Broadening of length distributions of Au-catalyzed InAs nanowires

Abstract

We investigate kinetic broadening effects on the length distributions of gold-catalyzed InAs nanowires having different diameters. It is shown that the length distributions acquire bimodal shape when the longest nanowires exceed the diffusion length of indium adatoms on the nanowire sidewalls. Later on, the length distributions recover unimodal shapes. We develop a theoretical model that is capable of describing the observed behaviors by accounting for the diffusion-induced character of the vapor-liquid-solid growth.