Controllable Growth and Electrical Properties of Homogeneous Ternary In <sub> <i>x</i> </sub> Ga <sub> 1– <i>x</i> </sub> As Nanowires

Ternary In<sub><i>x</i></sub>Ga<sub>1-<i>x</i></sub>As nanowires, with their continuously tunable bandgaps spanning the near- to mid-infrared range, have emerged as ideal candidate materials for developing novel optoelectronic devices. However, achieving controlled growth of high-quality ternary In<sub><i>x</i></sub>Ga<sub>1-<i>x</i></sub>As nanowires with widely tunable compositions remains a key challenge in this field. Particularly for ternary In<sub><i>x</i></sub>Ga<sub>1-<i>x</i></sub>As nanowires grown via the self-catalytic method, common issues include low indium incorporation efficiency, severe compositional segregation, and the spontaneous formation of core-shell structures. In this work, we demonstrate the controlled growth of ternary In<sub><i>x</i></sub>Ga<sub>1-<i>x</i></sub>As nanowires with widely tunable and uniform composition on Si (111) substrates by molecular-beam epitaxy. It was found that simply increasing the indium flux cannot effectively raise the indium content (<i>x</i> < 0.05), while lowering the growth temperature, although it increases indium incorporation, induces severe axial and radial compositional inhomogeneity, leading to the formation of multilayered In<sub><i>x</i></sub>Ga<sub>1-<i>x</i></sub>As core-shell structures with varying indium contents. By synergistically regulating the growth temperature and the V/III flux ratio, we successfully suppressed indium segregation and obtained ternary In<sub><i>x</i></sub>Ga<sub>1-<i>x</i></sub>As nanowires with uniform composition and homogeneous distribution. The indium composition <i>x</i> in the nanowires could be tuned up to 0.85. Microstructural characterization and energy-dispersive spectroscopy confirmed the absence of spontaneous core-shell structures. Electrical measurements revealed an electron mobility at low temperatures around 4600 cm<sup>2</sup>/V·s. This study provides a material foundation for the development of high-performance ternary In<sub><i>x</i></sub>Ga<sub>1-<i>x</i></sub>As nanowire-based optoelectronic devices.

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Publication Details

Journal
The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters
Published
2026-01-14
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.5c03756
Primary Topic
Nanowire Synthesis and Applications
Type
article
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article

Controllable Growth and Electrical Properties of Homogeneous Ternary In x Ga 1– x As Nanowires

J. Wang, Qing Zhong, Donghai Li, Junze Zhang et al.
The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters
Nanowire Synthesis and Applications
article

Controllable Growth and Electrical Properties of Homogeneous Ternary In x Ga 1– x As Nanowires

J. Wang, Qing Zhong, Donghai Li, Junze Zhang, Yukun Yin, Wenlong Yang, Rong Wu, Yi Luo, H. Q. Xu, Dong Pan, Haiyan Shi, Xiyu Hou, Jianhua Zhao
article en

Abstract

Ternary In<sub><i>x</i></sub>Ga<sub>1-<i>x</i></sub>As nanowires, with their continuously tunable bandgaps spanning the near- to mid-infrared range, have emerged as ideal candidate materials for developing novel optoelectronic devices. However, achieving controlled growth of high-quality ternary In<sub><i>x</i></sub>Ga<sub>1-<i>x</i></sub>As nanowires with widely tunable compositions remains a key challenge in this field. Particularly for ternary In<sub><i>x</i></sub>Ga<sub>1-<i>x</i></sub>As nanowires grown via the self-catalytic method, common issues include low indium incorporation efficiency, severe compositional segregation, and the spontaneous formation of core-shell structures. In this work, we demonstrate the controlled growth of ternary In<sub><i>x</i></sub>Ga<sub>1-<i>x</i></sub>As nanowires with widely tunable and uniform composition on Si (111) substrates by molecular-beam epitaxy. It was found that simply increasing the indium flux cannot effectively raise the indium content (<i>x</i> < 0.05), while lowering the growth temperature, although it increases indium incorporation, induces severe axial and radial compositional inhomogeneity, leading to the formation of multilayered In<sub><i>x</i></sub>Ga<sub>1-<i>x</i></sub>As core-shell structures with varying indium contents. By synergistically regulating the growth temperature and the V/III flux ratio, we successfully suppressed indium segregation and obtained ternary In<sub><i>x</i></sub>Ga<sub>1-<i>x</i></sub>As nanowires with uniform composition and homogeneous distribution. The indium composition <i>x</i> in the nanowires could be tuned up to 0.85. Microstructural characterization and energy-dispersive spectroscopy confirmed the absence of spontaneous core-shell structures. Electrical measurements revealed an electron mobility at low temperatures around 4600 cm<sup>2</sup>/V·s. This study provides a material foundation for the development of high-performance ternary In<sub><i>x</i></sub>Ga<sub>1-<i>x</i></sub>As nanowire-based optoelectronic devices.

The Journal of Physical Chemistry LettersVol. 17(4)
Zhejiang International Studies University (CN), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Peking University (CN), Laboratoire de physique des Solides (FR), Quantum Devices (United States) (US), FZU ‒ Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (CZ), Institute of Semiconductors (CN), Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences (CN), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Beihang University (CN), Xinjiang University (CN)
Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Openalex Percentile: Top 89%
Nanowire Synthesis and Applications
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