Direct nucleation, morphology and compositional tuning of InAs_{1− x} Sb _x nanowires on InAs (111) B substrates

III–V ternary nanowires are interesting due to the possibility of modulating their physical and material properties by tuning their material composition. Amongst them InAs_{1− x} Sb _x nanowires are good candidates for applications such as Infrared detectors. However, this material has not been grown directly from substrates, in a large range of material compositions. Since the properties of ternaries are alterable by tuning their composition, it is beneficial to gain access to a wide range of composition tunability. Here we demonstrate direct nucleation and growth of InAs_{1− x} Sb _x nanowires from Au seed particles over a broad range of compositions ( x  = 0.08–0.75) for different diameters and surface densities by means of metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. We investigate how the nucleation, morphology, solid phase Sb content, and growth rate of these nanowires depend on the particle dimensions, and on growth conditions such as the vapor phase composition, V/III ratio, and temperature. We show that the solid phase Sb content of the nanowires remains invariant towards changes of the In precursor flow. We also discuss that at relatively high In flows the growth mechanism alters from Au-seeded to what is referred to as semi In-seeded growth. This change enables growth of nanowires with a high solid phase Sb content of 0.75 that are not feasible via Au-seeded growth. Independent of the growth conditions and morphology, we report that the nanowire Sb content changes over their length, from lower Sb contents at the base, increasing to higher amounts towards the tip. We correlate the axial Sb content variations to the axial growth rate measured in situ . We also report spontaneous core–shell formation for Au-seeded nanowires, where the core is Sb-rich in comparison to the Sb-poor shell. (paper)