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A researcher whose nucleation model with colleagues explains why a growing nanowire can adopt wurtzite even when the corresponding bulk semiconductor favors the zinc blende structure. Forming a new layer at the line where the catalyst liquid, solid wire and surrounding vapor meet changes the relevant interface-energy balance. The model predicts how a supersaturated solution can favor one structure during growth, connecting crystal form with the local growth mechanism.^[ref]

Zinc blende and wurtzite differ in their stacking of tetrahedrally bonded bilayers: an ideal cubic sequence is ABCABC, while the hexagonal sequence is ABAB. During vapor–liquid–solid growth, each new interfacial nucleus can choose between continuing the existing sequence and changing it.

The selected phase can be the one with the smaller nucleation barrier, rather than the lower bulk free energy alone. A nucleus at the droplet–wire–vapour triple line has edge and interfacial energies different from a nucleus fully inside the liquid–solid interface. Schematically, its free energy combines a favourable chemical-potential term with new edge/interface costs and, when appropriate, a stacking penalty. Supersaturation changes the relative importance of these terms; the droplet shape and contact angle change which nucleation sites are available.

Control is therefore possible through temperature, III/V supply ratio, precursor fluxes, catalyst composition, droplet volume/contact angle and wire diameter. Monitoring growth rather than only inspecting cooled specimens helps determine which parameter actually changes the interface. A nucleation model for Au-catalysed III–V wires explicitly showed how triple-line nucleation can favour wurtzite under suitable interface energies and supersaturation.^[ref] There is no universal rule that one phase always corresponds to the larger temperature or smaller diameter regardless of catalyst and interface geometry.