Fabrication of individually seeded nanowire arrays by vapour–liquid–solid growth

We report on a method of synthesizing arrays of individually seeded nanowires. An electron beam lithography and metal lift-off method was used to pattern InP(111)B substrates with catalysing gold particles. Vertical nanowire arrays were then grown from the gold particles, using metal–organic vapour phase epitaxy. The lithographic nature of the method allows individual control over each nanowire. Possible applications for such deterministic and uniform arrays include producing arrays of nanowire devices, two-dimensional photonic band gap structures and field emission displays, amongst others.