Control over the number density and diameter of GaAs nanowires on Si(111) mediated by droplet epitaxy

We present a novel approach for the growth of GaAs nanowires (NWs) with controllable number density and diameter, which consists of the combination between droplet epitaxy (DE) and self-assisted NW growth. In our method, GaAs islands are initially formed on Si(111) by DE and, subsequently, GaAs NWs are selectively grown on their top facet, which acts as a nucleation site. By DE, we can successfully tailor the number density and diameter of the template of initial GaAs islands and the same degree of control is transferred to the final GaAs NWs. We show how, by a suitable choice of V/III flux ratio, a single NW can be accommodated on top of each GaAs base island. By transmission electron microscopy, as well as cathodo- and photoluminescence spectroscopy, we confirmed the high structural and optical quality of GaAs NWs grown by our method. We believe that this combined approach can be more generally applied to the fabrication of different homo- or heteroepitaxial NWs, nucleated on the top of predefined islands obtained by DE.