The fabrication and properties of metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy grown InP and InP(N) nanowires on InP(I I I)B substrates are investigated. Nanowires are grown catalyst-free using in situ deposited In droplets as seeds for nanowire growth. It is shown that the resulting nanowire diameter can be controlled by the droplet deposition temperature. Moreover, the nanowire shape is strongly affected by the V/III molar ratio. Nanowires grown using this method are optically active exhibiting a room-temperature photoluminescence peak at 1.37 eV, slightly blue-shifted from the band gap energy of bulk zinc-blende InP. No significant nitrogen incorporation in the nanowires was observed when nitrogen precursor was added in the gas phase. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.