A new paper on Nano Letter has been published by Jeremy David (Center for Nanotechnology Innovation @NEST) and collaborators from NEST, Scuola Normale Superiore and Istituto Nanoscienze-CNR. The topic is the study of crystal phases in hybrid metal−semiconductor nanowire devices by electron diffraction tomography.
They have investigated the metallic phases observed in hybrid metal-GaAs nanowire devices obtained by controlled thermal annealing of Ni/Au electrodes. Devices were fabricated onto a SiN membrane compatible with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy allows to show that the nanowire body includes two Ni-rich phases that thanks to an innovative use of electron diffraction tomography can be unambiguously identified as Ni3GaAs and Ni5As2 crystals. The mechanisms of Ni incorporation leading to the observed phenomenology have been discussed in the paper. More details can be found HERE.
