Effect of nanohole size on selective area growth of InAs nanowire arrays on Si substrates

We have investigated the influence of nanohole size on selective-area growth (SAG) of InAs nanowire (NW) arrays on Si(111) substrates by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. The growth of well-defined and position-controlled InAs NW arrays with united vertical orientation can be achieved on the patterned substrates with a certain range of nanohole size, which paves the way for the fabrication of high-electron-mobility and surrounding-gate transistor arrays using NWs as channels. Moreover, it is found that more than one NW are increasingly likely grown per nanohole as the nanohole size increases, and the NWs become increasingly thin and short. This is considered to be due to the supersaturation of adsorbed species in the nanohole and the intense competition for adatoms among multiple NWs per nanohole.