A method to determine the strain and nucleation sites of stacked nano-objects.
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.
Molina
Sergio I
SI
Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA.
Varela
María
M
Ben
Teresa
T
Sales
David L
DL
Pizarro
Joaquín
J
Galindo
Pedro L
PL
Fuster
David
D
González
Yolanda
Y
González
Luisa
L
Pennycook
Stephen J
SJ
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
D010720:Phosphines; D007204:Indium; C090882:indium phosphide