Growth of defect-free GaP nanowires

The crystal structure of GaP nanowires grown by Au-assisted chemical beam epitaxy was investigated as a function of group V flux and growth temperature. By increasing the tertiarybutyl phosphine flux we obtained nanowires with a stacking defect-free wurtzite crystal structure. Variation of growth temperature also had a profound impact on the crystal structure. Lowering the growth temperature from 600 to 560 °C and keeping constant both triethylgallium and tertiarybutyl phosphine precursor fluxes, the crystal structure of GaP NWs was drastically improved from a highly defective intergrowth of zinc-blende and wurtzite to a wurtzite crystal structure free of stacking defects. These results are compared to current literature on GaP NW growth, and we suggest that the low V/III ratio is the key ingredient for the high crystal quality of our GaP nanowires. © 2014 IOP Publishing Ltd.