Selective area heteroepitaxy of InAs nanostructures on nanopillar-patterned GaAs(111)A <jats:p> A process sequence enabling the large-area fabrication of nanopillar-patterned semiconductor templates for selective-area heteroepitaxy is developed. Herein, the nanopillar tops surrounded by a SiN<jats:sub>x</jats:sub> mask film serve as nanoscale growth areas. The molecular beam epitaxial growth of InAs on such patterned GaAs[Formula: see text]A templates is investigated by means of electron microscopy. It is found that defect-free nanoscale InAs islands grow selectively on the nanopillar tops at a substrate temperature of 425 °C. High-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy imaging reveals that for a growth temperature of 400 °C, the InAs islands show a tendency to form wurtzite phase arms extending along the lateral [Formula: see text] directions from the central zinc blende region of the islands. This is ascribed to a temporary self-catalyzed vapor–liquid–solid growth on [Formula: see text] B facets, which leads to a kinetically induced preference for the nucleation of the wurtzite phase driven by the local, instantaneous V/III ratio, and to a concomitant reduction of surface energy of the nanoscale diameter arms. </jats:p> 132 18 AIP Publishing