Anisotropic growth of indium antimonide nanostructures

InSb nanostructures have been synthesized by the use of gas aggregation process. Nanoparticles with different shapes are obtained by controlling the growth and deposition temperature of the InSb nanoclusters. Triangular nanocrystals are commonly observed when the clusters are extracted from the condensation chamber of the source and deposited on the room temperature substrate at high vacuum. When the deposition is performed inside the condensation chamber at high temperature near the melting point of bulk InSb, nanoparticles formed on the substrate surface show several kinds of 3-dimensional morphologies, such as triangular or rectangular prisms, as well as hexagonal tablets. Keeping the same conditions for the cluster source operation and deposition, after long time growth, nanorods with hexagonal and quadrangular cross sections are formed through vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) process. The origin of the difference on the morphologies and shapes of the nanostructures is attributed to the anisotropic growth of InSb, which is temperature dependent.