Kinetics of germanium nanowire growth by the vapor-solid-solid mechanism with a Ni-based catalyst

Abstract

The kinetics of vapor-solid-solid (VSS) Ge nanowire growth using a Ni-based catalyst were investigated to probe the rate-limiting step for this complex nanoscale crystal growth process. The effects of key parameters such as temperature and precursor partial pressure on the nanowire growth rate were studied in order to gain detailed insights into the growth kinetics. Two different regimes were observed for VSS growth of Ge nanowires as function of temperature. At higher temperatures (345 °C–375 °C), kinetics data suggest that mass transport of germane precursor to the catalyst surface is rate limiting. At lower temperatures (<345 °C), either surface reaction of the GeH4 precursor on the catalyst or incorporation of Ge into the nanowire across the wire/catalyst interface is rate limiting.

Recent advances in Sb-based III–V nanowires

“…Otherwise, the catalyst alloy remains in the solid-state if the NWs growth temperature is lower than the eutectic temperature of catalyst alloy. In this case, NWs follow a VSS (as shown in figure 1(f)) growth mechanism [105]. Sometimes, the growth temperature of NWs is close to the eutectic temperature of catalyst alloy, resulting in the liquid-solid coexistence state of catalyst alloy.…”

Facile synthesis of Ge1−xSnx nanowires

“…For example, the diameter of the interface of the nanowire shown in figure 1(b) is about 110 nm, whilst the diameter of the interface region of the nanowire in figure 3(a) is about 75 nm (The corresponding magnified images are shown in figure S3.) The interface between the seed particle and nanowire is typically smaller than the diameter at half-length because of the growth mechanism involved in this type of nanowire synthesis [28,[34][35][36][37].…”

High-performance printed electronics based on inorganic semiconducting nano to chip scale structures

“…The major advantage of the bottom-up approaches is their ability to precisely tune crystallinity and composition during the growth process. Synthesis strategies, including catalyst particle assisted vapour-liquid-solid (VLS) [75,[110][111][112], vapour-solid (VS) [113][114][115][116], vapour-solid-solid (VSS) [117][118][119][120][121], and low-temperature solution-based processes such as hydrothermal [74,79,83] have been widely exploited for growing inorganic NWs. The VLS growth of NWs (Fig.…”