Demonstration of Defect-Free and Composition Tunable GaxIn1–xSb Nanowires

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 Gorji Ghalamestani *†, Martin Ek ‡, Bahram Ganjipour †, Claes Thelander †, Jonas Johansson †,Philippe Caroff §, and Kimberly A. Dick †‡

^† Solid State Physics, Lund University, Box 118, SE-22100 Lund, Sweden

^‡ Polymer and Materials Chemistry, Lund University, Box 124, SE-22100 Lund, Sweden

^§ Institut d’Electronique, de Microélectronique et de Nanotechnologie, UMR CNRS 8520, Avenue Poincaré, B.P. 60069, 59652 Villeneuve d’Ascq, France

Nano Lett., Article ASAP

DOI: 10.1021/nl302497r

Publication Date (Web): August 27, 2012

Copyright © 2012 American Chemical Society

The Ga_xIn_1–xSb ternary system has many interesting material properties, such as high carrier mobilities and a tunable range of bandgaps in the infrared. Here we present the first report on the growth and compositional control of Ga_xIn_1–xSb material grown in the form of nanowires from Au seeded nanoparticles by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. The composition of the grown Ga_xIn_1–xSb nanowires is precisely controlled by tuning the growth parameters where x varies from 1 to 0.3. Interestingly, the growth rate of the Ga_xIn_1–xSb nanowires increases with diameter, which we model based on the Gibbs–Thomson effect. Nanowire morphology can be tuned from high to very low aspect ratios, with perfect zinc blende crystal structure regardless of composition. Finally, electrical characterization on nanowire material with a composition of Ga_0.6In_0.4Sb showed clear p-type behavior