Silicon carbide was a covalent material with many polytypes. The cubic phase,

which has essentially zero formation energy, dominates in SiC nanowires. These

nanowires contain twin boundaries that were far separated, in contradiction to the

zero formation energy. This paper presents a model to account for the wellseparated

and equal-spaced twins in SiC nanowires. The model was based on the

energy minimization of interfaces and edges near twin boundaries. The theoretical

results showed that the distance between neighbouring twin boundaries was equal

to 18 to 31% of the diameter for SiC nanowires. This result was in agreement with

experimental data on SiC nanowires and micro-whiskers.

Twin Formation During SiC Nanowire Synthesis. H.W.Shim, Y.Zhang, H.Huang:

Journal of Applied Physics, 2008, 104[6], 063511