In this paper, we study the morphologic interaction between graphene and Si nanowires on a SiO2 substrate, using molecular mechanics simulations. Two cases are considered: 1) a graphene nanoribbon intercalated by a single Si nanowire on a SiO2 substrate and 2) a blanket graphene flake intercalated by an array of Si nanowires evenly patterned in parallel on a SiO2 substrate. Various graphene morphologies emerge from the simulation results of these two cases, which are shown to depend on both geometric parameters (e.g., graphene nanoribbon width, nanowire diameter, and nanowire spacing) and material properties (e.g., graphene-nanowire and graphene-substrate bonding strength). While the quantitative results at the atomistic resolution in this study can be further used to determine the change of electronic properties of graphene under morphologic regulation, the qualitative understandings from this study can be extended to help exploring graphene morphology in other material systems.
We study the effect of Joule heating from electric currents flowing through ferromagnetic nanowires on the temperature of the nanowires and on the temperature of the substrate on which the nanowires are grown. The spatial current density distribution, the associated heat generation, and diffusion of heat is simulated within the nanowire and the substrate. We study several different nanowire and constriction geometries as well as different substrates: (thin) silicon nitride membranes, (thick) silicon wafers, and (thick) diamond wafers. The spatially resolved increase in temperature as a functio…
The graphene morphology regulated by nanowires patterned in parallel on a substrate surface is quantitatively determined using energy minimization. The regulated graphene morphology is shown to be governed by the nanowire diameter, the nanowire spacing and the interfacial bonding energies between the graphene and the underlying nanowires and substrate. We demonstrate two representative regulated graphene morphologies and determine critical values of the nanowire spacing, nanowire diameter and interfacial bonding energies at which graphene switches between the two representative morphologies. I…
We demonstrate a substrate-supported thermometry platform to measure thermal conduction in nanomaterials like graphene, with no need to suspend them. We use three-dimensional simulations and careful uncertainty analysis to optimize the platform geometry and to obtain the sample thermal conductivity. The lowest thermal sheet conductance that can be sensed with <50% error is ~25 nW/K at room temperature, indicating applicability of this platform to graphene or polymer thin films, nanotube or nanowire arrays, even a single Si nanowire. The platform can also be extended to plastic substrates, and …
The influence of the oxide in Ga-assisted growth of GaAs nanowires on Si substrates is investigated. Three different types of oxides with different structure and chemistry are considered. We observe that the critical oxide thicknesses needed for achieving nanowire growth depends on the nature of oxide and how it is processed. Additionally, we find that different growth conditions such as temperature and Ga rate are needed for successful nanowire growth on different oxides. We generalize the results in terms of the characteristics of the oxides such as surface roughness, stoichiometry and thick…
Topological quantum computing is based on braiding of Majorana zero modes encoding topological qubits. A promising candidate platform for Majorana zero modes is semiconductor-superconductor hybrid nanowires. The realization of topological qubits and braiding operations requires scalable and disorder-free nanowire networks. Selective area growth of in-plane InAs and InSb nanowires, together with shadow-wall growth of superconductor structures, have demonstrated this scalability by achieving various network structures. However, the noticeable lattice mismatch at the nanowire-substrate interface,…
Recent experiments show the possibility of realization of the Majorana quasiparticles at the end of the low dimensional structures. In this type of systems, interplay between spin orbit coupling, superconductivity and magnetic field leads to the emergence of the Majorana bound states in the topologically non-trivial phase. Here, we study the nanowire located partially at the normal and superconducting base, using microscopic model of this structure and the Bogoliubov--de~Gennes technique. We discuss the possibility of the leakage of the Majorana bound state, located at the part above supercond…
Gallium nitride nanowires were grown on c-plane, r-plane and m-plane sapphire substrates in a showerhead metalorganic chemical vapor deposition system using nickel catalyst with trimethylgallium and ammonia as precursors. We studied the influence of carrier gas, growth temperature, reactor pressure, reactant flow rates and substrate orientation in order to obtain thin nanowires. The nanowires grew along the <10-11> and <10-10> axes depending on the substrate orientation. These nanowires were further characterized using x-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, photoluminescence and Raman spectro…
The selective area growth of Ga-assisted GaAs nanowires (NWs) with a high vertical yield on Si(111) substrates is still challenging. Here, we explore different surface preparations and their impact on NW growth by molecular beam epitaxy. We show that boiling the substrate in ultrapure water leads to a significant improvement in the vertical yield of NWs (realizing 80%) grown on substrates patterned by electron-beam lithography (EBL). Tentatively, we attribute this improvement to a reduction in atomic roughness of the substrate in the mask opening. On this basis, we transfer our growth results …
We demonstrate a new method to measure absorption coefficients in any family of nanowires, provided they are grown on a substrate having considerable difference in permittivity with the nanowire-air matrix. In the case of high crystal quality, strain-free GaN nanowires, grown on Si (111) substrates with a density of ~1010 cm-2, the extracted absorption coefficients do not exhibit any enhancement compared to bulk GaN values, unlike relevant claims in the literature. This may be attributed to the relatively small diameters, short heights, and high densities of our nanowire arrays.
