title: Shell-Thickness Controlled Semiconductor-Metal Transition in Si-SiC Core-Shell Nanowires.
abstract: We study Si-SiC core-shell nanowires by means of electronic structure first-principles calculations. We show that the strain induced by the growth of a lattice-mismatched SiC shell can drive a semiconductor-metal transition, which in the case of ultrathin Si cores is already observed for shells of more than one monolayer. Core-shell nanowires with thicker cores, however, remain semiconducting even when four SiC monolayers are grown, paving the way to versatile, biocompatible nanowire-based sensors.
authors.affiliation: †Institut d'Electronique Fondamentale, UMR8622, CNRS, Université Paris Sud, 91405 Orsay, France.
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Amato
authors.affiliation: ‡Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), Campus de Bellaterra, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Riccardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rurali
keywords: Si−SiC; core−shell; first-principles calculations; nanowires; strain