title: Understanding Self-Catalyzed Epitaxial Growth of III-V Nanowires toward Controlled Synthesis.
abstract: The self-catalyzed growth of III-V nanowires has drawn plenty of attention due to the potential of integration in current Si-based technologies. The homoparticle-assisted vapor-liquid-solid growth mechanism has been demonstrated for self-catalyzed III-V nanowire growth. However, the understandings of the preferred growth sites of these nanowires are still limited, which obstructs the controlled synthesis and the applications of self-catalyzed nanowire arrays. Here, we experimentally demonstrated that thermally created pits could serve as the preferred sites for self-catalyzed InAs nanowire growth. On that basis, we performed a pregrowth annealing strategy to promote the nanowire density by enhancing the pits formation on the substrate surface and enable the nanowire growth on the substrate that was not capable to facilitate the growth. The discovery of the preferred self-catalyzed nanowire growth sites and the pregrowth annealing strategy have shown great potentials for controlled self-catalyzed III-V nanowire array growth with preferred locations and density.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, §Birck Nanotechnology Center, and ∥Department of Chemistry, Purdue University , West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, United States.
authors.forename: Yunlong
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5133-4057
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zi
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, §Birck Nanotechnology Center, and ∥Department of Chemistry, Purdue University , West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, United States.
authors.forename: Sergey
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Suslov
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, §Birck Nanotechnology Center, and ∥Department of Chemistry, Purdue University , West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, United States.
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000965:Antimony / Q000737:chemistry; D001152:Arsenicals / Q000737:chemistry*; D002384:Catalysis; D005708:Gallium / Q000737:chemistry; D007204:Indium / Q000737:chemistry*; D053770:Nanowires / Q000737:chemistry*; D010316:Particle Size; D012666:Semiconductors; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D001152:Arsenicals; D007204:Indium; D000965:Antimony; D005708:Gallium; C076773:indium arsenide
keywords: InAs; Self-catalyzed nanowire growth; epitaxial; growth mechanism