We report on the heterogeneous nucleation of catalyst-free InAs nanowires on Si (111) substrates by chemical beam epitaxy. We show that nanowire nucleation is enhanced by sputtering the silicon substrate with energetic particles. We argue that particle bombardment introduces lattice defects on the silicon surface that serve as preferential nucleation sites. The formation of these nucleation sites can be controlled by the sputtering parameters, allowing the control of nanowire density in a wide range. Nanowire nucleation is accompanied by unwanted parasitic islands, but by careful choice of ann…
The present study elucidates the correlation between the structural and optical properties of GaN nanowires grown on Si(111) substrate by plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PA-MBE) technique under various growth conditions. GaN NWs exhibiting different shapes, sizes and distribution were grown at various substrate temperatures with same Ga-N (III-V) ratio of 0.4. We observe that sample grown at lower substrate temperature (~700 degC) results 2-dimensional island like structure with almost very little (~30%) circularity while increasing substrate temperature (>770 degC) leads to growth of …
In this work, ZnO nanowire arrays decorated with titanium nitride (TiN) nanoparticles as surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates is demonstrated. ZnO nanowires were grown by hydrothermal synthesis while ~100 nm TiN nanoparticles were obtained by grinding commercial powders for several hours. They were then decorated on the ZnO nanowire arrays using acetone as the medium. Scanning electron microscopy confirmed the presence of TiN nanoparticles on the ZnO nanowires. TiN nanoparticles exhibited localized surface plasmon resonances at 430, 520 and 600 nm. SERS experiments using Nile Bl…
To prepare for identifying the composition of nanowire-fiber mixtures in Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images, we optimize the performance of image classification between nanowires, fibers and tips due to their geometric similarities. The SEM images are analyzed by deep learning techniques where the validation accuracies of 11 convolutional neural network (CNN) models are compared. By increasing the diversity of data such as reflection, translation and scale factor approaches, the highest validation accuracy of recognizing nanowires, fibers and tips is 97.1%. We proceed to classify the le…
Here we present a novel approach to control magnetic interactions in atomic-scale nanowires. Our ab initio calculations demonstrate the possibility to tune magnetic properties of Fe nanowires formed on vicinal Cu surfaces. Both intrawire and interwire magnetic exchange parameters are extracted from DFT calculations. This study suggests that the effective interwire magnetic exchange parameters exhibit Ruderman--Kittel--Kasuya--Yosida-like (RKKY) oscillations as a function of Fe interwire separation. The choice of vicinal Cu surface offers possibilities for controlling the magnetic coupling. Fur…
We demonstrate the Au-assisted growth of semiconductor nanowires on different engineered substrates. Two relevant cases are investigated: GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures capped by a $50 {\rm nm}$-thick InAs layer grown by molecular beam epitaxy and a $2 {\rm μm}$-thick InAs buffer layer on Si(111) obtained by vapor phase epitaxy. Morphological and structural properties of substrates and nanowires are analyzed by atomic force and transmission electron microscopy. Our results indicate a promising direction for the integration of III-V nanostructures on Si-based electronics as well as for the develo…
Mn-doped GaAs nanowires were grown in the self-catalytic growth mode on oxidized Si(100) surface by molecular beam epitaxy and characterized by scanning and transmission electron microscopy, Raman scattering, photoluminescence, cathodoluminescence, and electron transport measurements. The transmission electron microscopy studies evidenced the substantial accumulation of Mn inside the catalyzing Ga droplets at the top of the nanowires. Optical and transport measurements revealed that the limit of Mn content for self-catalysed growth of GaAs nanowires corresponds to the doping level, i.e., is mu…
