Direct realizing the growth direction of epitaxial nanowires by electron microscopy

The growth direction of nanowires is critically important for precisely controlling their physical and chemical properties and the performance of related nanowire-based electronic devices. Realizing the true orientations of nanowires is an important issue regarding designing and growth of nanowires with desired orientations and the subsequent applications. In this study, we demonstrated three electron microscopic techniques to determine the growth directions of epitaxial nanowires: mainly, correlating selected area electron diffraction pattern and bright-field imaging in transmission electron microscopes, tilting the nanowires until their growth directions parallel to the incident electron beams in scanning electron microscopes, and correlating the nature of cleavage planes of the nanowire substrates and nanowire projections in the side-view scanning electron microscopic investigations.