Effect of Elastic Stresses on the Formation of Axial Heterojunctions in Ternary AIIIBV Nanowires

Abstract

The effect of elastic stresses on the formation of axial heterojunctions in ternary A^IIIB^V nanowires has been studied theoretically. The composition profile of the axial InAs/GaAs heterojunction in self-catalytic GaxIn1-xAs nanowires have been obtained. The InAs/GaAs heterojunction width is shown to be several dozen of monolayers and it increases with an increase in the nanowire radius due to elastic stresses. The el-astic stress relaxation on the lateral surfaces of the nanowires at typical growth temperature (about 450°C) and a nanowire radius higher than 5 nm does not lead to the formation of an miscibility gap in the Ga_xIn_1 ‒ xAs system.