Growth evolution and polarization-dependent photoluminescence of lateral InSb/CdTe nanowires

The evolution of lateral InSb nanowires (NW) grown on CdTe (001) substrate by increasing of the InSb thickness is reported. At 10-nm growth of InSb, NW with narrow lateral width of -70 nm and high NW density (-18 & mu;m  1) are obtained. The evolutional description of InSb NW growth based on the atomic force microscopic characterization is presented. The intrinsic strain at the interface and top InSb layer is revealed by x-ray diffraction analysis. The strong polarization-dependent photoluminescence (PL) of NW is observed. The polari-zation degree of NW is -80% and 56% when the excited laser and the emission PL are polarized, respectively. The latter can be attributed to the shape anisotropy.

Automated summary

The evolution of lateral InSb nanowires on CdTe (001) substrate by increasing the InSb thickness is reported. The InSb nanowires obtained at 10-nm growth exhibited a narrow lateral width of approximately 70 nm and a high nanowire density of around 18 nm^-1. The growth evolution of InSb nanowires was described based on atomic force microscopy characterization. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed the existence of intrinsic strain at the interface and top InSb layer. The observed strong polarization-dependent photoluminescence of the nanowires can be attributed to shape anisotropy.