Growth and characterization of straight InAs/GaAs nanowire heterostructures on Si substrate.

Vertical InAs/GaAs nanowire (NW) heterostructures with a straight InAs segment have been successfully fabricated on Si (111) substrate by using AlGaAs/GaAs buffer layers coupled with a composition grading InGaAs segment. Both the GaAs and InAs segments are not limited by the misfit strain induced critical diameter. The low growth rate of InAs NWs is attributed to the AlGaAs/GaAs buffer layers which dramatically decrease the adatom diffusion contribution to the InAs NW growth. The crystal structure of InAs NW can be tuned from zincblende to wurtzite by controlling its diameter as well as the length of GaAs NWs. This work helps to open up a road for the integration of high-quality III-V NW heterostructures with Si. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]