Position-controlled uniform GaAs nanowires on silicon using nanoimprint lithography.

We report on the epitaxial growth of large-area position-controlled self-catalyzed GaAs nanowires (NWs) directly on Si by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Nanohole patterns are defined in a SiO2 mask on 2 in. Si wafers using nanoimprint lithography (NIL) for the growth of positioned GaAs NWs. To optimize the yield of vertical NWs the MBE growth parameter space is tuned, including Ga predeposition time, Ga and As fluxes, growth temperature, and annealing treatment prior to NW growth. In addition, a non-negligible radial growth is observed with increasing growth time and is found to be independent of the As species (i.e., As2 or As4) and the growth temperatures studied. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy analysis of the GaAs NW/Si substrate heterointerface reveals an epitaxial growth where NW base fills the oxide hole opening and eventually extends over the oxide mask. These findings have important implications for NW-based device designs with axial and radial p-n junctions. Finally, NIL positioned GaAs/AlGaAs core-shell heterostructured NWs are grown on Si to study the optical properties of the NWs. Room-temperature photoluminescence spectroscopy of ensembles of as-grown core-shell NWs reveals uniform and high optical quality, as required for the subsequent device applications. The combination of NIL and MBE thereby demonstrates the successful heterogeneous integration of highly uniform GaAs NWs on Si, important for fabricating high throughput, large-area position-controlled NW arrays for various optoelectronic device applications.