Formation of Self-Assembled Sidewall Nanowires on Shallow Patterned GaAs (100)

The formation of "sidewall nanowires" on shallow patterned mesa strips with a modulation depth of only 35 nm on GaAs (100) was demonstrated using molecular beam epitaxy. While self-assembled GaAs sidewall nanowire formation is observed near mesa strips running along [011], relatively thinner AlAs/GaAs layers are formed on identical mesa strips running along [01-1]. Cross-sectional atomic force microscopy (XAFM) on (011) and (01-1) and AFM on (100) are used to understand the formation of the different morphology of the nanostructures, depending on the direction of the mesas. The data indicates that anisotropic surface diffusion of adatoms, resulting from the characteristic (2times4) GaAs (100) surface reconstruction, is responsible for the sidewall nanowire formation and for the different morphology observed along different directions