Diameter scalability of rolled-up In(Ga)As/GaAs nanotubes

Free-standing nanotubes are formed by rolling-up InGaAs/GaAs bilayers on a GaAs substrate. We present a systematic study of the tube diameter as a function of bilayer thicknesses. In our study we take into account that 2–4 monolayers of the top GaAs layer are consumed due to oxidation during the overall tube formation process. We find that a macroscopic continuum mechanical model can well describe the diameter of the nanotubes from 80 nm to 600 nm for nearly symmetric layers and from 21 nm to 550 nm for asymmetric bilayers. For thin symmetric layers the diameter is slightly smaller than predicted by theory. We find that the growth temperature significantly influences the nanotube diameter.