Vertically-tapered silicon nanowire arrays prepared by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition: synthesis, structural characterization and photoluminescence

• Main Authors: Hamidinezhad, Habib, Akbar Ashkarran, Ali, Malek, Zulkurnain Abdul
• Format: Article
• Published: Elsevier 2014
• Subjects: TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
• Online Access: http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/63213/; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mssp.2014.06.018

Vertically aligned silicon nanowires (SiNWs) have been successfully synthesized using pure silane gas as a precursor by very high frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (VHF-PECVD) method. The effect of the growth temperature on the morphology, structure and photoluminescence properties of SiNWs has been studied. The SiNWs were needle-liked materials with the length of a few microns having the diameters of tens of nanometers near the bottom and a few nanometers at the top. Thinner nanowires have been obtained at the higher growth temperature process. High resolution transmission electron microscopy confirms that the nanowires are composed of a crystalline silicon core with an oxide shell. The PL spectrum of the Si nanoneedles have shown two emission bands around 450 nm and ∼750, which originate from the defects related to oxygen fault in the oxide shell and interfaces between the crystalline Si core and the oxide shell, respectively.