• chemical beam epitaxy
• electron microscopy
• InAs
• InSb
• nanowires
• semiconductor nanostructures

This work deals with the growth by Chemical Beam Epitaxy and the structural study by Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscopy of high crystal quality InAs-InSb heterostructured nanowires,hich are emerging nanomaterials for quantum transport physics and thermoelectrics. The growth rate of the nanowires was studied as a function of the growth parameters and was found to be strongly dependent on the nanowire diameter. An accurate morphological study revealed that the cross section of both segments constituting the nanowires is hexagonal and that the two hexagons are rotated one with respect to the other by 30° around the growth direction. The corners of these hexagons were found to be rounded off by six thin facets. Six additional facets that are not parallel to the growth direction were found in the InSb segment at the InAs-InSb interface and were indexed. Finally, the relation between the dimensions of the two segments composing the nanowires is accurately quantified.