Control of Si Nanowire Growth by Oxygen
- 9 May 2006
- journal article
- Published by American Chemical Society (ACS) in Nano Letters
- Vol. 6 (6), 1292-1296
- https://doi.org/10.1021/nl060059p
Abstract
Semiconductor nanowires formed using the vapor−liquid−solid mechanism are routinely grown in many laboratories, but a comprehensive understanding of the key factors affecting wire growth is still lacking. In this paper we show that, under conditions of low disilane pressure and higher temperature, long, untapered Si wires cannot be grown, using Au catalyst, without the presence of oxygen. Exposure to oxygen, even at low levels, reduces the diffusion of Au away from the catalyst droplets. This allows the droplet volumes to remain constant for longer times and therefore permits the growth of untapered wires. This effect is observed for both gas-phase and surface-bound oxygen, so the source of oxygen is unimportant. The control of oxygen exposure during growth provides a new tool for the fabrication of long, uniform-diameter structures, as required for many applications of nanowires.Keywords
This publication has 27 references indexed in Scilit:
- The influence of the surface migration of gold on the growth of silicon nanowiresNature, 2006
- SEMICONDUCTOR NANOWIRES AND NANOTUBESAnnual Review of Materials Research, 2004
- Silicon nanowhiskers grown on 〈111〉Si substrates by molecular-beam epitaxyApplied Physics Letters, 2004
- Ultrahigh-density silicon nanobridges formed between two vertical silicon surfacesNanotechnology, 2004
- Single-electron tunneling in InP nanowiresApplied Physics Letters, 2003
- Logic Gates and Computation from Assembled Nanowire Building BlocksScience, 2001
- Highly Polarized Photoluminescence and Photodetection from Single Indium Phosphide NanowiresScience, 2001
- Nanowire Nanosensors for Highly Sensitive and Selective Detection of Biological and Chemical SpeciesScience, 2001
- Si Surface Cleaning by Si2H6–H2 Gas Etching and Its Effects on Solid-Phase EpitaxyJapanese Journal of Applied Physics, 1987
- Advanced Techniques to Decrease Defect Density in Molecular Beam Epitaxial Silicon FilmsJapanese Journal of Applied Physics, 1985