Saujan's paper featured on cover of Nano Letters

Saujan Sivaram's recently published paper “Surface Hydrogen Enables Subeutectic Vapor–Liquid–Solid Semiconductor Nanowire Growth” has been highlighted on the cover of the November 2016 issue of Nano Letters. Martin Ek created this stunning image.

The illustration shows the crucial role of surface chemistry in subeutectic vapor-liquid-solid nanowire synthesis. The nanowire (dark gray) in the background of the cover has hydrogen atoms (white balls) adsorbed on its sidewalls, allowing the AuGe catalyst (in gold) to remain in a supercooled liquid state. The loss of this surface passivation opens a pathway for catalyst atoms (gold balls) to access the nanowire sidewall, as shown by the nanowire in the foreground, which ultimately results in catalyst solidification.

Saujan's manuscript accepted to Nano Letters

Congratulations to Dr. Saujan Sivaram, the lead author on a manuscript titled "Surface Hydrogen Enables Sub-Eutectic Vapor-Liquid-Solid Semiconductor Nanowire Growth" that was recently accepted to the journal Nano Letters. Along with collaborators Ho Yee Hui, Dr. Maria de la Mata, and Prof. Jordi Arbiol, he showed that nanowire growth while the catalyst droplet is in a sub-cooled liquid state, a widely observed behavior, results from the presence of surface adsorbates that decorate the nanowire sidewall. These species act as a diffusion barrier, preventing the droplet from finding a low-barrier nucleation site. More generally, the ability of surface adsorbates to arbitrate the diffusion of species to/from the catalyst droplet opens new opportunities to choreograph nanowire growth, structure, and function.

Illustration of hydrogen desorption and subsequent catalyst droplet solidification. 

Illustration of hydrogen desorption and subsequent catalyst droplet solidification. 

Seeking postdoc applicants!

Martin Maldovan, Bara Cola, and I are in search of a postdoc to initiate a project to demonstrate a solid-state heat mirror. 

The ideal candidate would have experience with the vapor deposition (e.g., CVD or MBE) and physicochemical characterization (e.g., Raman, TEM, etc.) of multilayered crystalline materials. However, outstanding students with experience in related research areas (e.g., nanomaterials, thin films, surface science, heat transport fundamentals, etc.) will also be considered.

Interested? Please send your CV to me at: mfiller@gatech.edu

The Nanovation Podcast launches!

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Dmitriy's LSPR coupling manuscript accepted to ACS Photonics

Congratulations to Dmitriy Boyuk and co-author Dr. Li-Wei Chou whose manuscript titled "Strong Near-Field Coupling of Plasmonic Resonators Embedded in Si Nanowires" was just accepted for publication in ACS Photonics. They show that the anisotropy of nanowires and the large permittivity of Si in the infrared combine to yield very strong near-field coupling between adjacent localized surface plasmon resonances. This work opens new avenues to engineer deep-subwavelength infrared waveguides, chemical sensors, and photodetectors.