A simple scheme was used to calculate the energies of stacking faults, polytypes, and arbitrary stacking sequences in elementary and compound semiconductors. The scheme was based upon the calculation of 2 elementary energies, which could be obtained, for each material, from the computed difference of energy between its cubic and hexagonal modifications and from the measured or computed energy of a single kind of stacking fault. Formulae were given for faults in both zincblende and wurtzite structures and for the stacking sequences that occurred during the transformation of one phase into the other. This applied, in particular, to nanowires; where such faults and sequences were frequently encountered.

A Simple Calculation of Energy Changes upon Stacking Fault Formation or Local Crystalline Phase Transition in Semiconductors. F.Glas: Journal of Applied Physics, 2008, 104[9], 093520