Abstract
A model of the formation of nanowire crystals on surfaces activated by droplets of the catalyst of growth is developed. In the model, the diffusion of adatoms from the surface of the substrate to the lateral surface of the crystals is taken into account. The exact solution of the diffusion problem for the flow of adatoms from the surface to the nanowire crystals is obtained, and the particular cases of the solution for the short and long diffusion lengths of adatoms, λs, are analyzed. A general expression for the length of the nanowire crystals, L, in relation to their radius R and to the conditions of growth is derived. The expression is applicable to a large variety of technologies of growth. The theoretical results are compared with the experimental dependences L(R) in the range of R = 20–250 nm for GaAs nanowire crystals grown by molecular-beam epitaxy on the GaAs (111) V Ga surface activated by Au. It is shown that, in some range of the parameters, the dependence L(R) follows the function 1/R 2ln(λs/R), which is radically different from the classical diffusion dependence 1/R.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
G. Zheng, W. Lu, S. Jin, and C. M. Lieber, Adv. Mater. 16, 1890 (2004).
A. B. Greytak, L. J. Lauhon, M. S. Gudiksen, and C. M. Lieber, Appl. Phys. Lett. 84, 4176 (2004).
M. T. Bjork, B. J. Ohlsson, T. Sass, et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 80, 1058 (2002).
Y. Cui and C. M. Lieber, Science 291, 851 (2001).
S. Gradecak, F. Quin, Y. Li, et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 87, 173111 (2005).
E. Patolsky, G. Zheng, O. Hayden, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101, 14017 (2004).
R. S. Friedman, M. C. McAlpine, D. S. Ricketts, et al., Nature 434, 1085 (2005).
Y. Huang and C. M. Lieber, Pure Appl. Chem. 76, 2051 (2004).
D. Whang, S. Jin, and C. M. Lieber, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 43, 4465 (2004).
R. S. Wagner and W. C. Ellis, Appl. Phys. Lett. 4, 89 (1964).
E. I. Givargizov, J. Cryst. Growth 31, 20 (1975).
P. M. Petroff, A. C. Gossard, and W. Wiegmann, Appl. Phys. Lett. 45, 620 (1984).
R. Bhat, E. Kapon, S. Simhony, et al., J. Cryst. Growth 107, 716 (1991).
K. Hiruma, M. Yazawa, T. Katsuyama, et al., J. Appl. Phys. 77, 447 (1995).
E. I. Givargizov, Growth of Whisker and Lamellar Crystals from Vapors (Nauka, Moscow, 1977) [in Russian].
D. N. Mcllroy, A. Alkhateeb, D. Zhang, et al., J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 16, R415 (2004).
A. I. Persson, M. W. Larsson, S. Stengstrom, et al., Nature Mater. 3, 677 (2004).
E. I. Givargizov and A. A. Chernov, Kristallografiya 18, 147 (1973) [Sov. Phys. Crystallogr. 18, 89 (1973)].
D. Kashchiev, Nucleation: Basic Theory with Applications (Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford, 2000).
V. V. Mamutin, Pis’ma Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 25(18), 55 (1999) [Tech. Phys. Lett. 25, 741 (1999)].
V. G. Dubrovskii and N. V. Sibirev, Phys. Rev. E 70, 031604 (2004).
V. G. Dubrovskiĭ, N. V. Sibirev, and G. E. Cirlin, Pis’ma Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 30(16), 41 (2004) [Tech. Phys. Lett. 30, 682 (2004)].
V. Dubrovskii, N. V. Sibirev, G. Cirlin, et al., Proc. SPIE 5946, 594611 (2005).
G. W. Sears, Acta Metall. 3, 367 (1955).
W. Dittmar and K. Neumann, in Crowth and Perfection of Crystals, Ed. by R. H. Doremus, B. W. Roberts, and D. Turnball (Wiley, New York, 1958), p. 121.
V. Ruth and J. R. Hirth, J. Chem. Phys. 41, 31 (1964).
S. Bhunia, T. Kawamura, S. Fujikawa, and Y. Watanabe, Physica E (Amsterdam) 24, 238 (2004).
G. E. Cirlin, V. G. Dubrovskiĭ, N. V. Sibirev, et al., Fiz. Tekh. Poluprovodn. (St. Petersburg) 39, 587 (2005) [Semiconductors 39, 557 (2005)].
V. G. Dubrovskii, G. E. Cirlin, I. P. Soshnikov, et al., Phys. Rev. B 71, 205 325 (2005).
W. Seifert, M. Borgstrom, K. Deppert, et al., J. Cryst. Growth 272, 211 (2004).
L. Schubert, P. Werner, N. D. Zakharov, et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 84, 4968 (2004).
V. G. Dubrovskii, I. P. Soshnikov, G. E. Cirlin, et al., J. Cryst. Growth 289, 31 (2006).
G. E. Cirlin, A. A. Tonkikh, Yu. B. Samsonenko, et al., Czech. J. Phys. 56, 13 (2006).
J. C. Harmand, G. Patriarche, N. Péré-Laperne, et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 87, 203 101 (2005).
V. G. Dubrovskii, I. P. Soshnikov, G. E. Cirlin, et al., Phys. Status Solidi B 241, R30 (2004).
Handbook of Mathematical Functions, Ed. by M. Abramowitz and I. A. Stegun, 2nd ed. (Dover, New York, 1971; Nauka, Moscow, 1979).
T. Takebe, M. Fujii, T. Yamamoto, et al., J. Appl. Phys. 81, 7273 (1997).
S. Koshiba, Y. Nakamura, M. Tsuchhiya, et al., J. Appl. Phys. 76, 4138 (1994).
V. G. Dubrovskii, Phys. Status Solidi B 171, 345 (1992).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Original Russian Text © V.G. Dubrovskiĭ, N.V. Sibirev, R.A. Suris, G.É. Cirlin, V.M. Ustinov, M. Tchernysheva, J.C. Harmand, 2006, published in Fizika i Tekhnika Poluprovodnikov, 2006, Vol. 40, No. 9, pp. 1103–1110.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dubrovskiĭ, V.G., Sibirev, N.V., Suris, R.A. et al. The role of surface diffusion of adatoms in the formation of nanowire crystals. Semiconductors 40, 1075–1082 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063782606090168
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063782606090168