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Epitaxial growth of InP nanowires on germanium

Nature Materials volume 3, pages 769–773 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

The growth of III–V semiconductors on silicon would allow the integration of their superior (opto-)electronic properties1,2,3 with silicon technology. But fundamental issues such as lattice and thermal expansion mismatch and the formation of antiphase domains have prevented the epitaxial integration of III–V with group IV semiconductors4,5,6. Here we demonstrate the principle of epitaxial growth of III–V nanowires on a group IV substrate. We have grown InP nanowires on germanium substrates by a vapour–liquid–solid7 method. Although the crystal lattice mismatch is large (3.7%), the as-grown wires are monocrystalline and virtually free of dislocations. X-ray diffraction unambiguously demonstrates the heteroepitaxial growth of the nanowires. In addition, we show that a low-resistance electrical contact can be obtained between the wires and the substrate.

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Figure 1: Scanning electron microscopy images of two samples with InP nanowires grown on Ge(111).
Figure 2: The crystallographic relation between the InP wires and the Ge substrate studied by X-ray diffraction.
Figure 3: TEM images of an InP wire on a germanium substrate.
Figure 4: Transport measurements through an epitaxially grown nanowire by means of an AFM.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Philips Research Laboratories, Professor Holstlaan 4, Eindhoven, 5656 AA, The Netherlands

    Erik P. A. M. Bakkers, Monja Kaiser, Marcel Verheijen, Harry Wondergem & Paul van der Sluis

  2. Kavli Institute of NanoScience and ERATO Mesoscopic Correlation Project, Delft University of Technology, PO Box 5046, Delft, 2600 GA, The Netherlands

    Jorden A. van Dam, Silvano De Franceschi & Leo P. Kouwenhoven

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  1. Erik P. A. M. Bakkers
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  2. Jorden A. van Dam
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Correspondence to Erik P. A. M. Bakkers.

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Bakkers, E., van Dam, J., De Franceschi, S. et al. Epitaxial growth of InP nanowires on germanium. Nature Mater 3, 769–773 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1235

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