Etching effect of tertiary-butyl chloride during InP-nanowire growth

We investigated the etching effect of tertiary-butyl chloride (TBCl) during InP nanowire (NW) growth for the purpose of improving the tapering shape at high growth temperature. The vapor-liquid-solid method was performed by using 10-nm-diameter Au particles for NW growth. The InP NW length doubled when TBCl was supplied at the same flow rate as TMIn and decreased gradually with increasing TBCl flow, while the volume monotonically decreased. The TBCl effectively suppressed growth in the radial direction. We also systematically studied the dependence of NW length and volume on growth time, growth temperature, and TMIn flow rate with and without TBCl. The crystalline structure was apparently varied within our growth condition range. At high growth temperature and low TBCl flow rate, the NWs tended to have a wurtzite-based structure.