Physical mechanism of surface roughening on the radial core-shell nanowire heterostructure with alloy shell

Abstract

We proposed a quantitative thermodynamic theory to address the physical process of surface roughening during the epitaxial growth of core-shell NW with alloy layer. The surface roughening origins from the transformation of the Frank-van der Merwe (FM) mode to the Stranski-Krastanow (SK) mode. In addition to the radius of NW core, the composition and thickness of alloy shell could determine the growth behaviors due to their modulation to the strain. The established theoretical model not only explains the surface roughening caused by the alloy shell layer, but also provides a new way to control the growth of core-shell NW.