Vertical transfer of uniform silicon nanowire arrays via crack formation

Vertical transfer of silicon nanowire (SiNW) arrays with uniform length onto adhesive substrates was realized by the assistance of creating a horizontal crack throughout SiNWs. The crack is formed by adding a water soaking step between consecutive Ag-assisted electroless etching processes of Si. The crack formation is related to the delamination, redistribution, and reattachment of the Ag film during the water soaking and subsequent wet etching steps. Moreover, the crack facilitates embedding SiNWs inside polymers.     

Aligned,Ultralong Single‐Walled Carbon Nanotubes: From Synthesis,Sorting, to Electronic Devices

Aligned, ultralong single‐walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) represent attractive building blocks for nanoelectronics. The structural uniformity along their tube axis and well‐ordered two‐dimensional architectures on wafer surfaces may provide a straightforward platform for fabricating high‐performance SWNT‐based integrated circuits. On the way towards future nanoelectronic devices, many challenges for such a specific system also exist. This Review summarizes the recent advances in the synthesis, identification and sorting, transfer printing and manipulation, device fabrication and integration of aligned, ultralong SWNTs in detail together with discussion on their major challenges and opportunities for their practical application.     

Designing and building nanowires: directed nanocrystal self-assembly into radically branched and zigzag PbS nanowires

Lead sulfide nanowires with controllable optoelectronic properties would be promising building blocks for various applications. Here, we report the hot colloidal synthesis of radically branched and zigzag nanowires through self-attachment of star-shaped and octahedral nanocrystals in the presence of multiple surfactants. We obtained high-quality single-crystal nanowires with uniform diameter along the entire length, and the size of the nanowire can be tuned by tailoring the reaction parameters. This slow oriented attachment provides a better understanding of the intricacies of this complex nanocrystal assembly process. Meanwhile, these self-assembled nanowire structures have appealing lateral conformations with narrow side arms or highly faceted edges, where strong quantum confinement can occur. Consequently, the single-crystal nanowire structures exhibit strong photoluminescence in the near-infrared region with a large blue-shift compared to the bulk material.     

Ultralong ZnO nanowire arrays synthesized by hydrothermal method using repetitive refresh

Long ZnO nanowire arrays (> or = 10 microm) were fabricated using the hydrothermal method and the refresh process of the reactant solution. The diameter of the synthesized nanowires was controlled by varying the solution concentration of the seed layers, without reducing their length. The maximum temperature in this process was 95 degrees C and the repeated refresh process at 95 degrees C provided the driving force for the growth of ultralong nanowires by exchanging the reactants. Interestingly, the diameter of the refreshed ZnO nanowires strongly depended on the solution temperature during refresh. The exchange of the reactant solution at the same temperature as the synthesis temperature induced the synthesis of ultralong nanowires and the length of the resultant nanowires can be controlled by varying the repetition number. The illumination of the ultraviolet light induced considerably enhanced current flow in the ultralong nanowires from mid 10(-10) to 10(-7) A at 5 V.     

Conjugated polymer-silicon nanowire array hybrid Schottky diode for solar cell application

The hybrid Schottky diode based on silicon nanowire arrays (SiNWs) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) has been fabricated for high performance solar cells. The length of SiNWs on a silicon substrate, which is prepared by metal-assisted chemical etching, can be tuned by adjusting the length of the etching time. In addition, the average distances between the adjacent silicon nanowires can be controlled by changing the immersing time in a saturated PCl(5) solution. The hybrid devices are made from the SiNWs with different wire lengths and various distances between adjacent wires by spin-casting PEDOT:PSS on the silicon substrates. It is found that the length and density play leading roles in the electric output characteristics. The device made from SiNWs with optimum morphology can achieve a power conversion efficiency of 7.3%, which is much improved in comparison with that of the planar one. The measurement of the transient photovoltage decay and the analysis of the current versus voltage curve indicate that the charge recombination process is a dominant factor on the device performance.     

Desorption/ionization on silicon nanowires

Dense arrays of single-crystal silicon nanowires (SiNWs) have been used as a platform for laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry of small molecules, peptides, protein digests, and endogenous and xenobiotic metabolites in biofluids. Sensitivity down to the attomole level has been achieved on the nanowire surfaces by optimizing laser energy, surface chemistry, nanowire diameter, length, and growth orientation. An interesting feature of the nanowire surface is that it requires lower laser energy as compared to porous silicon and MALDI to desorb/ionize small molecules, therefore reducing background ion interference. Taking advantage of their high surface area and fluid wicking capabilities, SiNWs were used to perform chromatographic separation followed by mass analysis of the separated molecules providing a unique platform that can integrate separation and mass spectrometric detection on a single surface.     

