its impact on polytypism

  • Research Letter
  • Published:
MRS Communications Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We investigate the impact of increasing number density of self-catalyzed GaAs nanowires (NWs) on their crystal structure, grown by molecular beam epitaxy. To this end, we employ an iterative, lithography-free approach for varying the number density of self-catalyzed GaAs NWs grown on Si(111) covered with native oxide. We use scanning electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction in combination with simulations based on the extended Markov model for the morphologic characterization of the so obtained NWs. Our findings show how both the shape of the Ga-droplet and the NW crystal structure are affected even by relatively small changes of the wire number density, allowing for a quantification of its influence on the local NW growth conditions at nominally identical growth parameters.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1
Table I
Figure 2
Table II
Figure 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. X. Miao, K. Chabak, C. Zhang, P.K. Mohseni, D. Walker, and X. Li: High-speed planar GaAs nanowire arrays with fmax > 75 GHz by wafer-scale bottom-up growth. Nano Lett. 15, 2780–2786 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. E. Dimakis, U. Jahn, M. Ramsteiner, A. Tahraoui, J. Grandal, X. Kong, O. Marquardt, A. Trampert, H. Riechert, and L. Geelhaar: Coaxial multishell (In,Ga)As/GaAs nanowires for near-infrared emission on Si substrates. Nano Lett. 14, 2604–2609 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. B. Mayer, D. Rudolph, J. Schnell, S. Morkötter, J. Winnerl, J. Treu, K. Müller, G. Bracher, G. Abstreiter, G. Koblmüller, and J.J. Finley: Lasing from individual GaAs-AlGaAs core-shell nanowires up to room temperature. Nat. Commun. 4, 2931 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. P. Krogstrup, H.I. Jørgensen, M. Heiss, O. Demichel, J.V. Holm, M. Aagesen, J. Nygard, and A. Fontcuberta i Morral: Single nanowire solar cells beyond the Shockley-Queisser limit. Nat. Photonics 7, 306–310 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. K. Tomioka and T. Fukui: Recent progress in integration of III-V nanowire transistors on Si substrate by selective-area growth. J. Phys. D Appl. Phys. 47, 394001 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. A. Fontcuberta i Morral, C. Colombo, G. Abstreiter, J. Arbiol, and J.R. Morante: Nucleation mechanism of gallium-assisted molecular beam epitaxy growth of gallium arsenide nanowires. Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 063112 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. C. Colombo, D. Spirkoska, M. Frimmer, G. Abstreiter, and A. Fontcuberta i Morral: Ga-assisted catalyst-free growth mechanism of GaAs nanowires by molecular beam epitaxy. Phys. Rev. B 77, 155326 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. D. Jacobsson, F. Panciera, J. Tersoff, M.C. Reuter, S. Lehmann, S. Hofmann, K.A. Dick, and F.M. Ross: Interface dynamics and crystal phase switching in GaAs nanowires. Nature 531, 317–322 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. F. Matteini, V.G. Dubrovskii, D. Rüffer, G. Tütüncüoglu, Y. Fontana, and A. Fontcuberta i Morral: Tailoring the diameter and density of self-catalyzed GaAs nanowires on silicon. Nanotechnology 26, 105603 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. P. Krogstrup, R. Popovitz-Biro, E. Johnson, M.H. Madsen, J. Nygård, and H. Shtrikman: Structural phase control in self-catalyzed growth of GaAs nanowires on silicon (111). Nano Lett. 10, 4475–4482 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. F. Bastiman, H. Küpers, C. Somaschini, and L. Geelhaar: Growth map for Ga-assisted growth of GaAs nanowires on Si(111) substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. Nanotechnology 27, 095601 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. S. Plissard, G. Larrieu, X. Wallart, and P. Caroff: High yield of self-catalyzed GaAs nanowire arrays grown on silicon via gallium droplet positioning. Nanotechnology 22, 275602 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. S.J. Gibson and R.R. LaPierre: Model of patterned self-assisted nanowire growth. Nanotechnology 25, 415304 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. P. Krogstrup, S. Curiotto, E. Johnson, M. Aagesen, J. Nygård, and D. Chatain: Impact of the liquid phase shape on the structure of III-V nanowires. Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 125505 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. H.J. Joyce, J. Wong-Leung, Q. Gao, H.H. Tan, and C. Jagadish: Phase perfection in zinc blende and wurtzite III−V nanowires using basic growth parameters. Nano Lett. 10, 908–915 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. T. Mårtensson, P. Carlberg, M. Borgström, L. Montelius, W. Seifert, and L. Samuelson: Nanowire arrays defined by nanoimprint lithography. Nano Lett. 4, 699–702 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. A.M. Munshi, D.L. Dheeraj, V.T. Fauske, D.C. Kim, J. Huh, J.F. Reinertsen, L. Ahtapodov, K.D. Lee, B. Heidari, A.T.J. van Helvoort, B.O. Fimland, and H. Weman: Vertically aligned GaAs nanowires on graphite and few-layer graphene: generic model and epitaxial growth. Nano Lett. 14, 960–966 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. M. Heiß, E. Riedlberger, D. Spirkoska, M. Bichler, G. Abstreiter, and A. Fontcuberta i Morral: Growth mechanisms and optical properties of GaAs-based semiconductor microstructures by selective area epitaxy. J. Cryst. Growth 310, 1049–1056 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. A.B. Mosberg, S. Myklebost, D. Ren, H. Weman, B.O. Fimland, and A.T.J. van Helvoort: Evaluating focused ion beam patterning for position-controlled nanowire growth using computer vision. J. Phys Conf. Ser. 902, 012020 