Size-Independent Growth of GaAs Nanowires

GaAs nanowires were grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition on GaAs(111)B substrates via Au catalyzed vapor-liquid-solid mechanism. We found that the grown nanowires are rode-like shape and the growth rate is independent on its diameters. It can be concluded that the nanowire was grown with main contributions from direct impingement of vapor species onto the Au-Ga droplets and with negligible contributions from adatom diffusion. The results indicate that the droplet acts as a catalyst rather than an adatom collector and size independent growth of nanowires is result from larger diameter and high supersaturation in the droplet.