ISSN 1063-7834, Physics of the Solid State, 2013, Vol. 55, No. 11, pp. 2229–2233. © Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2013. Original Russian Text © A.D. Bouravleuv, N.V. Sibirev, D.V. Beznasyuk, N. Lebedeva, S. Novikov, H. Lipsanen, G.E. Cirlin, 2013, published in Fizika Tverdogo Tela, 2013, Vol. 55, No. 11, pp. 2118–2122. 2229 1. INTRODUCTION Recently, quasi-one-dimensional nanostructures such as nanowhiskers (NW) are of great interest due to not only their many-sided properties, but also a variety of their potential applications. It was shown up to now that almost all existing devices of semiconductor nano- and optoelectronics such as transistors, photo- electric transducers, lasers, biosensors, and so on can be developed on the basis of NW. Owing to their sizes and unique shape, NW are also promising objects for designing micro- and nanoelectromechanical sensors, pickups, and other similar devices. However, the mea- surement of the mechanical properties of individual NW is a certain problem because of complexity related to the application of standard techniques [1]. Never- theless, various methods of determining the mechani- cal properties of NW based on both the excitation of mechanical vibrations during applying electric field and the use of atomic-force microscopy (AFM) have already been proposed. For example, the Young’s moduli of SiC [2] and GaAs [3] nanowhiskers were determined during their elastic bending under pres- sure of an AFM probe with simultaneous measure- ment of the loading–unloading dependences. In turn, the parameters of mechanical vibrations of boron- based NW were found using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) [4, 5]. The excitation of vibrations in NW pinned at the AFM probe tip was performed both mechanically by applying a stress immediately to the probe and by applying ac electric field between the AFM probe and an additional electrode located near the NW. Similar technique based on the excitation of vibrations by ac electric field was also used for studying the properties of GaN [6], ZnO [7], SiC [8, 9], and SiO 2 [10] nanowhiskers. This work is devoted to a new method of determin- ing the Young’s modulus of (Ga,Mn)As NW based on the excitation and immediate measurement of their mechanical vibrations using a scanning electron microscope. 2. METHODS (Ga,Mn)As NW were grown in a VG100H molec- ular-beam epitaxy device. The growth processes were described in detail in [11]. The synthesis was per- formed on GaAs substrates with the (111)B-type crys- tallographic orientation at the growth temperature T = 660°C. The surface morphology of the samples prepared was studied by scanning electron microscopy on a Zeiss Supra 40 microscope. 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The SEM study of the morphology of NW arrays grown by molecular-beam epitaxy revealed that the NW images are smeared at certain scanning rates. The detailed study of positions of specific (Ga,Mn)As NW showed that NW vibrate (Fig. 1). The displacement of the SEM beam during the image scanning can lead to charging–discharging of the NW tip and, as a result, to the Coulomb interaction between NW and the elec- tron beam. In this case, the NW vibrations can be gen- SEMICONDUCTORS New Method of Determining the Young’s Modulus of (Ga,Mn)As Nanowhiskers with a Scanning Electron Microscope A. D. Bouravleuv a, b, c, *, N. V. Sibirev a, b , D. V. Beznasyuk a, b , N. Lebedeva d , S. Novikov d , H. Lipsanen d , and G. E. Cirlin a–c a St. Petersburg Academic University, ul. Khlopina 8/3, St. Petersburg, 194021 Russia b Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Politekhnicheskaya ul. 26, St. Petersburg, 194021 Russia * e-mail: bour@mail.ioffe.ru c Institute for Analytical Instrumentation, Russian Academy of Sciences, Rizhskii pr. 26, St. Petersburg, 198103, Russia d Aalto University, Värmemansgränden 2, Espoo, 02150 Finland Received April 10, 2013 Abstract—Arrays of (Ga,Mn)As nanowhiskers have been grown by molecular-beam epitaxy. The scanning electron microscopy study of the surface morphology of the samples has revealed the appearance of mechan- ical vibrations of individual nanowhiskers. To describe the vibrations, a model has been developed for the determination of the Young’s modulus of (Ga,Mn)As nanowhiskers. DOI: 10.1134/S1063783413110061