Narrow gap nanowires: From nanotechnology to RF-circuits on Si

III-V narrow band gap nanowires are considered for device applications. Nanowires are grown using the vapor-liquid-solid growth mechanism with the aim to implement high-performance devices. It is shown that high quality InAs, InSb, and GaSb nanowires, as well as their alloys, may be grown by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy. In particular, the formation of the InAs/GaSb (GaSb segment on InAs stem) and GaSb/InAs (InAs segment on GaSb stem) heterojunction is presented and used as tunnel junctions for applications in tunnel field-effect transistors. InAs nanowires are implemented in a vertical transistor architecture and they show competitive RF-performance and encouraging low-frequency noise properties. They are integrated on Si substrates using a thin InAs buffer layer to avoid access resistance. The transistors have been integrated into small-scale circuits with mixing capabilities above 1 GHz. Finally, the photo response of InAsSb nanowires has been measured and it is found to be more sensitive towards the diameter than the alloy composition in the current implementation. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC