Facet-dependent growth of InAsP quantum wells in InP nanowire and nanomembrane arrays

Abstract

Selective area epitaxy is a powerful growth technique that has been used to produce III–V semiconductor nanowire and nanomembrane arrays for photonic and electronic applications. The incorporation of a heterostructure such as quantum wells (QWs) brings new functionality and further broadens their applications. Using InP nanowires and nanomembranes as templates, we investigate the growth of InAsP QWs on these pure wurtzite nanostructures. InAsP QWs grow both axially and laterally on the nanowires and nanomembranes, forming a zinc blende phase axially and wurtzite phase on the sidewalls. On the non-polar {100} sidewalls, the radial QW selectively grows on one sidewall which is located at the semi-polar 〈11〉 A side of the axial QW, causing the shape evolution of the nanowires from hexagonal to triangular cross section. For nanomembranes with {100} sidewalls, the radial QW grows asymmetrically on the {100} facet, destroying their symmetry. In comparison, nanomembranes with {110} sidewalls are shown to be an ideal template for the growth of InAsP QWs, thanks to the uniform QW formation. These QWs emit strongly in the near IR region at room temperature and their emission can be tuned by changing their thickness or composition. These findings enrich our understanding of the QW growth, which provides new insights for heterostructure design in other III–V nanostructures.