Mechanisms Determining the Structure of Gold-Catalyzed GaAs Nanowires Studied by in Situ X-ray Diffraction

The evolution of polytypism during GaAs nanowire growth was investigated by in situ X-ray diffraction. The growth of nanowires was found to start with the formation of zincblende structure, followed by the growth of wurtzite structure. The growth process was well reproduced by a simulation based on a layer-by-layer nucleation model. The good agreement between the measured and simulated results confirms that nucleation costs higher energy for the stackings changing the crystal structure than for those conserving the preceding structure. The transition in prevalent structure can be accounted for by the change of local growth conditions related to the shape of a triple phase line rather than by the change in supersaturation level, which quickly reaches steady state after starting growth.