Abstract

Semiconductor nanowires can be grown with a high degree of perfection and they start to find their use into various kinds of device applications. Research on the growth of nanowires has led to many unique opportunities, such as a high degree of freedom in combining different semiconductors into 3D heterostructures [1]. Interesting nanowire-specific challenges are also dealt with, such as the ambiguity in the stacking sequence in grown nanowires, easily leading to mixtures of cubic (zinc-blende) and hexagonal (wurtzite) structures. I will present the present degree of control of growth of specific crystalline structures [2] and top-down guided bottom-up, or self-assembly, of ideal arrays of designed nanowires [3]. I will also give examples of growth of ideal heterostructures for basic physics as well as for device applications [4], including opportunities for growth of compound nanowires on silicon substrates [5].

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