Twin Plane Re-entrant Mechanism for Catalytic Nanowire Growth

Published

March 12, 2014

Author(s)

Andrew D. Gamalski, Peter W. Voorhees, Renu Sharma, Caterina Ducati, Stephan Hofmann

Abstract

We observe a twin plane re-entrant based growth mechanism for Au catalyzed Ge nanowire growth using video-rate lattice-resolved environmental transmission electron microscopy. For a [112] growth direction, we find a convex, V-shaped liquid catalyst-nanowire growth interface, composed of two Ge (111) planes that are truncated towards the triple phase boundary, that allows the interface to advance in discrete steps. The nanoscale geometry allows steady state growth based on a single twin boundary at the nanowire centre. We propose that the nucleation barrier at the twin plane re-entrant groove is effectively reduced by the line energy and hence the twin acts as a preferential nucleation site for atomic steps, which dictates the observed growth behavior.

Citation

Nano Letters

Volume

14

Issue

3

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1021/nl404244u

Local Download

Keywords

Nanowire, Environmental Transmission Electron Microscopy, Twin Plane Re-entrant Mechanism, Vapor Liquid Solid Growth Model

Citation

Gamalski, A. , Voorhees, P. , Sharma, R. , Ducati, C. and Hofmann, S. (2014), Twin Plane Re-entrant Mechanism for Catalytic Nanowire Growth, Nano Letters, [online], https://doi.org/10.1021/nl404244u, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=913029 (Accessed October 11, 2025)