Anodically Induced Chemical Etching of GaAs Wafers for a GaAs Nanowire-Based Flexible Terahertz Wave Emitter

A generic top-down approach for the preparation of extended arrays of high-aspect ratio GaAs nanowires (NWs) with different crystallographic orientations (i.e., [100] or [111]) and morphologies (i.e., porous, nonporous, tapered, or awl-like NWs) is reported. The method is based on the anodically induced chemical etching (AICE) of GaAs wafers in an oxidant-free aqueous HF solution at room temperature by using a patterned metal mesh and allows us to overcome the drawbacks of conventional metal-assisted chemical etching (MACE) processes. Local oxidative dissolution of GaAs in contact with a metal is achieved by externally injecting holes (h+) into the valence band (VB) of GaAs through the metal mesh. It is found that injection of holes (h+) through direct GaAs contact, rather than the metal mesh, does not yield uniform nanowires but porosify GaAs wafers due to the high cell potential. On the basis of experiments and numerical simulation for the spatial distribution of an electric field, a phenomenological model that explains the formation of GaAs NWs and their porosification behaviors is proposed. GaAs NWs exhibit excellent terahertz (THz) wave emission properties, which vary with either the length or the shape of the nanowires. By taking advantage of controlled porosification and easy transfer of GaAs NWs to foreign substrates, a flexible THz wave emitter is realized.