Polymorphic GaS nanowires: phase-controlled growth and crystal structure calculations.

The polymorphism of nanostructures is of paramount importance for many promising applications in high-performance nanodevices. We report the chemical vapor deposition synthesis of GaS nanowires (NWs) that show the consecutive phase transitions of monoclinic (M) → hexagonal (H) → wurtzite (W) → zinc blende (C) when lowering the growth temperature from 850 to 600 °C. At the highest temperature, single-crystalline NWs were grown in the thermodynamically stable M phase.