SILICON NANOWIRES FABRICATION BY PHYSICAL METHOD

Abstract

Silicon nanowires (Si NWs) were fabricated on Si(111) surfaces by both thermal evaporation and sputtering methods. Au nanocrystals were used as the metal catalysts and they were fabricated by electron beam evaporation. The field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) was used to characterize the Si NWs. The diameters of the Si NWs were measured to be about few tens of nanometer. The mechanism of the nanowires formation by these methods was also discussed.