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The influence of the surface migration of gold on the growth of silicon nanowires

Nature volume 440, pages 69–71 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Interest in nanowires continues to grow, fuelled in part by applications in nanotechnology1,2,3,4,5. The ability to engineer nanowire properties makes them especially promising in nanoelectronics6,7,8,9. Most silicon nanowires are grown using the vapour–liquid–solid (VLS) mechanism, in which the nanowire grows from a gold/silicon catalyst droplet during silicon chemical vapour deposition10,11,12,13. Despite over 40 years of study, many aspects of VLS growth are not well understood. For example, in the conventional picture the catalyst droplet does not change during growth, and the nanowire sidewalls consist of clean silicon facets10,11,12,13. Here we demonstrate that these assumptions are false for silicon nanowires grown on Si(111) under conditions where all of the experimental parameters (surface structure, gas cleanliness, and background contaminants) are carefully controlled. We show that gold diffusion during growth determines the length, shape, and sidewall properties of the nanowires. Gold from the catalyst droplets wets the nanowire sidewalls, eventually consuming the droplets and terminating VLS growth. Gold diffusion from the smaller droplets to the larger ones (Ostwald ripening) leads to nanowire diameters that change during growth. These results show that the silicon nanowire growth is fundamentally limited by gold diffusion: smooth, arbitrarily long nanowires cannot be grown without eliminating gold migration.

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Figure 1: 5-eV LEEM images of the coarsening of Au catalyst droplets on Si(111).
Figure 2: Scanning electron microscope images of Si nanowires grown on Si(111) recorded with a 42° angle of incidence.
Figure 3: In situ UHVTEM images recorded during the growth of Si nanowires at 655 °C in 10 -6  torr disilane.
Figure 4: SEM images of Si nanowires.

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  1. IBM Research Division, T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York, 10598, USA

    J. B. Hannon, S. Kodambaka, F. M. Ross & R. M. Tromp

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  1. J. B. Hannon
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  2. S. Kodambaka
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Correspondence to J. B. Hannon.

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Hannon, J., Kodambaka, S., Ross, F. et al. The influence of the surface migration of gold on the growth of silicon nanowires. Nature 440, 69–71 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04574

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