title: A method to determine the strain and nucleation sites of stacked nano-objects.
abstract: We determine the compositional distribution with atomic column resolution in a horizontal nanowire from the analysis of aberration-corrected high resolution Z-contrast images. The strain field in a layer capping the analysed nanowire is determined by anisotropic elastic theory from the resulting compositional map. The reported method allows preferential nucleation sites for epitaxial nanowires to be predicted with high spatial resolution, as required for accurate tuning of desired optical properties. The application of this method has been exemplified in this work for stacked InAs(P) horizontal nanowires grown on InP separated by 3 nm thick InP layers, but we propose it as a general method to be applied to other stacked nano-objects.
authors.affiliation: Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA.
authors.forename: Sergio I
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Molina
authors.forename: María
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Varela
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ben
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Sales
authors.forename: Joaquín
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pizarro
authors.forename: Pedro L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Galindo
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fuster
authors.forename: Yolanda
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: González
authors.forename: Luisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: González
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Pennycook
mesh_terms: D016880:Anisotropy; D003460:Crystallization; D020342:Finite Element Analysis; D007204:Indium / Q000737:chemistry; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission / Q000379:methods; D008858:Microscopy, Phase-Contrast; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D053770:Nanowires / Q000737:chemistry; D010720:Phosphines / Q000737:chemistry; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D010720:Phosphines; D007204:Indium; C090882:indium phosphide