Growth of Gold-assisted Gallium Arsenide Nanowires on Silicon Substrates via Molecular Beam Epitaxy

Gallium arsenide nanowires were grown on silicon (100) substrates by what is called the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) growth mechanism using a molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) system. Good quality nanowires with surface density of approximately 10 8 nanowires per square centimeter were produced by utilizing gold nanoparticles, with density of 10 11 nanoparticles per square centimeter, as catalysts for nanowire growth. X-ray diffraction measurements, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy revealed that the nanowires are epitaxially grown on the silicon substrates, are oriented along the [111] direction and have cubic zincblende structure.