Direct growth of Si nanowires on flexible organic substrates.
A key characteristic of semiconductor nanowires (NWs) is that they grow on any substrate that can withstand the growth conditions, paving the way for their use in flexible electronics. We report on the direct growth of crystalline silicon nanowires on polyimide substrates. The Si NWs are grown by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition, which allows the growth to proceed at temperatures low enough to be compatible with plastic substrates (350 °C), where gold or indium are used as growth seeds. In is particularly interesting as the seed not only because it leads to a better NW crystal quality but also because it overcomes a core problem induced by the use of Au in silicon processing, i.e. Au creates deep carrier traps when incorporated in the nanowires.
CNR-IMM, via del Fosso del Cavaliere, 100, I-00133 Roma, Italy.
Lin
L
Tian
Lorenzo
L
Di Mario
Antonio
A
Minotti
Giorgio
G
Tiburzi
Budhika G
BG
Mendis
Dagou A
DA
Zeze
Faustino
F
Martelli