Direct Observation of the Conventional Epitaxial and Novel Heteroaxial ZB-WZ Stacking Faults

A new type of continuous zincblende and wurtzite defectaxis that forms an angle of 70.3 & DEG; with crystal growth directionwas found in the Cu & alpha;Zn & beta;Sn & gamma;Se & delta; tetrapod nanocrystals Compared to the conventional ZB-WZstacking fault that aligns withthe crystal growth axis, a novel heteroaxial ZB-WZ stacking faultaxis that intercepts the growth axis by 70.3 & DEG; is observed andanalyzed in this report. The formation of the reported heteroaxialZB-WZ stacking fault is attributed to the nanocrystals' tendencyto achieve the lowest possible systematic disorder by avoiding atomicarray distortion at the intersection of two tetrahedral polytypicinterphases.