Engineering III–V Semiconductor Nanowires for Device Applications

Abstract

of silicon along the direction. Hiruma et al. [4] demonstrated that GaAs NWs-then termed whisker growth can be grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) with a similar VLS mechanism. A spate of papers from the same group clearly identified that this process could be extended to InAs NWs and the group was successful in growing a GaAs p-n junction (see ref.[5] for a review). This concept was further expanded in NW heterostructures by Samuelson and co-workers in Lund. [6] This whole sequence of research findings triggered the growing new research field of semiconductor NWs which peaked in 2009 with a vast number of publications. Figure 1 is a plot of the number of publications published per year in the field of "semiconductor nanowires" for over two decades from Clarivate Analytics. Since 2009, the number of publications within this field is about 1000 per year. Herein, we review our recent NW work and expand on our future directions within this field. III-V semiconductor nanowires offer potential new device applicationsbecause of the unique properties associated with their 1D geometry and the ability to create quantum wells and other heterostructures with a radial and an axial geometry. Here, an overview of challenges in the bottom-up approaches for nanowire synthesis using catalyst and catalyst-free methods and the growth of axial and radial heterostructures is given. The work on nanowire devices such as lasers, light emitting nanowires, and solar cells and an overview of the top-down approaches for water splitting technologies is reviewed. The authors conclude with an analysis of the research field and the future research directions.

Surface Nano-Patterning for the Bottom-Up Growth of III-V Semiconductor Nanowire Ordered Arrays

“…These systems are indeed largely investigated due to their peculiar properties such as the low electron effective mass and high electron mobility, which makes them suitable for high speed electronic devices, their direct energy band gap, which makes them efficient in light emission and other optic and photonic applications [ 72 , 73 ] and the strong spin orbit coupling, which makes them promising candidates for spintronic applications and topological quantum computation [ 74 ]. Their integration into silicon platforms is considered, at present, to be one of the most interesting challenges for the next decade of NW research [ 3 , 75 ], as this would allow a combination of the advantages of III-V materials with the well-developed silicon technologies.…”

Understanding Shape Evolution and Phase Transition in InP Nanostructures Grown by Selective Area Epitaxy

“…Selective area epitaxy (SAE) is widely used in synthesizing III-V semiconductor nanostructures thanks to the superior controllability of site and morphology. [1][2][3][4] In particular, III-V nanowires grown using SAE technique have achieved great success in the field of nanoelectronics, nanophotonics, and solar energy. [5][6][7] However, this 1D nanostructure still faces many challenges in terms of functionality, synthesis, assembly and fabrication process as a result of the restricted size and morphology.…”

Formation of arsenic clusters in InAs nanowires with an Al2O3 shell

“…Semiconductor nanowires (NWs) of III-arsenide compounds have received attention as active components in electronic and optical nanodevices and electrical interconnections. [1][2][3] Besides, the formation of heterostructured NWs, e.g. core-shell NWs, has been required to fabricate an ideal device and has also been suggested to improve the functionality of a NW-based device.…”