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Physical Review Letters
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Metastable crystalline AuGe catalysts formed during isothermal germanium nanowire growth

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Abstract

We observe the formation of metastable AuGe phases without quenching, during strictly isothermal nucleation and growth of Ge nanowires, using video-rate lattice-resolved environmental transmission electron microscopy. We explain the unexpected formation of these phases through a novel pathway involving changes in composition rather than temperature. The metastable catalyst has important implications for nanowire growth, and more broadly, the isothermal process provides both a new approach to growing and studying metastable phases, and a new perspective on their formation. © 2012 American Physical Society.

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Physical Review Letters

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