A detailed study of kinking in indium-catalyzed silicon nanowires

Abstract

Kinking of semiconductor nanowires grown by the vapour–solid–liquid (VSL) mechanism has long been observed and studied, particularly for Si. A large variety of turning angles for kinked Si nanowires (KSiNWs) has been reported in the literature, but most authors have studied the kinking mechanism rather than the structure and corresponding geometrical features of the kinks. Here, we have investigated the relationship between the turning angles and the structure (down to atomic level) of KSiNWs grown by VSL from indium nanoparticles. By using transmission electron microscopy, we have characterized the transition regions between different segments of KSiNWs of various crystallographic orientations. We have found that most turning angles can be viewed as rich combinations of different types of {111} coherent twins that coexist within the transition regions between different segments of KSiNWs.