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. C. Somaschini, S. Bietti, A. Trampert, U. Jahn, C. Hauswald, H. Riechert, S. Sanguinetti, and L. Geelhaar: Control over the number density and diameter of GaAs nanowires on Si(111) mediated by droplet epitaxy. Nano Lett. 13, 3607–3613 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. T. Tauchnitz, T. Nurmamytov, R. Hübner, M. Engler, S. Facsko, H. Schneider, M. Helm, and E. Dimakis: Decoupling the two roles of Ga droplets in the self-catalyzed growth of GaAs nanowires on SiOx/Si(111) substrates. Cryst. Growth Des. 17, 5276–5282 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. T.V. Hakkarainen, A. Schramm, J. Mäkelä, P. Laukkanen, and M. Guina: Lithography-free oxide patterns as templates for self-catalyzed growth of highly uniform GaAs nanowires on Si(111). Nanotechnology 26, 275301 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. H. Küpers, F. Bastiman, E. Luna, C. Somaschini, and L. Geelhaar: Ga predeposition for the Ga-assisted growth of GaAs nanowire ensembles with low number density and homogeneous length. J. Cryst. Growth 459, 43–49 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. M. Ramdani, J.-C. Harmand, F. Glas, G. Patriarche, and L. Travers: Arsenic pathways in self-catalyzed growth of GaAs nanowires. Cryst. Growth Des. 13, 91–96 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. U. Pietsch, V. Holy, and T. Baumbach: High-Resolution X-Ray Scattering from thin films to lateral nanostructures, Springer-Verlag New York, Advanced Texts in Physics, ISBN 0-387-40092-3 (2004).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  26. M. Köhl, P. Schroth, A.A. Minkevich, J.-W. Hornung, E. Dimakis, C. Somaschini, L. Geelhaar, T. Aschenbrenner, S. Lazarev, D. Grigoriev, U. Pietsch, and T. Baumbach: Polytypism in GaAs nanowires: determination of the interplanar spacing of wurtzite GaAs by x-ray diffraction. J. Synchrotron. Radiat. 22, 67–75 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. P. Schroth, M. Köhl, J.-W. Hornung, E. Dimakis, C. Somaschini, L. Geelhaar, A. Biermanns, S. Bauer, S. Lazarev, U. Pietsch, and T. Baumbach: Evolution of polytypism in GaAs nanowires during growth revealed by time-resolved in situ x-ray diffraction. Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 055504 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. M. Köhl, P. Schroth, and T. Baumbach: Perspectives and limitations of symmetric x-ray Bragg reflections for inspecting polytypism in nanowires. J. Synchrotron. Radiat. 23, 487–500 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. D.L. Dheeraj, G. Patriarche, H. Zhou, T.B. Hoang, A.F. Moses, S. Grønsberg, A.T.J. van Helvoort, B.O. Fimland, and H. Weman: Growth and characterization of wurtzite GaAs nanowires with defect-free zinc blende GaAsSb inserts. Nano Lett. 8, 4459–4463 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. D. Jacobsson, F. Yang, K. Hillerich, F. Lenrick, S. Lehmann, D. Kriegner, J. Stangl, L.R. Wallenberg, K.A. Dick, and J. Johansson: Phase transformation in radially merged wurtzite GaAs nanowires. Cryst. Growth Des. 15, 4795–4803 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. J. Johansson, J. Bolinsson, M. Ek, P. Caroff, and K.A. Dick: Combinatorial approaches to understanding polytypism in III-V nanowires. ACS Nano 6, 6142–6149 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. J. Tersoff: Stable self-catalyzed growth of III-V nanowires. Nano Lett. 15, 6609–6613 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. F. Oehler, A. Cattoni, A. Scaccabarozzi, G. Patriarche, F. Glas, and J.-C. Harmand: Measuring and modeling the growth dynamics of self-catalyzed GaP nanowire arrays. Nano Lett. 18, 701–708 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors thank G. Buth, B. Krause, and S. Stankov for their support at KIT. The Laboratory for Electron Microscopy (LEM) at KIT is acknowledged for TEM access, as well as the Institute for Nanotechnology (INT) for access to the SEM. The authors acknowledge the KIT light source for provision of instruments at their beamlines and we would like to thank the Institute for Beam Physics and Technology (IBPT) for the operation of the storage ring, the Karlsruhe Research Accelerator (KARA). This work was funded by BMBF project 05K16PSA.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Siegen, Solid State Physics, Emmy-Noether Campus, Walter-Flex Straße 3, D-57068, Siegen, Germany

    Philipp Schroth, Seyed Mohammad Mostafavi Kashani & Ullrich Pietsch

  2. Laboratory for Applications of Synchrotron Radiation, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Kaiserstraße, 12, D-76131, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Philipp Schroth, Julian Jakob & Tilo Baumbach

  3. Institute for Photon Science and Synchrotron Radiation, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, D-76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany

    Philipp Schroth, Julian Jakob, Ludwig Feigl & Tilo Baumbach

Authors
  1. Philipp Schroth
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Julian Jakob
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ludwig Feigl
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Seyed Mohammad Mostafavi Kashani
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Ullrich Pietsch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Tilo Baumbach
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Supplementary material

Supplementary material

The supplementary material for this article can be found at {rs|https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2018.145|url|}.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Schroth, P., Jakob, J., Feigl, L. et al. Lithography-free variation of the number density of self-catalyzed GaAs nanowires and its impact on polytypism. MRS Communications 8, 871–877 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2018.145

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2018.145

Search

Navigation