RESUMEN

As semiconductor devices approach dimensions at the atomic scale, controlling the compositional grading across heterointerfaces becomes paramount. Particularly in nanowire axial heterostructures, which are promising for a broad spectrum of nanotechnology applications, the achievement of sharp heterointerfaces has been challenging owing to peculiarities of the commonly used vapor-liquid-solid growth mode. Here, the grading of Al across GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs/GaAs heterostructures in self-catalyzed nanowires is studied, aiming at finding the limits of the interfacial sharpness for this technologically versatile material system. A pulsed growth mode ensures precise control of the growth mechanisms even at low temperatures, while a semiempirical thermodynamic model is derived to fit the experimental Al-content profiles and quantitatively describe the dependences of the interfacial sharpness on the growth temperature, the nanowire radius, and the Al content. Finally, symmetrical Al profiles with interfacial widths of 2-3 atomic planes, at the limit of the measurement accuracy, are obtained, outperforming even equivalent thin-film heterostructures. The proposed method enables the development of advanced heterostructure schemes for a more effective utilization of the nanowire platform; moreover, it is considered expandable to other material systems and nanostructure types.