Highly oriented silicon nanowires were grown on Si (111) substrate via a solid-liquid-solid (SLS) mechanism. Unlike the well known vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) mechanism of whisker growth, no gaseous or liquid Si source was supplied during growth. Ni was used as the liquid forming agent and mixture of H2 and Ar was introduced in the experiment. Oriented silicon nanowires grew at 950°C and the ambient pressure kept at about 200 Torr. The oriented silicon nanowires have a length around I il m and uniform diameter about 25nm. Selected area electron diffraction showed that silicon nanowires are completely amorphous. The approach used here is simple and controllable, and may be useful in large-scale synthesis of various nanowires.
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