Fabrication of crystalline selenium microwire**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of China (Grant No. 61425021) and the Natural Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11374296, 61376054, 61475153, and 61604132).

Abstract

A method of fabricating selenium (Se) microwire is demonstrated. A multimaterial fiber with amorphous selenium (a-Se) core and multicomponent phosphate glass cladding is drawn by using a conventional optical fiber drawing technique. Then the a-Se core of the fiber is crystallized by a post thermal process at 150 °C. After the multicomponent phosphate glass cladding is stripped from the multimaterial fiber by marinating the fiber in HF acid solution, a crystalline selenium (c-Se) microwire with high uniformity and smooth surface is obtained. Based on microstructure measurements, the c-Se microwire is identified to consist of most hexagonal state particles and very few trigonal state whiskers. The good photoconduction property of c-Se microwire with high quality and longer continuous length makes it possible to apply to functional devices and arrays.