We study the role of gold droplets in the initial stage of nanowire growth via the vapor liquid solid method. Apart from serving as a collections center for growth species, the gold droplets carry an additional crucial role that necessarily precedes the nanowire emergence, that is, they assist the nucleation of nanocraters with strongly faceted 111B side walls. Only once these facets become sufficiently large and regular, the gold droplets start nucleating and guiding the growth of nanowires. We show that this dual role of the gold droplets can be detected and monitored by high energy electron…
The magnetic anisotropy energy of Fe and Co monatomic nanowires both free-standing and at the step edge of a Pt surface is investigated within the framework of the density-functional theory and local-spin-density (LSDA) approximation. Various types of the analysis of the calculated data reveal that the spin-orbit interaction of the Pt atoms and the hybridization between the electronic states have an important impact on the direction of the easy axis and on the magnitude of the magnetic anisotropy, both by a direct contribution localized at the Pt atoms and by an indirect contribution due to th…
Controlling the growth of zinc oxide nanowires is necessary to optimize the performances of nanowire-based devices such as photovoltaic solar cells, nano-generators, or light-emitting diodes. In this view, we investigate the nucleation and growth mechanisms of ZnO nanowires grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy either on O-polar ZnO or on sapphire substrates. Whatever the substrate, ZnO nanowires are Zn-polar, as demonstrated by convergent beam electron diffraction. For growth on O-polar ZnO substrate, the nanowires are found to sit on O-polar pyramids. As growth proceeds, the inversion do…
ZnSe nanowire growth has been successfully achieved on ZnSe (100) and (111)B buffer layers deposited on GaAs substrates. Cubic [100] oriented ZnSe nanowires or [0001] oriented hexagonal NWs are obtained on (100) substrates while [111] oriented cubic mixed with [0001] oriented hexagonal regions are obtained on (111)B substrates. Most of the NWs are perpendicular to the surface in the last case. CdSe quantum dots were successfully incorporated in the ZnSe NWs as demonstrated by transmission electron microscopy, energy filtered TEM and high angle annular dark field scanning TEM measurements.
GaAs nanowires were grown by molecular beam epitaxy on Si(100) substrates covered with 5 nm SiO2. The growth was performed with As4 at low, close to stoichiometric, As4/Ga flux ratio, using Ga nanodroplets as catalyst. The nanowires are found to be in epitaxial relation to the Si substrate due to contact via pinholes through the SiO2 layer. The nanowires are up to 15 micrometers long and have diameters of about 100 nm, the catalyzing Ga nanodroplets are observed at their tops.
Images of uniform and upright nanowires are fascinating, but often, they are quite puzzling, when epitaxial templating from the substrate is clearly absent. Here, we reveal the physics underlying one such hidden growth guidance mechanism through a specific example - the case of ZnO nanowires grown on silicon oxide and glass. We show how electric fields exerted by the insulating substrate may be manipulated through the surface charge to define the orientation and polarity of the nanowires. Surface charge is ubiquitous on the surfaces of semiconductors and insulators, and as a result, substrate …
A procedure to achieve the density-controlled growth of gold-catalyzed InP nanowires (NWs) on (111) silicon substrates using the vapor-liquid-solid method by molecular beam epitaxy is reported. We develop an effective and mask-free method based on controlling the number and the size of the Au-In catalyst droplets in addition to the conditions for the NW nucleation. We show that the NW density can be tuned with values in the range of 18 μm-2 to < 0.1 μm-2 by the suitable choice of the In/Au catalyst beam equivalent pressure (BEP) ratio, by the phosphorous BEP and the growth temperature. The sam…
We present experimental data and computational analysis of the formation of GaN nanowires on graphene virtual substrates. We show that GaN nanowires on graphene exhibit nitrogen polarity. We employ the DFT-based computational analysis to demonstrate that among different possible configurations of Ga and N atoms only the N-polar one is stable. We suggest that polarity discrimination occurs due to the dipole interaction between the GaN nanocrystal and $π$-orbitals of the graphene sheet.
