Growth Of Tin Catalyzed Silicon Nanowires By Electron Beam Evaporation

¹Department of Instrumentation and Applied Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India

²Nano-Research for Advanced Materials and Technologies, Banglore 560040, India

Adv. Mater. Lett., 2013, 4 (11), pp 836-840

DOI: 10.5185/amlett.2013.3449

Publication Date (Web): Nov 02, 2013

Copyright © IAAM-VBRI Press

E-mail: rakeshr@iap.iisc.ernet.in

Abstract

Silicon nanowires were grown on tin (Sn) coated Si substrates using electron beam evaporation technique at a growth temperature of 350°C. The as grown Si nanowires were characterized by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy attached with Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analyser (TEM-EDX) for their morphological, structural, and compositional properties, respectively. The grown Si nanowires were randomly oriented on the substrate with a length of ~ 500 nm for a deposition time of 15 min. Silicon nanowires have shown tin nanoparticle (capped) on top of it confirming the Vapor-Liquid-Solid (VLS) growth mechanism responsible for Si nanowires growth. The nanowire growth rate was measured to be ~30 nm/min. Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) measurements have revealed single crystalline nature of Si nanowires. The obtained results have indicated good progress towards finding alternative catalyst to gold for the synthesis of Si nanowires.

Keywords

Semiconductors, Si nanowires, electron beam evaporation, VLS growth mechanism, Sn catalyst, thin films.