Self-assembly of silicon nanowires studied by advanced transmission electron microscopy

Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology

关键词: silicon nanowires;    transmission electron microscopy;    vapor–liquid–solid growth;   

DOI  :  10.3762/bjnano.8.47

学科分类：地球科学(综合)

来源: Beilstein - Institut zur Foerderung der Chemischen Wissenschaften

【 摘 要 】

Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) was successfully applied to the analysis of silicon nanowires (SiNWs) that were self-assembled during an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) process. The ICP-synthesized SiNWs were found to present a Si–SiO2 core–shell structure and length varying from ≈100 nm to 2–3 μm. The shorter SiNWs (maximum length ≈300 nm) were generally found to possess a nanoparticle at their tip. STEM energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy combined with electron tomography performed on these nanostructures revealed that they contain iron, clearly demonstrating that the short ICP-synthesized SiNWs grew via an iron-catalyzed vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) mechanism within the plasma reactor. Both the STEM tomography and STEM-EDX analysis contributed to gain further insight into the self-assembly process. In the long-term, this approach might be used to optimize the synthesis of VLS-grown SiNWs via ICP as a competitive technique to the well-established bottom-up approaches used for the production of thin SiNWs.

【 授权许可】

CC BY