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Originally published in Science Express on 1 May 2008
Science 23 May 2008:
Vol. 320. no. 5879, pp. 1060 - 1063
DOI: 10.1126/science.1157131
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Reports

Dislocation-Driven Nanowire Growth and Eshelby Twist

Matthew J. Bierman,1* Y. K. Albert Lau,1* Alexander V. Kvit,2 Andrew L. Schmitt,1 Song Jin1{dagger}

Hierarchical nanostructures of lead sulfide nanowires resembling pine trees were synthesized by chemical vapor deposition. Structural characterization revealed a screwlike dislocation in the nanowire trunks with helically rotating epitaxial branch nanowires. It is suggested that the screw component of an axial dislocation provides the self-perpetuating steps to enable one-dimensional crystal growth, in contrast to mechanisms that require metal catalysts. The rotating trunks and branches are the consequence of the Eshelby twist of screw dislocations with a dislocation Burgers vector along the <110> directions having an estimated magnitude of 6 ± 2 angstroms for the screw component. The results confirm the Eshelby theory of dislocations, and the proposed nanowire growth mechanism could be general to many materials.

1 Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1101 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
2 Materials Science Center, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1509 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53706, USA.

* These authors contributed equally to this work.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jin{at}chem.wisc.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
From the Cover: Dislocation theory of chirality-controlled nanotube growth.
F. Ding, A. R. Harutyunyan, and B. I. Yakobson (2009)
PNAS 106, 2506-2509
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