Abstract
We report in this letter the influence of deposition rate and Ehrlich-Schwoebel barrier (ESB)
on the growth process of nanorods. A characteristic radius has been identified, which increases
proportional to one fifth power of the ratio of the two-dimensional ESB limited hopping rate of
adatoms to the deposition rate. When the radius of the initial island is larger than this characteristic
radius, the growth morphology evolves from a taper-like structure to a nanorod with radius equal to
the characteristic radius, after some transient layers depending on the steering strength. Otherwise
the nanorod morphology can be maintained during the growth, with stable radius being limited by
both the radius of the initial island and the three-dimensional ESB. The theoretical predictions are
in good agreement with experimental observations of ZnO growth.