Extracting superconducting single-crystal Nb mesowires out of NbSe2 by a crystal-lattice collapse method.

The author reports a conceptually new approach to superconducting niobium (Nb) mesowires in high yields from layered compounds (NbSe2) by solid-state pyrolysis. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy and selected-area electron diffraction demonstrate that the mesowires are single crystalline, grow along the [001] direction, and have specific facets. Unlike the previous electrodeposition routes within templates, a possible vapor-solid interaction mechanism was first proposed for component-selective epitaxial growth of one-dimensional Nb lattices where vapor-assisted collapse of NbSe2 crystal structure occurs through disposing of Se vapor phase matrix at enhanced temperatures.