Analyzing the synchronism of stacking-fault formation in side-by-side SiC nanowire pairs using the Levenshtein distance: stochastic versus deterministic processes.

Pairs of silicon carbide nanowires were grown side by side synchronously from the same metal catalyst nanoparticles. The stacking sequences of each pair were read by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, and the similarity of each stacking sequence was measured using the Levenshtein distance. No synchronism was detected in the pairs of stacking sequences, and the results indicated that the formation of stacking faults in silicon carbide nanowires was not deterministic, but purely stochastic.