Catalyst-assisted and catalyst-free growth of III-V semiconductor nanowires

The aim of this thesis is to understand the dynamics of the nucleation and growth of III-V semiconductor nanowires and associated heterostructures grown by chemical beam epitaxy. These nanowires represent well-controlled and high quality materials suitable for both fundamental physics and applications in optical and electronic devices. The first part of the thesis investigates growth recipes to obtain Au-catalyzed InAs NWs with controlled morphology. Good control of NW length and diameter distributions has been achieved by a systematic study of two different Au deposition techniques: Au thin film deposition and colloidal dispersion. Triggered by the issues of Au contamination and CMOS compatibility, the second part of the thesis is dedicated to the investigation of the nucleation and growth mechanisms of Au-free InAs NWs on Si (111) substrates. A thorough analysis of the silicon substrate preparation is conducted and an optimized silicon surface for the nucleation of Au-free nanowires is identified. We show that the silicon surface can be modified by in situ and ex situ parameters allowing us to control the density of NWs. Growth conditions were established for growing InAs NWs either by catalyst-free or self-catalyzed mechanisms on Si (111). The catalyst-free growth proceeds in the vapor-solid growth mechanism without the use of any catalyst particle while the self-catalyzed growth proceeds in the vapor-liquid-solid mechanism involving a liquid In droplet. Growth models are proposed in order to interpret the experimental findings. The third part of the thesis concerns the growth of axial and radial (core-shell) heterostructured NWs. Nanowire heterostructures combining either highly lattice mismatched materials (GaAs and InAs) or almost lattice matched materials (InAs and GaSb) are investigated. GaAs/InAs and InAs/GaAs axial heterostructures are grown by Au-catalyzed method. Here, it is demonstrated that the catalyst composition, rather than other growth parameters, as postulated so far, controls the growth mode and the resulting NW morphology. We have also explored the growth of core-shell InAs/GaSb heterostructures by catalyst-free mechanism. The morphology and structural properties of InAs/GaSb core-shell heterostructures are optimized to fabricate Esaki tunnel diodes exploiting their broken-gap band alignment.