Point defect configurations of supersaturated Au atoms inside Si nanowires.
Aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) is used to reveal individual Au atom configurations inside Si nanowires grown by Au-catalyzed vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). We identify a substitutional and three distinct interstitial configurations, one of which has not been previously identified. We confirm the stability of the observed point defect configurations by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The observed number densities of the various configurations are in accord with their calculated formation energies. The concentration of Au atoms is larger than the solubility limit, but the effect may be caused by the STEM beam.
Oh
Sang Ho
SH
Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA. shoh@kbsi.re.kr
van Benthem
Klaus
K
Molina
Sergio I
SI
Borisevich
Albina Y
AY
Luo
Weidong
W
Werner
Peter
P
Zakharov
Nikolai D
ND
Kumar
Dhananjay
D
Pantelides
Sokrates T
ST
Pennycook
Stephen J
SJ