Defect Transfer from Nanoparticles to Nanowires

• Published in: Nano letters Vol. 11; no. 4; pp. 1550 - 1555
• Main Authors: Barth, Sven, Boland, John J, Holmes, Justin D
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Chemical Society 13.04.2011
• Subjects: Computer Simulation; Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Crystallization - methods; Exact sciences and technology; Low-dimensional structures (superlattices, quantum well structures, multilayers): structure, and nonelectronic properties; Macromolecular Substances - chemistry; Materials science; Models, Chemical; Models, Molecular; Molecular Conformation; Nanocrystalline materials; Nanoscale materials and structures: fabrication and characterization; Nanoscale materials: clusters, nanoparticles, nanotubes, and nanocrystals; Nanostructures - chemistry; Nanostructures - ultrastructure; Particle Size; Physics; Quantum wires; Silver - chemistry; Structure of solids and liquids; crystallography; Surface Properties; Surfaces and interfaces; thin films and whiskers (structure and nonelectronic properties); nanocrystal; SFSS; defects; Germanium; silver; solid-phase seeding; nanowire; Crystal defects; Stacking faults; Semiconductor materials; Crystal seeds; Nanostructures; Aspect ratio; Crystal perfection; Physical properties; Precursor; Nanoparticles; Silver; Morphology; Growth mechanism; Nanowires; Nanostructured materials; Nanomaterial synthesis; Crystal structure
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992
• DOI: 10.1021/nl104339w

Metal-seeded growth of one-dimensional (1D) semiconductor nanostructures is still a very active field of research, despite the huge progress which has been made in understanding this fundamental phenomenon. Liquid growth promoters allow control of the aspect ratio, diameter, and structure of 1D crystals via external parameters, such as precursor feedstock, temperature, and operating pressure. However the transfer of crystallographic information from a catalytic nanoparticle seed to a growing nanowire has not been described in the literature. Here we define the theoretical requirements for transferring defects from nanoparticle seeds to growing semiconductor nanowires and describe why Ag nanoparticles are ideal candidates for this purpose. We detail in this paper the influence of solid Ag growth seeds on the crystal quality of Ge nanowires, synthesized using a supercritical fluid growth process. Significantly, under certain reaction conditions {111} stacking faults in the Ag seeds can be directly transferred to a high percentage of ⟨112⟩-oriented Ge nanowires, in the form of radial twins in the semiconductor crystals. Defect transfer from nanoparticles to nanowires could open up the possibility of engineering 1D nanostructures with new and tunable physical properties and morphologies.