Vapour-liquid-solid (VLS) techniques are popular routes for the scalable synthesis of semiconductor nanowires. In this article, in-situ electron microscopy is used to correlate the equilibrium content of ternary (Au0.75 Ag 0.25 -Ge and Au 0.65 Ag 0.35 -Ge) metastable alloys with the kinetics, thermodynamics and diameter of Ge nanowires grown via a VLS mechanism. The shape and geometry of the heterogeneous interfaces between the liquid eutectic and solid Ge nanowires varies as a function of nanowire diameter and eutectic alloy composition. The behaviour of the faceted heterogeneous liquid-solid interface correlates with the growth kinetics of the nanowires, where the main growth facet at the solid nanowire-liquid catalyst drop contact line lengthens for faster nanowire growth kinetics. Pronounced diameter dependent growth kinetics, as inferred from liquid-solid interfacial behaviour, is apparent for the synthesised nanowires. Direct in-situ microscopy observations facilitates the comparison between the nanowire growth behaviour from ternary (Au-Ag-Ge) and binary (Au-Ge) eutectic systems.
CITATION STYLE
Biswas, S., O’Regan, C., Morris, M. A., & Holmes, J. D. (2015). In-situ observations of nanoscale effects in germanium nanowire growth with ternary eutectic alloys. Small, 11(1), 103–111. https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.201401240
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