Structures of Si and Ge nanowires in the subnanometer range

We report an ab initio investigation of several structures of pristine Si and Ge nanowires with diameters between 0.5 and 2.0 nm. We consider nanowires based on the diamond structure, high-density bulk structures, and fullerenelike structures. Our calculations indicate a transition from sp(3) geometries to structures with higher coordination, for diameters below 1.4 nm. We find that diamond-structure nanowires are unstable for diameters smaller than 1 nm, undergoing considerable structural transformations towards amorphouslike wires. For diameters between 0.8 and 1 nm, filled-fullerene wires are the most stable. For even smaller diameters (similar to 0.5 nm), we find that a simple hexagonal structure is particularly stable for both Si and Ge.