Lazarevicite-type short-range ordering in ternary III-V nanowires

Stabilizing ordering instead of randomness in alloy semiconductor materials is a powerful means to change their physical properties. We used scanning tunneling and transmission electron microscopies to reveal the existence of an unrecognized ordering in ternary III-V materials. The lazarevicite short-range order, found in the shell of InAs 1 − x Sb x nanowires, is driven by the strong Sb-Sb repulsion along 110 atomic chains during their incorporation on unreconstructed { 110 } sidewalls. Its spontaneous formation under group-III-rich conditions of growth offers the prospect to broaden the limited classes of ordered structures occurring in III-V semiconductor alloys.