Bistability of Contact Angle and Its Role in Achieving Quantum-Thin Self-Assisted GaAs nanowires
(2018) In Nano Letters 18(1). p.49-57- Abstract
Achieving quantum confinement by bottom-up growth of nanowires has so far been limited to the ability of obtaining stable metal droplets of radii around 10 nm or less. This is within reach for gold-assisted growth. Because of the necessity to maintain the group III droplets during growth, direct synthesis of quantum sized structures becomes much more challenging for self-assisted III-V nanowires. In this work, we elucidate and solve the challenges that involve the synthesis of gallium-assisted quantum-sized GaAs nanowires. We demonstrate the existence of two stable contact angles for the gallium droplet on top of GaAs nanowires. Contact angle around 130° fosters a continuous increase in the nanowire radius, while 90° allows for the... (More)
Achieving quantum confinement by bottom-up growth of nanowires has so far been limited to the ability of obtaining stable metal droplets of radii around 10 nm or less. This is within reach for gold-assisted growth. Because of the necessity to maintain the group III droplets during growth, direct synthesis of quantum sized structures becomes much more challenging for self-assisted III-V nanowires. In this work, we elucidate and solve the challenges that involve the synthesis of gallium-assisted quantum-sized GaAs nanowires. We demonstrate the existence of two stable contact angles for the gallium droplet on top of GaAs nanowires. Contact angle around 130° fosters a continuous increase in the nanowire radius, while 90° allows for the stable growth of ultrathin tops. The experimental results are fully consistent with our model that explains the observed morphological evolution under the two different scenarios. We provide a generalized theory of self-assisted III-V nanowires that describes simultaneously the droplet shape relaxation and the NW radius evolution. Bistability of the contact angle described here should be the general phenomenon that pertains for any vapor-liquid-solid nanowires and significantly refines our picture of how nanowires grow. Overall, our results suggest a new path for obtaining ultrathin one-dimensional III-V nanostructures for studying lateral confinement of carriers.
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- author
- Kim, Wonjong ; Dubrovskii, Vladimir G ; Vukajlovic-Plestina, Jelena ; Tütüncüoglu, Gözde ; Francaviglia, Luca ; Güniat, Lucas ; Potts, Heidi LU ; Friedl, Martin ; Leran, Jean-Baptiste and Fontcuberta I Morral, Anna
- publishing date
- 2018-01-10
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- in
- Nano Letters
- volume
- 18
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 9 pages
- publisher
- The American Chemical Society (ACS)
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:29257895
- scopus:85040309472
- ISSN
- 1530-6992
- DOI
- 10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b03126
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- 00c65411-f3d5-4a5c-964f-546eba887804
- date added to LUP
- 2019-05-15 09:52:08
- date last changed
- 2024-09-03 19:14:11
@article{00c65411-f3d5-4a5c-964f-546eba887804, abstract = {{<p>Achieving quantum confinement by bottom-up growth of nanowires has so far been limited to the ability of obtaining stable metal droplets of radii around 10 nm or less. This is within reach for gold-assisted growth. Because of the necessity to maintain the group III droplets during growth, direct synthesis of quantum sized structures becomes much more challenging for self-assisted III-V nanowires. In this work, we elucidate and solve the challenges that involve the synthesis of gallium-assisted quantum-sized GaAs nanowires. We demonstrate the existence of two stable contact angles for the gallium droplet on top of GaAs nanowires. Contact angle around 130° fosters a continuous increase in the nanowire radius, while 90° allows for the stable growth of ultrathin tops. The experimental results are fully consistent with our model that explains the observed morphological evolution under the two different scenarios. We provide a generalized theory of self-assisted III-V nanowires that describes simultaneously the droplet shape relaxation and the NW radius evolution. Bistability of the contact angle described here should be the general phenomenon that pertains for any vapor-liquid-solid nanowires and significantly refines our picture of how nanowires grow. Overall, our results suggest a new path for obtaining ultrathin one-dimensional III-V nanostructures for studying lateral confinement of carriers.</p>}}, author = {{Kim, Wonjong and Dubrovskii, Vladimir G and Vukajlovic-Plestina, Jelena and Tütüncüoglu, Gözde and Francaviglia, Luca and Güniat, Lucas and Potts, Heidi and Friedl, Martin and Leran, Jean-Baptiste and Fontcuberta I Morral, Anna}}, issn = {{1530-6992}}, language = {{eng}}, month = {{01}}, number = {{1}}, pages = {{49--57}}, publisher = {{The American Chemical Society (ACS)}}, series = {{Nano Letters}}, title = {{Bistability of Contact Angle and Its Role in Achieving Quantum-Thin Self-Assisted GaAs nanowires}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b03126}}, doi = {{10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b03126}}, volume = {{18}}, year = {{2018}}, }