title: Metastable crystalline AuGe catalysts formed during isothermal germanium nanowire growth.
abstract: We observe the formation of metastable AuGe phases without quenching, during strictly isothermal nucleation and growth of Ge nanowires, using video-rate lattice-resolved environmental transmission electron microscopy. We explain the unexpected formation of these phases through a novel pathway involving changes in composition rather than temperature. The metastable catalyst has important implications for nanowire growth, and more broadly, the isothermal process provides both a new approach to growing and studying metastable phases, and a new perspective on their formation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0FA, United Kingdom. adg40@cam.ac.uk
authors.forename: A D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Gamalski
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tersoff
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ducati
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hofmann