Perturbation of Au-assisted planar GaAs nanowire growth by p-type dopant impurities

III-V compound semiconductor nanowires (NWs), with their direct bandgaps and high mobilities, have been shown to be promising materials for many applications including solar cells, light emitting diodes, transistors, and lasers. Self-aligned, twin-plane-defect free, planar GaAs NWs can be grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) through the Au-assisted vapor-liquid-solid mechanism. In this report, <110> planar GaAs NW growth on GaAs (100) substrates is perturbed by introducing common p-type dopant impurities, zinc (Zn) or carbon (C), and characterized structurally and electrically. The implications of the results on planar NW growth and doping mechanism are discussed. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America