Native-oxide-based selective area growth of InP nanowires via metalorganic molecular beam epitaxy mediated by surface diffusion

The growth of InP nanowires on an InP(111) B substrate is reported. The substrate native oxide was not removed from the surface prior to growth. Nanowires were grown at 400°C from gold catalysts in a selective area manner, without bulk growth. Unlike SiO ₂-based metalorganic molecular beam epitaxy selective area growth, the growth reported here is mediated by surface diffusion with a characteristic diffusion length of 4μm, about an order of magnitude larger than values for diffusion on bare substrates. A pre-growth heating treatment at 450°C was found to increase the yield of nanowire nucleation from the gold catalysts.