Kinetics of Congruent Vaporization of ZnO Islands

B. J. Kim, R. E. García, and E. A. Stach

Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 146101 – Published 28 September 2011

Abstract

We examine the congruent vaporization of ZnO islands using in situ transmission electron microscopy. Correlating quantitative measurements with a theoretical model offers a comprehensive understanding of the equilibrium conditions of the system, including equilibrium vapor pressure and surface free energy. Interestingly, the surface energy depends on temperature, presumably due to a charged surface at our specific condition of low $P$ and high $T$ . We find that the vaporization temperature decreases with decreasing system size, a trend that is more pronounced at higher $T$ . Applying our results of island decay towards the growth of the ZnO provides new insights into the cooperative facet growth of anisotropic nanocrystals.

Received 22 May 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.146101

Authors & Affiliations

B. J. Kim¹, R. E. García², and E. A. Stach^1,*

¹Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York, USA
²School of Materials Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA