Growth of stacking-faults-free zinc blende GaAs nanowires on Si substrate by using AlGaAs/GaAs buffer layers

Vertical GaAs nanowires on Si (111) substrate were grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition via Au-catalyst vapor-liquid-solid mechanism. Stacking-faults-free zinc blende nanowires were realized by using AlGaAs/GaAs buffer layers and growing under the optimized conditions, that the alloy droplet act as a catalyst rather than an adatom collector and its size and composition would keep stable during growth. The stable droplet contributes to the growth of stacking-faults-free nanowires. Moreover, by using the buffer layers, epitaxial growth of well-aligned NWs was not limited by the misfit strain induced critical diameter, and the unintentional doping of the GaAs nanowires with Si was reduced.