title: Heteroepitaxial Writing of Silicon-on-Sapphire Nanowires.
abstract: The heteroepitaxial growth of crystal silicon thin films on sapphire, usually referred to as SoS, has been a key technology for high-speed mixed-signal integrated circuits and processors. Here, we report a novel nanoscale SoS heteroepitaxial growth that resembles the in-plane writing of self-aligned silicon nanowires (SiNWs) on R-plane sapphire. During a low-temperature growth at <350 °C, compared to that required for conventional SoS fabrication at >900 °C, the bottom heterointerface cultivates crystalline Si pyramid seeds within the catalyst droplet, while the vertical SiNW/catalyst interface subsequently threads the seeds into continuous nanowires, producing self-oriented in-plane SiNWs that follow a set of crystallographic directions of the sapphire substrate. Despite the low-temperature fabrication process, the field effect transistors built on the SoS-SiNWs demonstrate a high on/off ratio of >5 × 104and a peak hole mobility of >50 cm2/V·s. These results indicate the novel potential of deploying in-plane SoS nanowire channels in places that require high-performance nanoelectronics and optoelectronics with a drastically reduced thermal budget and a simplified manufacturing procedure.
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures/School of Electronics Science and Engineering/Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University , 210093 Nanjing, People's Republic of China.|College of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Chaohu University , 238000, Chaohu, China.
authors.forename: Mingkun
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures/School of Electronics Science and Engineering/Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University , 210093 Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhaoguo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures/School of Electronics Science and Engineering/Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University , 210093 Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jimmy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures/School of Electronics Science and Engineering/Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University , 210093 Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yaolong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures/School of Electronics Science and Engineering/Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University , 210093 Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures/School of Electronics Science and Engineering/Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University , 210093 Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Guangyao
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures/School of Electronics Science and Engineering/Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University , 210093 Nanjing, People's Republic of China.|LPICM, CNRS/Ecole Polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay , 91128 Palaiseau, France.
authors.forename: Linwei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures/School of Electronics Science and Engineering/Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University , 210093 Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures/School of Electronics Science and Engineering/Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University , 210093 Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Junzhuan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures/School of Electronics Science and Engineering/Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University , 210093 Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures/School of Electronics Science and Engineering/Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University , 210093 Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Kunji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: LPICM, CNRS/Ecole Polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay , 91128 Palaiseau, France.
authors.forename: Pere
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Roca I Cabarrocas
keywords: In-plane Si nanowires; heteroepitaxy; self-alignment; silicon on sapphire