Burning match oxidation process of silicon nanowires screened at the atomic scale.
Silicon oxide nanowires hold great promise for functional nanoscale electronics. Here, we investigate the oxidation of straight, massively parallel, metallic Si nanowires. We show that the oxidation process starts at the Si NW terminations and develops like a burning match. While the spectroscopic signatures on the virgin, metallic part, are unaltered we identify four new oxidation states on the oxidized part, which show a gap opening, thus revealing the formation of a transverse internal nanojunction.
De Padova
Paola
P
CNR-ISM, via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133 Roma, Italy. paola.depadova@ism.cnr.it
Leandri
Christel
C
Vizzini
Sebastien
S
Quaresima
Claudio
C
Perfetti
Paolo
P
Olivieri
Bruno
B
Oughaddou
Hamid
H
Aufray
Bernard
B
Le Lay
Guy
G