The concept of band engineering dilute nitride semiconductors into nanowires is introduced. Using plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy, dilute nitride GaAsN/GaAs heterostructure nanowires are grown on silicon (111) substrates. Growth of the nanowires under high As overpressure results in a regular wire diameter of 350 nm with a length exceeding 3 μm. The GaAsN/GaAs nanowires show characteristics including favorable vertical alignment, hexagonal cross-sectional structure with {110} facets, regions of wurtzite and zinc-blende phases, and a core-shell-type heterostructure. The nanowires are composed of GaAsN shells containing up to 0.3% nitrogen surrounding GaAs cores. Panchromatic cathodoluminescence images show intensity modulation along the length of the nanowires that is possibly related to the interfaces of wurtzite/zinc-blende regions. Photoluminescence with peak wavelengths between 870 and 920 nm is clearly observed at room temperature. The spectral red shift depends on the amount of introduced nitrogen. These results reveal a method for precise lattice and band engineering of nanowires composed of dilute nitride semiconductors.

We investigate fundamental issues on the growth of GaAs/GaAsN core–shell heterostructure nanowires (NWs) by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. A Ga catalyst crystallizes during growth interruption at a high As pressure, and afterwards the growth dominantly progresses mainly increasing the NW diameter, thereby forming a wire shell. The shell diameter increases linearly depending on growth time and group III flux, similarly to the growth mechanism of planar layers. The lateral growth rate is 0.19 times lower than the growth rate of planar GaAs on a (100) substrate. At a substrate temperature 570 °C, nitrogen incorporation is inefficient in the shell layer. At a substrate temperature of 430 °C, the nitrogen is effectively introduced under continuous plasma irradiation during the growth of the GaAsN shell, resulting in the introduction of nitrogen within the shell estimated up to about 0.5%.