Historical View on the Mechanism Vapor-Liquid-Solid of the Nanowire Growth: Historiography of the Problem

The paper describes the historical sequence of events that predetermined the discovery of the fundamental vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) mechanism of nanowires growth. It is shown that the history of the discovery of the VLS mechanism and its further development does not always represent a logical series of consecutive events. It is noted that the classical VLS scheme is the key in the whiskers and nanowires growth, but it is not the only possible one, but has many varieties. The paper will be useful for graduate students beginning work in this field and may be of interest to researchers who have devoted their lives to crystal growth and crystallization.