It is well known that a significant lateral growth is observed in the InAsSb sections of InAs/InAsSb heterostructured nanowires (NWs) with intermediate Sb content that prevents the independent control of NW diameter and length. Here we demonstrate that this lateral growth can be suppressed by increasing the growth temperature of the InAsSb segment and by reducing the InAs stem length. Optimized InAsSb sections show good structural and electrical properties. The mechanism driving this reduced lateral growth and its relevance toward the synthesis of highly controlled InAs/InAsSb heterostructured NWs are discussed. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.