Letter abstract
Nature Materials 7, 372 - 375 (2008)
Published online: 9 March 2008 | doi:10.1038/nmat2140
Subject Categories: Nanoscale materials | Semiconductors | Nanoscale materials
Ledge-flow-controlled catalyst interface dynamics during Si nanowire growth
Stephan Hofmann1, Renu Sharma2, Christoph T. Wirth1, Felipe Cervantes-Sodi1, Caterina Ducati3, Takeshi Kasama3, Rafal E. Dunin-Borkowski4, Jeff Drucker5, Peter Bennett5 & John Robertson1
Self-assembled nanowires offer the prospect of accurate and scalable device engineering at an atomistic scale for applications in electronics, photonics and biology. However, deterministic nanowire growth and the control of dopant profiles and heterostructures are limited by an incomplete understanding of the role of commonly used catalysts and specifically of their interface dynamics1, 2. Although catalytic chemical vapour deposition of nanowires below the eutectic temperature has been demonstrated in many semiconductor–catalyst systems3, 4, 5, 6, growth from solid catalysts is still disputed and the overall mechanism is largely unresolved. Here, we present a video-rate environmental transmission electron microscopy study of Si nanowire formation from Pd silicide crystals under disilane exposure. A Si crystal nucleus forms by phase separation, as observed for the liquid Au–Si system, which we use as a comparative benchmark. The dominant coherent Pd silicide/Si growth interface subsequently advances by lateral propagation of ledges, driven by catalytic dissociation of disilane and coupled Pd and Si diffusion. Our results establish an atomistic framework for nanowire assembly from solid catalysts, relevant also to their contact formation.
- Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0FA, UK
- LeRoy Eyring Center for Solid State Science, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-1704, USA
- Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3QZ, UK
- Center for Electron Nanoscopy, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
- Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-1504, USA
Correspondence to: Stephan Hofmann1 e-mail: sh315@cam.ac.uk
MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS
These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.
RESEARCH
Epitaxial growth of silicon nanowires using an aluminium catalystNature Nanotechnology Letter (01 Dec 2006)
Photosensitive gold-nanoparticle-embedded dielectric nanowiresNature Materials Letter (01 Feb 2006)
High-resolution detection of Au catalyst atoms in Si nanowiresNature Nanotechnology Article (01 Mar 2008)
Catalyst preparation for CMOS-compatible silicon nanowire synthesisNature Nanotechnology Letter (01 Oct 2009)
See all 16 matches for Research