Fabrication techniques such as laser patterning offer excellent potential for low cost and large area device fabrication. Conductive polymers can be used to replace expensive metallic inks such as silver and gold nanoparticles for printing technology. Electrical conductivity of the polymers can be improved by blending with carbon nanotubes. In this work, formulations of acid functionalised multiwall carbon nanotubes (f-MWCNT) and poly (ethylenedioxythiophene) [PEDOT]: polystyrene sulphonate [PSS] were processed, and thin films were prepared on plastic substrates. Conductivity of PEDOT: PSS inc…
In this paper the early stages of the self-catalyzed Vapor-Liquid-Solid (VLS) growth of GaAs nanowires on epi-ready Si substrates by Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) are studied. The interaction of Ga nano-droplets (NDs) with the silica overlayer is investigated by X-ray Photoemission Spectroscopy (XPS) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). We show how Ga NDs drill the silica overlayer and make contact with bulk Si to allow GaAs nanowires (NWs) epitaxial growth by studying each of the three steps of the NW growth process sequentially: Ga NDs pre-deposition, post-deposition annealing to reach the NW g…
Bottom up nanowires are attractive for realizing semiconductor devices with extreme heterostructures because strain relaxation through the nanowire sidewalls allows the combination of highly lattice mismatched materials without creating dislocations. The resulting nanowires are used to fabricate light emitting diodes (LEDs), lasers, solar cells and sensors. However, expensive single crystalline substrates are commonly used as substrates for nanowire heterostructures as well as for epitaxial devices, which limits the manufacturability of nanowire devices. Here, we demonstrate nanowire LEDs dire…
A new critical growth parameter and mechanistic model for SiC nanowire synthesis via Si substrate carbonization: the role of H$_2$/CH$_4$ gas flow ratio
We investigate the influence of modified growth conditions during the spontaneous formation of GaN nanowires on Si(111) in plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. We find that a two-step growth approach, where the substrate temperature is increased during the nucleation stage, is an efficient method to gain control over the area coverage, average diameter, and coalescence degree of GaN nanowire ensembles. Furthermore, we also demonstrate that the growth conditions employed during the incubation time that precedes nanowire nucleation do not influence the properties of the final nanowire ensembl…
We investigate the electromechanical interactions in individual P(VDF-TrFE) nanowires in response to localized electrical poling via a conducting atomic force microscope tip. Spatially resolved measurements of piezoelectric coefficients and elastic moduli before and after poling reveal a striking dependence on the polarity of the poling field, notably absent in thin films of the same composition. These observations are attributed to the unclamped nature of the nanowires and the inherent asymmetry in their chemical and electrical interactions with the tip and underlying substrate. Our findings …
GaAs:Mn nanowires were obtained on GaAs(001) and GaAs(111)B substrates by molecular beam epitaxial growth of (Ga,Mn)As at conditions leading to MnAs phase separation. Their density is proportional to the density of catalyzing MnAs nanoislands, which can be controlled by the Mn flux and/or the substrate temperature. Being rooted in the ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As, the nanowires combine one-dimensional properties with the magnetic properties of (Ga,Mn)As and provide natural, self assembled structures for nanospintronics.