Electrospun ultralong hierarchical vanadium oxide nanowires with high performance for lithium ion batteries

Ultralong hierarchical vanadium oxide nanowires with diameter of 100-200 nm and length up to several millimeters were synthesized using the low-cost starting materials by electrospinning combined with annealing. The hierarchical nanowires were constructed from attached vanadium oxide nanorods of diameter around 50 nm and length of 100 nm. The initial and 50th discharge capacities of the ultralong hierarchical vanadium oxide nanowire cathodes are up to 390 and 201 mAh/g when the lithium ion battery cycled between 1.75 and 4.0 V. When the battery was cycled between 2.0 and 4.0 V, the initial and 50th discharge capacities of the nanowire cathodes are 275 and 187 mAh/g. Compared with self-aggregated short nanorods synthesized by hydrothermal method, the ultralong hierarchical vanadium oxide nanowires exhibit much higher capacity. This is due to the fact that self-aggregation of the unique nanorod-in-nanowire structures have been greatly reduced because of the attachment of nanorods in the ultralong nanowires, which can keep the effective contact areas of active materials, conductive additives, and electrolyte large and fully realize the advantage of nanomaterial-based cathodes. This demonstrates that ultralong hierarchical vanadium oxide nanowire is one of the most favorable nanostructures as cathodes for improving cycling performance of lithium ion batteries.     

Self-transducing silicon nanowire electromechanical systems at room temperature

Electronic readout of the motions of genuinely nanoscale mechanical devices at room temperature imposes an important challenge for the integration and application of nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS). Here, we report the first experiments on piezoresistively transduced very high frequency Si nanowire (SiNW) resonators with on-chip electronic actuation at room temperature. We have demonstrated that, for very thin (~90 nm down to ~30 nm) SiNWs, their time-varying strain can be exploited for self-transducing the devices' resonant motions at frequencies as high as approximately 100 MHz. The strain of wire elongation, which is only second-order in doubly clamped structures, enables efficient displacement transducer because of the enhanced piezoresistance effect in these SiNWs. This intrinsically integrated transducer is uniquely suited for a class of very thin wires and beams where metallization and multilayer complex patterning on devices become impractical. The 30 nm thin SiNW NEMS offer exceptional mass sensitivities in the subzeptogram range. This demonstration makes it promising to advance toward NEMS sensors based on ultrathin and even molecular-scale SiNWs, and their monolithic integration with microelectronics on the same chip.     

Distribution of active impurities in single silicon nanowires

The distribution of electrically active B concentration in single SiNWs (nanowires) grown by a vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) process was studied by analyzing Fano resonance in Raman spectra. We found a gradient of active B concentration along the growth direction; the B concentration was the largest at the substrate side and the smallest at the catalyst side. The observed concentration gradient suggests the conformal growth of a high B concentration layer during a VLS process. To confirm this effect, we grew SiNWs with controlled impurity profiles, that is, p-type/intrinsic ( p-i) and intrinsic/ p-type ( i-p) SiNWs, by controlling the supply of B source during SiNWs growth. We found that p-i SiNWs can be grown by just stopping the supply of B source in the middle of the growth, while i-p SiNWs were not realized; that is, the whole region of nominal " i-p" SiNWs was B-doped even if we started the supply of B source in the middle of the growth. These results confirm the above doping model. We also found that the distribution of active B concentration was significantly modified by high temperature annealing. By annealing at 1100 degrees C for 1 min, B concentration became almost uniform along 10 mum long SiNWs irrespective of initial B profiles. This suggests very efficient diffusion of B atoms in a defective high B concentration surface layer of SiNWs.     

Lateral self-aligned p-type In2O3 nanowire arrays epitaxially grown on Si substrates

Lateral orientated growth of In2O3 nanowire (NW) and nanorod (NR) arrays has been achieved by a vapor transport and condensation method on (001) and (111) surfaces of Si substrates. The single crystalline In2O3 NWs and NRs were grown along [211] in parallel to the Si +/-[110] and lying in the substrate plane. The electrical measurements show that the In2O3 NWs are p-type semiconductor. By N+ doping, the resistivity of the In2O3 NWs has been tuned. The lateral self-aligned In2O3 NW and NR arrays on Si can offer some unique advantages for fabricating parallel nanodevices that can be integrated directly with silicon technology.     

