In situ X-ray diffraction study of GaAs nanowire growth

Kozu, Miwa*; Hu, W.; Takahashi, Masamitsu

Recently, low-dimensional structures of semiconductors have attracted much attention because of their possible novel functions originating from quantum size effects. It has been shown that free-standing semiconductor nanowires can be grown on the (111) surface of silicon and the (111)B surface of III-V semiconductors by the vapor-liquid-solid growth technique in which metal particles, such as Au, Ni and Fe, serve as catalysts. Semiconductor nanowires of GaAs and InAs are known to adopt the wurtzite structure rather than than zincblende structure which is the normal structure in their bulk crystals. In the present study, we have performed in situ X-ray diffraction study of GaAs nanowire growth on GaAs(111)B with Au catalyst. Experiments were carried out using a psic-type X-ray diffractometer integrated with an MBE chamber at BL11XU. With increasing deposition amount of GaAs, the structure of GaAs nanowires was found to transform from the zincblende to the wurtzite.