On the possibility of growing antimonide nanowires in the metastable wurtzite phase

Controlled formation of metastable phases is one of the challenges of the physics of crystal growth. Gold-catalyzed nanowires are considered to be one of the most convenient systems to study this phenomenon. Studies of antimonide-based nanowires indicate that they preferentially crystallize in the zinc blende crystal structure rather than wurtzite, which is common in other III-V nanowire materials. Here we propose a new approach to the formation of antimonide nanowire segments in the metastable wurtzite phase and support it with theoretical results. The hexagonal crystal phase is stabilized due to the elastic strain. We suggest that this approach can be applied to other III-V nanowires as well.