Catalyst-free synthesis of well-aligned ZnO nanowires on In0.2Ga0.8N, GaN, and Al0.25Ga0.75N substrates

Well-aligned ZnO nanowires have been synthesized vertically on In0.2Ga0.8N, GaN, and Al0.25Ga0.75N substrates, using a catalyst-free carbon thermal-reduction vapor phase deposition method for the first time. The as-synthesized nanowires are single crystalline wurtzite structure, and have a growth direction of [0001]. Each nanowire has a smooth surface, and uniform diameter along the growth direction. The average diameter and length of these nanowires are 120-150 nm, and 3-10 )m, respectively. We suggest that the growth mechanism follow a self-catalyzing growth model. Excitonic emission peaked around 385 nm dominates the room-temperature photoluminescence spectra of these nanowires. The room-temperature photoluminescence and Raman scattering spectra show that these nanowires have good optical quality with very less structural defects.     

Fabrication of large area high density, ultra-low reflection silicon nanowire arrays for efficient solar cell applications

High density vertically aligned and high aspect ratio silicon nanowire (SiNW) arrays have been fabricated on a Si substrate using a template and a catalytic etching process. The template was formed from polystyrene (PS) nanospheres with diameter 30–50 nm and density 10¹⁰/cm², produced by nanophase separation of PS-containing block-copolymers. The length of the SiNWs was controlled by varying the etching time with an etching rate of 12.5 nm/s. The SiNWs have a biomimetic structure with a high aspect ratio (∼100), high density, and exhibit ultra-low reflectance. An ultra-low reflectance of approximately 0.1% was achieved for SiNWs longer than 750 nm. Well-aligned SiNW/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxy-thiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) heterojunction solar cells were fabricated. The n-type silicon nanowire surfaces adhered to PEDOT:PSS to form a core-sheath heterojunction structure through a simple and efficient solution process. The large surface area of the SiNWs ensured efficient collection of photogenerated carriers. Compared to planar cells without the nanowire structure, the SiNW/PEDOT:PSS heterojunction solar cell exhibited an increase in short-circuit current density from 2.35 mA/cm² to 21.1 mA/cm² and improvement in power conversion efficiency from 0.4% to 5.7%.      

Large-area silicon nanowires from silicon monoxide for solar cell applications

Large-area upstanding silicon nanowires (SiNWs) were synthesized by hot-filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) using silicon monoxide (SiO) powder as Si source under high vacuum (1.2 x 10(-5) Torr). Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were employed as catalyst, which were formed on Si substrate by in-situ reduction of gold chloride (AuCl3). The size and distribution of the Au nanoparticles can be easily controlled through chemical reaction conditions. Consequently, the diameter, length and density of SiNWs could be varied in certain range. The SiNWs obtained are single crystalline with growth directions predominantly along [01-1]. Silicon nanowires in large-scale and diameter less than 10 nm can be grown on different Si substrates with this method. Organic inorganic hybrid solar cells based on SiNWs arrays have been demonstrated.     

Conduction performance of individual Cu@C coaxial nanocable connectors

Individual, ultralong Cu@C coaxial nanocables show excellent electrical transport properties in the temperature range of 5-350 K, and the room-temperature resistivity of the Cu nanowire core almost retains that of the bulk copper, indicating their potential application as connectors in micro- and nanodevices.     

Extended arrays of vertically aligned sub-10 nm diameter [100] Si nanowires by metal-assisted chemical etching

Large-area high density silicon nanowire (SiNW) arrays were fabricated by metal-assisted chemical etching of silicon, utilizing anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) as a patterning mask of a thin metallic film on a Si (100) substrate. Both the diameter of the pores in the AAO mask and the thickness of the metal film affected the diameter of SiNWs. The diameter of the SiNWs decreased with an increase of thickness of the metal film. Large-area SiNWs with average diameters of 20 nm down to 8 nm and wire densities as high as 10 (10) wires/cm (2) were accomplished. These SiNWs were single crystalline and vertically aligned to the (100) substrate. It was revealed by transmission electron microscopy that the SiNWs were of high crystalline quality and showed a smooth surface.     