Selective area growth (SAG) of nanowires and networks promise a route toward scalable electronics, photonics and quantum devices based on III-V semiconductor materials. The potential of high-mobility SAG nanowires however is not yet fully realized, since interfacial roughness, misfit dislocations at the nanowire/substrate interface and non-uniform composition due to material intermixing all scatter electrons. Here, we explore SAG of highly lattice-mismatched InAs nanowires on insulating GaAs(001) substrates and address these key challenges. Atomically smooth nanowire/substrate interfaces are a…
Self-assisted growth of InAs nanowires on graphene by molecular beam epitaxy is reported. Nanowires with diameter of ~50 nm and aspect ratio of up to 100 were achieved. The morphological and structural properties of the nanowires were carefully studied by changing the substrate from bilayer graphene through buffer layer to quasi-free-standing monolayer graphene. The positional relation of the InAs NWs with the graphene substrate was determined. A 30° orientation configuration of some of the InAs NWs is shown to be related to the surface corrugation of the graphene substrate. InAs NW-based devi…
We investigate the inhibited spontaneous emission of telecom-band InAs quantum disks (Qdisks) in InP nanowires (NWs). We have evaluated how the inhibition is affected by different disk diameter and thickness. We also compared the inhibition in standing InP NWs and those NWs laying on silica (SiO2), and silicon (Si) substrates. We found that the inhibition is altered when we put the NW on the high-refractive index materials of Si. Experimentally, the inhibition factor $ζ$ of the Qdisk emission at 1,500 nm decreases from 4.6 to 2.5 for NW on SiO2 and Si substrates, respectively. Those inhibition…
We demonstrate the self-assembled formation of AlN nanowires by molecular beam epitaxy on sputtered TiN films on sapphire. This choice of substrate allows growth at an exceptionally high temperature of 1180 °C. In contrast to previous reports, the nanowires are well separated and do not suffer from pronounced coalescence. This achievement is explained by sufficient Al adatom diffusion on the substrate and the nanowire sidewalls. The high crystalline quality of the nanowires is evidenced by the observation of near band edge emission in the cathodoluminescence spectrum. The key factor for the lo…
AlN layers with thicknesses between 2 and 14 nm were grown on Si(111) substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. The effect of the AlN layer thickness on the morphology and nucleation time of spontaneously formed GaN nanowires (NWs) was investigated by scanning electron microscopy and line-of-sight quadrupole mass spectrometry, respectively. We observed that the alignment of the NWs grown on these layers improves with increasing layer thickness while their nucleation time decreases. Our results show that 4 nm is the smallest thickness of the AlN layer that allows the growth of well-aligned NWs with…
Using nanowires for photodetection constitutes an opportunity to enhance the absorption efficiency while reducing the electrical cross-section of the device. They present interesting features like compatibility with silicon substrates, which offers the possibility of integrating detector and readout circuitry, and facilitates their transfer to flexible substrates. Within a nanowire, it is possible to implement axial and radial (core-shell) heterostructures. These two types can be combined to obtain three-dimensional carrier confinement (dot-in-a-wire). The incorporation of heterostructures in …
GaAs nanowires and GaAs/Fe3Si core/shell nanowire structures were grown by molecular-beam epitaxy on oxidized Si(111) substrates and characterized by transmission electron microscopy. The surfaces of the original GaAs NWs are completely covered by magnetic Fe3Si exhibiting nanofacets and an enhanced surface roughness compared to the bare GaAs NWs. Shell growth at a substrate temperature of T{S} = 200 °C leads to regular nanofacetted Fe3Si shells. These facets, which lead to thickness inhomogeneities of the shells, consist mainly of well pronounced Fe3Si(111) planes. The crystallographic orient…
We investigate theoretically the effects of elastic and plastic deformations on heterogeneous nucleation and nanowire formation. In the first case, the influence of the confinement of the critical nucleus between two parallel misfitting substrates is investigated using scaling arguments. We present phase diagrams giving the nature of the nucleation regime as a function of the driving force and the degree of confinement. We complement this analytical study by amplitude equations simulations. In the second case, the influence of a screw dislocation inside a nanowire on the development of the mor…
Controlled and uniform assembly of "bottom-up" nanowire (NW) materials with high scalability has been one of the significant bottleneck challenges facing the potential integration of nanowires for both nano and macro electronic circuit applications. Many efforts have focused on tackling this challenge, and while significant progress has been made, still most presented approaches lack either the desired controllability in the positioning of nanowires or the needed uniformity over large scales. Here, we demonstrate wafer-scale assembly of highly ordered, dense, and regular arrays of NWs with hig…
