The influence of anisotropic diffusion on Ag nanowire formation

Photoemission electron microscopy is used to study the growth of single-crystalline silver nanowires on flat and vicinal Si(001) substrates. The growth experiments were performed at various temperatures and showed a temperature dependence of nanowire formation. The nanowires on Si(001) are evenly distributed in the [110] and [Formula: see text] directions on the surface, whereas on a 4° vicinal surface the wires grow only along the steps, in the [Formula: see text] direction. This change in wire distribution is attributed to the increasing diffusion anisotropy as the vicinality of the substrate increases.