title: A simple route to growth of silicon nanowires.
abstract: Silicon nanowires (SiNWs) have been produced by a simple thermal heating method with gold as a catalyst. The grown silicon nanowires were highly crystalline with little impurities such as amorphous Si and silicon oxides. Photoluminescence (PL) study has indicated that the Si band gap increases from 1.1 eV of bulk Si to 1.59 eV for the as-grown SiNWs due to quantum confinement effect. A strong PL peak around 540 nm (2.28 eV) is attributed to the relaxation of photon-induced self-trapped state in the form of surface Si-Si dimmers, while the blue light emission around 390 nm is attributed to the silicon oxide impurity on the SiNWs surface.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, 2 Science Drive 3, Singapore 117542.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Zhenhua
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.forename: Cheekok
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Poh
authors.forename: Yuan Ping
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Jianyi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Zexiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D003460:Crystallization / Q000379:methods*; D006358:Hot Temperature; D008163:Luminescent Measurements / Q000379:methods*; D046911:Macromolecular Substances / Q000737:chemistry; D008422:Materials Testing; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D043942:Nanotubes / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D010316:Particle Size; D045663:Quantum Dots; D012825:Silicon / Q000737:chemistry*; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D012825:Silicon