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Single-crystalline kinked semiconductor nanowire superstructures

Nature Nanotechnology volume 4, pages 824–829 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

The ability to control and modulate the composition1,2,3,4, doping1,3,4,5, crystal structure6,7,8 and morphology9,10 of semiconductor nanowires during the synthesis process has allowed researchers to explore various applications of nanowires11,12,13,14,15. However, despite advances in nanowire synthesis, progress towards the ab initio design and growth of hierarchical nanostructures has been limited. Here, we demonstrate a ‘nanotectonic’ approach that provides iterative control over the nucleation and growth of nanowires, and use it to grow kinked or zigzag nanowires in which the straight sections are separated by triangular joints. Moreover, the lengths of the straight sections can be controlled and the growth direction remains coherent along the nanowire. We also grow dopant-modulated structures in which specific device functions, including p–n diodes and field-effect transistors, can be precisely localized at the kinked junctions in the nanowires.

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Figure 1: Design and controlled synthesis of multiply kinked nanowires.
Figure 2: Crystallographic structure of kinked silicon nanowires.
Figure 3: Mechanistic studies of kinked nanowire growth.
Figure 4: Generality of kinked nanowire synthesis.
Figure 5: Topologically defined nanoelectronic devices.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Y. J. Dong, X. C. Jiang and Q. Qing for help with experiments. C.M.L. acknowledges support from a National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award, a McKnight Foundation Neuroscience Award and a contract from MITRE Corporation. T.J.K acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, 02138, Massachusetts, USA

    Bozhi Tian, Ping Xie, Thomas J. Kempa & Charles M. Lieber

  2. Center for Nanoscale Systems, Harvard University, Cambridge, 02138, Massachusetts, USA

    David C. Bell

  3. School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, 02138, Massachusetts, USA

    Charles M. Lieber

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  1. Bozhi Tian
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  2. Ping Xie
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  3. Thomas J. Kempa
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Contributions

B.T. and C.M.L. designed the experiments. B.T., P.X. and T.J.K. performed experiments and analyses. B.T. and C.M.L. co-wrote the paper. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Charles M. Lieber.

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Tian, B., Xie, P., Kempa, T. et al. Single-crystalline kinked semiconductor nanowire superstructures. Nature Nanotech 4, 824–829 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2009.304

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