Ga predeposition for the Ga-assisted growth of GaAs nanowire ensembles with low number density and homogeneous length

We present a novel two-step growth approach for the Ga-assisted growth of GaAs nanowires (NWs) by molecular beam epitaxy on Si. In the first step only Ga is deposited for the controlled formation of Ga droplets and in the second step NWs are grown from these droplets at lower Ga flux. This variation of the Ga flux leads to a decoupling of the formation of Ga droplets and the formation of NWs. Thus, the total density of crystal objects can be varied by only changing the parameters of the first step. Also, the NW length distribution of such an ensemble is more homogeneous. Annealing of the droplets can improve the homogeneity even further. The resulting GaAs NW ensembles are ideally suited for the subsequent growth of shell structures. Finally, our new approach enabled us to explore the nucleation of different crystalline objects and analyze the impact of the droplet size on the vertical yield of NWs in detail.