Effects of Be doping on InP nanowire growth mechanisms

Be-doped InP nanowires were grown by the gold-assisted vapour-liquid-solid mechanism in a gas source molecular beam epitaxy system. The InP nanowire length versus diameter [L(D)] dependence revealed an unexpected transition with increasing Be dopant concentration. At Be dopant concentration below ∼1018 cm−3, nanowires exhibited the usual inverse L(D) relationship, indicating a diffusion-limited growth regime. However, as dopant concentration increased, the nanowire growth rate was suppressed for small diameters, resulting in an unusual L(D) dependence that increased before saturating in height at about 400 nm. The cause of this may be a change in the droplet chemical potential, introducing a barrier to island nucleation. We propose a model accounting for the limitations of diffusion length and monolayer nucleation to explain this behaviour.