Pressure-induced orientation control of the growth of epitaxial silicon nanowires

Single crystal silicon nanowires (SiNWs) were synthesized with silane reactant using Au nanocluster-catalyzed one-dimensional growth. We have shown that under our experimental conditions, SiNWs grown epitaxially on Si(111) via the vapor-liquid-solid growth mechanism change their growth direction as a function of the total pressure. Structural characterization of a large number of samples shows that SiNWs synthesized at a total pressure of 3 mbar grow preferentially in the 111 direction, while the one at 15 mbar favors the 112 direction. Specifically by dynamically changing the system pressure during the growth process morphological changes of the NW growth directions along their length have been demonstrated.     

Ultrafast growth of single-crystalline Si nanowires

Silicon nanowires (SiNWs) have been catalytically synthesized by heat treatment of Si nanopowder at 980 °C. The SiNWs comprise crystalline Si nanoparticles interconnected with metal catalyst. The formation mechanism of nanowires generally depends on the presence of Fe catalysts in the synthesis process of solid–liquid–solid (SLS). Although gas phase of vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) method can be used to produce various of different nanowire materials, growth model based on the SLS mechanism by heat treatment is more ascendant for providing ultrafast growth of single-crystalline Si nanowires and controlling the diameter of them easily. The growth of single-crystalline SiNWs and morphology were discussed.     

Electrical properties of individual CoPt/Pt multilayer nanowires characterized by in situ SEM nanomanipulators

Here we report for the first time accurate and comprehensive measurements of electrical properties of individual CoPt/Pt multilayer nanowires both with periodic and non-periodic layer structures. A remarkably high failure current density of 1.69 × 10(12) A m(-2) for the periodic MNW and a similar 1.76 × 10(12) A m(-2) for the non-homogeneous MNW has been measured. The resistance of both types of multilayer nanowire structures are well fitted by a series resistance model, determining the separate resistance contribution of the component layers and magnetic/nonmagnetic interfaces for a single multilayer nanowire. The field-dependent interface resistance of both samples is calculated, 13.2 Ω for periodic layer structures and 4.84 Ω for non-periodic layer structures. The clear physical picture of the resistance distribution within individual multilayer nanowires is then determined. The accurate electrical testing of magnetic multilayer nanowires provides basic and necessary electrical parameters for their usage as building blocks or interconnects in nanoelectronics and nanosensors.     

The electrical characterization of a multi-electrode odor detection sensor array based on the single SnO2 nanowire

The variation of electrical properties of individual SnO₂ wedge-like nanowire along its length was characterized comparatively in a vacuum, low-pressure oxygen environment and in synthetic air mixed with various analytes. For characterization, a vapor-solid grown nanowire was indexed with multiple Pt mesoscopic contacts fabricated by e-beam induced deposition from Pt containing metalorganic precursor. The surface of the selected nanowire segments was functionalized with a catalyst via deposition of Pd nanoparticles. Detailed analysis of the electrical properties of the nanowire shows that the effective diameter of the conducting channel of the nanowire can be substantially modified along its length by the surface functionalization and nanowire width change. These variations of the electrical properties of nanowire segments are sufficient for reliable discrimination of acetone, 2-propanol, CO and hydrogen by this elemental multisensor array.     

Layer-by-layer assembly of nanowires for three-dimensional, multifunctional electronics

We report a general approach for three-dimensional (3D) multifunctional electronics based on the layer-by-layer assembly of nanowire (NW) building blocks. Using germanium/silicon (Ge/Si) core/shell NWs as a representative example, ten vertically stacked layers of multi-NW field-effect transistors (FETs) were fabricated. Transport measurements demonstrate that the Ge/Si NW FETs have reproducible high-performance device characteristics within a given device layer, that the FET characteristics are not affected by sequential stacking, and importantly, that uniform performance is achieved in sequential layers 1 through 10 of the 3D structure. Five-layer single-NW FET structures were also prepared by printing Ge/Si NWs from lower density growth substrates, and transport measurements showed similar high-performance characteristics for the FETs in layers 1 and 5. In addition, 3D multifunctional circuitry was demonstrated on plastic substrates with sequential layers of inverter logical gates and floating gate memory elements. Notably, electrical characterization studies show stable writing and erasing of the NW floating gate memory elements and demonstrate signal inversion with larger than unity gain for frequencies up to at least 50 MHz. The ability to assemble reproducibly sequential layers of distinct types of NW-based devices coupled with the breadth of NW building blocks should enable the assembly of increasing complex multilayer and multifunctional 3D electronics in the future.