Selective molecular beam epitaxy growth of GaAs hexagonal nanowire networks on (111)B patterned substrates

In view of applications to hexagonal binary decision diagram (BDD) quantum circuits, the growth of hexagonal GaAs nanowire networks was attempted by selective molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on (111)B prepatterned substrates. The basic feasibility of <112>-oriented straight nanowires was first investigated. GaAs nanowires were selectively formed on the top (111)B plane of AlGaAs mesa structures with high uniformity. The lateral width of the wires was determined by two facet boundary planes separating the growth regions on the top and the side facets of the mesa structures. The angle of the boundary planes remained constant during growth, resulting in the wire width being precisely controlled by the thickness of the AlGaAs barrier layer. Then, GaAs/AlGaAs hexagonal nanowire networks were grown on the patterned substrates consisting of three equivalent <112>-oriented wires for a (111)B plane. The results of detailed structural and optical studies showed that highly uniform and smoothly connected hexagonal nanowire networks having threefold symmetry were successfully fabricated by the present selective MBE growth technique.