Diameter reduction of nanowire tunnel heterojunctions using in situ annealing

We selectively etch axial GaSb/InAsSb nanowires locally at the heterojunction using in situ thermal annealing. This results in broken-gap tunnel diodes with a significantly reduced diameter only in the tunnel region. The etching mechanism proceeds by material removal from unstabilized {111}A facets which may form due to a reduced thermal stability at the heterointerface of GaSb/InAsSb nanowires. By removing the parallel conduction path between the InAsSb shell and nanowire the selective etching strongly improves the device performance. This is demonstrated in fabricated tunnel diodes that exhibit a peak-to-valley ratio of 1.3 and high peak current densities (8.1 kA/cm(2)). (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3662009]