Improving yields in bridging silicon nanowires with rational control of the bridge characteristics

Abstract

ABSTRACTWe present a practical technique for fabricating silicon nanowire bridges on pre-patterned Si electrodes arrays. Silicon nanowires, catalyzed by gold nanoparticles, were grown on silicon electrodes from HF treated Au colloid as well as on electrodes treated with poly-L-lysine. Negligible growth was observed on untreated substrates due to poor adhesion of gold nanoparticles to the hydrogen terminated Si surface. In contrast, the treatments significantly increased occurrence of silicon nanowire bridges, which can be attributed to improved deposition of gold nanoparticles on the surface. Deposition time and concentrations of colloids also affected the occurrence of SiNW bridges. These results indicate that our techniqute for fabricating nanowire bridge arrays will be useful for large-area nanowire applications.