Critical temperature for the conversion from wurtzite to zincblende of the optical emission of InAs nanowires

One hour annealing at 300 °C changes the optical emission characteristics of InAs nanowires (NWs) from the wurtzite (WZ) phase into that of zincblende (ZB). These results are accounted for by the conversion of a small fraction of the NW WZ metastable structure into the stable ZB structure. Several paths toward the polytype transformation in the configuration space are also demonstrated using first-principles calculations. For lower annealing temperatures, emission which is likely related to WZ polytypes is observed at energies that agree with theoretical predictions. These results demonstrate severe constraints on thermal processes to which devices made from InAs WZ NWs can be exposed.