Bunching characteristics of silicon nanowire arrays

Abstract

Ordered arrays of silicon nanowires were fabricated by etching, and their bunching characteristics were parametrically studied by varying the diameter, the length, and the pitch. The diameter to length ratio was found to be critical for the nanowires to stand vertically without bunching. For a length of 650 nm, 40 nm and larger diameter nanowires were vertical, whereas for a length of 400 nm, 34 nm and larger diameter nanowires were vertical. Further, the phase change between the bunching and vertical nature of nanowires happens abruptly and was verified by finite element modeling of the deflections of the nanowire tips for different diameters. The detailed experimental study provides guidelines for silicon nanowire arrays being considered for different applications including solar cells, optical waveguides, and sensors.

Localized absorption in aluminum mask in visible spectrum due to longitudinal modes in vertical silicon nanowire arrays

“…As a mask, 30 nm thick aluminum was deposited using e-beam evaporation (physical vapor deposition) and lift-off was performed using Remover PG (N-Methyl Pyrrolidinone can be found elsewhere. 18 We fabricated three different diameters of nanowires, 60 nm, 80 nm, and 100 nm, arranged in 100 lm  100 lm arrays. The nanowires in the arrays were arranged in a square lattice with a pitch of 400 nm and etched down to a depth of 1 lm.…”

“…They act as nucleation catalysts in their Vapor-Liquid-Solid (VLS) growth [15][16][17] or as protective masks in dry etching. 11,18,19 They are usually removed at the end of the growth or etching of the nanowires. 11 In some cases, it is not feasible or necessary to remove them, especially, when they do not significantly change the optical properties of the nanowires.…”

Effective index approximation for ordered silicon nanowire arrays

“…SiNWs were fabricated using electron beam lithography (EBL) and inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching (ICP-RIE). Fabrication details of the SiNW arrays have been discussed previously [18]. ICP-RIE was used to etch the nanowires to the desired length of 1 μm.…”

Multicolor generation using silicon nanodisk absorber

“…However, most of the research focuses on long nanowires with lengths of up to several micrometers, which may lead to higher fragility and require additional metal mask processes. 1,8,[12][13][14][15][16][17] As a result, the research on low-aspect-ratio silicon nanostructures is still lacking.…”