Abstract
Amorphous Si nanowires have been directly synthesized by a thermal processing of Si substrates. This method involves the deposition of an anodic aluminum oxide mask on a crystalline Si (100) substrate. Fe, Au, and Pt thin films with thicknesses of ca. 30 nm deposited on the anodic aluminum oxide-Si substrates have been used as catalysts. During the thermal treatment of the samples, thin films of the metal catalysts are transformed in small nanoparticles incorporated within the pore structure of the anodic aluminum oxide mask, directly in contact with the Si substrate. These homogeneously distributed metal nanoparticles are responsible for the growth of Si nanowires with regular diameter by a simple heating process at 800°C in an Ar-H2 atmosphere and without an additional Si source. The synthesized Si nanowires have been characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Raman.
Highlights
One-dimensional semiconductor nanostructures have recently attracted intense research attention due to their novel physical properties [1,2,3,4,5], including electrical, magnetic, optical, and mechanical, and their potential for device applications in chemical and biological sensors, optoelectronic, transistors, etc. [6,7,8]
As can be seen there, when the anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) mask and the Si nanowires (Si NWs) are removed from the substrate, the Si surface shows the presence of defects with an average size and depth of around several micrometers
The metal nanoparticles are synthesized by using the AAO mask supported on the Si substrate as template
Summary
One-dimensional semiconductor nanostructures have recently attracted intense research attention due to their novel physical properties [1,2,3,4,5], including electrical, magnetic, optical, and mechanical, and their potential for device applications in chemical and biological sensors, optoelectronic, transistors, etc. [6,7,8]. Electrodeposition techniques are an interesting alternative for nanowires growth due to the low cost and simplicity of the process [18,19,20]. This methodology uses a porous structure, which acts as a template, whose pores are electrochemically filled with the material of interest. This technique, has many technical problems to obtain nanowires with high aspect ratio
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