A general model was presented, for vapour-liquid-solid nanowire growth-rates, which accounted for adatom diffusion from the substrate and side-walls and into the Au catalyst drop, as well as for the Gibbs-Thomson effect of an elevated chemical potential in a drop with a curved surface. The growth model was compared with experimental length-diameter dependences for InP and Si nanowires grown via metal-organic chemical vapour deposition and for GaAs nanowires grown via molecular beam epitaxy. It was shown that molecular beam epitaxial growth was affected mainly by adatom diffusion from the substrate, whereas metal-organic chemical vapour deposition growth was affected mainly by direct Au drop impingement and side-wall diffusion. The Gibbs-Thomson effect was shown to limit growth for smaller-diameter nanowires. Fits to the diffusion lengths and Gibbs-Thomson radii were determined which explained the observed length-diameter dependences.

Gibbs-Thomson and Diffusion-Induced Contributions to the Growth Rate of Si, InP and GaAs Nanowires. V.G.Dubrovskii, N.V.Sibirev, G.E.Cirlin, I.P.Soshnikov, W.H.Chen, R.Larde, E.Cadel, P.Pareige, T.Xu, B.Grandidier, J.P.Nys, D.Stievenard, M.Moewe, L.C.Chuang, C.Chang-Hasnain: Physical Review B, 2009,79[20], 205316