A novel way to fabricate nanowires by directed self-organization of atoms

We propose here a novel way to fabricate self-assembled nanowire structures on atomically flat substrates during epitaxial deposition. A phase field model is developed for the free energy of the system, which includes short-range as well as long-range elastic interactions between deposited atom clusters and mediated by the substrate. We show here that a weak external periodic field can be utilized to guide the formation of nano-wires on atomically smooth substrates by the self-assembly of deposited atoms. In particular, we show that a weak sub-surface strain field generated by buried interfacial dislocations can dramatically control self-organization of deposited atoms and the emerging atom cluster length scale. The atom composition and field requirement conditions for nucleation of sharp nano-wires are shown in this study. Copyright © 2008 American Scientific Publishers. All rights reserved.