Growth of InAs Wurtzite Nanocrosses from Hexagonal and Cubic Basis

Epitaxially connected nanowires allow for the design of electron transport experiments and applications beyond the standard two terminal device geometries. In this Letter, we present growth methods of three distinct types of wurtzite structured InAs nanocrosses via the vapor-liquid-solid mechanism. Two methods use conventional wurtzite nanowire arrays as a 6-fold hexagonal basis for growing single crystal wurtzite nanocrosses. A third method uses the 2-fold cubic symmetry of (100) substrates to form well-defined coherent inclusions of zinc blende in the center of the nanocrosses. We show that all three types of nanocrosses can be transferred undamaged to arbitrary substrates, which allows for structural, compositional, and electrical characterization. We further demonstrate the potential for synthesis of as-grown nanowire networks and for using nanowires as shadow masks for in situ fabricated junctions in radial nanowire heterostructures.