Precise control of morphologies of one-dimensional (1D) or 2D nanostructures during growth has not been easily accessible, usually degrading the device performance and therefore limiting applications to various advanced nanoscale electronics and optoelectronics. Graphene could be a platform to serve as a substrate for both morphology control and direct use of electrodes due to its ideal monolayer flatness with π electrons. Here, we report that by using graphene directly as a substrate, vertically well-aligned ZnO nanowires and nanowalls were obtained systematically by controlling Au catalyst t…
We investigate in detail the self-assembled nucleation and growth of GaN nanowires by molecular beam epitaxy on crystalline TiN films. We demonstrate that this type of substrate allows the growth of long and thin GaN nanowires that do not suffer from coalescence, which is in contrast to the growth on Si and other substrates. Only beyond a certain nanowire length that depends on the nanowire number density and exceeds here 1.5 μm, coalescence takes place by bundling, i.e. the same process as on Si. By analyzing the nearest neighbor distance distribution, we identify diffusion-induced repulsion …
GaAs/Fe$_{3}$Si core/shell nanowire structures were fabricated by molecular-beam epitaxy on oxidized Si(111) substrates and investigated by synchrotron x-ray diffraction. The surfaces of the Fe$_3$Si shells exhibit nanofacets. These facets consist of well pronounced Fe$_3$Si{111} planes. Density functional theory reveals that the Si-terminated Fe$_3$Si{111} surface has the lowest energy in agreement with the experimental findings. We can analyze the x-ray diffuse scattering and diffraction of the ensemble of nanowires avoiding the signal of the substrate and poly-crystalline films located betw…
We developed an electro thermal model of NbN superconducting nanowire avalanche photodetectors (SNAPs) on sapphire substrates. SNAPs are single photon detectors consisting of the parallel connection of N superconducting nanowires. We extrapolated the physical constants of the model from experimental data and we simulated the time evolution of the device resistance, temperature and current by solving two coupled electrical and thermal differential equations describing the nanowires. The predictions of the model were in good quantitative agreement with the experimental results.
Intermediate band solar cells hold the promise of ultrahigh power conversion efficiencies using a single semiconductor junction. Many current implementations use materials with bandgaps too small to achieve maximum efficiency or use cost-prohibitive substrates. Here we demonstrate a material system for intermediate band solar cells using InGaN/GaN quantum-dot-in-nanowire heterostructures grown directly on silicon to provide a lower cost, large-bandgap intermediate band solar cell platform. We demonstrate sequential two-photon current generation with sub-bandgap photons, the hallmark of interme…
Al(0.37)Ga(0.63)As nanowires (NWs) were grown in a molecular beam epitaxy system on GaAs(111)B substrates. Micro-photoluminescence measurements and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy indicated a core-shell structure and Al composition gradient along the NW axis, producing a potential minimum for carrier confinement. The core-shell structure formed during the growth as a consequence of the different Al and Ga adatom diffusion lengths.
We demonstrate the self-assembled growth of vertically aligned GaN nanowire ensembles on a flexible Ti foil by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. The analysis of single nanowires by transmission electron microscopy reveals that they are single crystalline. Low-temperature photoluminescence spectroscopy demonstrates that, in comparison to standard GaN nanowires grown on Si, the nanowires prepared on the Ti foil exhibit a equivalent crystalline perfection, a higher density of basal-plane stacking faults, but a reduced density of inversion domain boundaries. The room-temperature photolumines…
We present direct evidence of enhanced Ga interdiffusion in InAs free-standing nanowires grown at moderate temperatures by molecular beam epitaxy on GaAs (111)B. Scanning electron microscopy together with X-ray diffraction measurements in coplanar and grazing incidence geometries show that nominally grown InAs NWs are actually made of In$_{0.86}$Ga$_{0.14}$As. Unlike typical vapor-liquid-solid growth, these nanowires are formed by diffusion-induced growth combined with strong interdiffusion from substrate material. Based on the experimental results, a simple nanowire growth model accounting fo…
Nominally undoped silicon nanowires (NW) were grown by catalytic chemical vapor deposition. The growth process was optimized to control the NWs diameters by using different Au catalyst thicknesses on amorphous SiO2, Si3N4, or crystalline-Si substrates. For SiO2 substrates an Ar plasma treatment was used to homogenize the catalyst coalescence, and thus the NWs diameter. Furthermore, planar field effect transistors (FETs) were fabricated by implementing 10 to 30 nm thin nominally undoped Si-NWs as the active region. Various silicides were investigated as Schottky-barrier source and drain contact…
In a combined experimental and theoretical study, we investigate the influence of the material source arrangement in a molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) system on the growth of nanowire (NW) core-shell structures. In particular, we study the shell growth of GaN around GaN template NWs under the boundary condition that Ga and N do not impinge on a given sidewall facet at the same time. Our experiments with different V/III ratios and substrate temperatures show that obtaining shells with homogeneous thickness along the whole NW length is not straightforward. Analyzing in detail the shell morphology w…