Research progress of out-of-plane GeSn nanowires

Abstract

As silicon integrated circuits become more and more integrated, traditional electrical interconnections have been their technological limitations, and GeSn materials have attracted a lot of interest due to their potential transition to direct bandgap as well as their compatibility with Si-based technology in recent years. GeSn materials, including GeSn films, GeSn alloys, and GeSn nanowires, are adjustable, scalable, and compatible with silicon. GeSn nanowires, as one-dimensional nanomaterials, including out-of-plane GeSn nanowires and in-plane GeSn nanowires, have different properties from those of bulk materials due to their distinctive structures. However, the former is rarely reported. In this article, we present the preparation of out-of-plane GeSn nanowires using top-down (etching and lithography) and bottom-up (VLS growth mechanism in the vapor-phase method and SFLS, SLS, and SVG growth mechanisms in the liquid-phase method) methods. We also provide a brief description of the applications of out-of-plane GeSn nanowires with various Sn contents and morphologies.