Silicon nanowires were grown on ITO-coated glass substrates via a pulsed plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition method, using tin as a catalyst. The thin films of catalyst, with different thicknesses in the range 10-100 nm, were deposited on the substrates by a thermal evaporation method. The effect of the thickness of the thin film catalyst on the morphology of the silicon nanowires was investigated.The scanning/transmission electron microscopy images showed that the wire diameter increased as the thickness of the thin film catalyst increased. The nanowires grown using a thin film thickness of 10 nm were inhomogeneous in diameter, whereas the other thicknesses led to an increase in the homogeneity of the diameters of the nanowires. The dominant wire diameter of the grown silicon nanowires ranged from 70 to 80 nm with 10 nm catalyst thin film thickness, and increased to a range of 190-200 nm with 100 nm catalyst thin film thickness.

This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting galley proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. AbstractSilicon nanowires (SiNWs) were grown on indium tin oxide coated glass substrates by a pulsed plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PPECVD) method using aluminum as a catalyst. The thin films of the catalyst, with thicknesses ranging from 10 nm to 100 nm, were deposited on the substrates by thermal evaporation. The effect of the thickness of the thin film catalyst on the morphology of the silicon nanowires was investigated. The surface morphology study of the prepared wires showed that the modal wire diameter increased as the catalyst film thickness increased. The X-ray diffraction patterns of the prepared silicon nanowires had no silicon peaks, indicating that the wires had low crystallinity. The photoluminescence spectra of the SiNWs showed that all samples had more than one emission band. The emission band location and shape were found to be dependent on catalyst thickness. The Raman spectra of the prepared nanowires showed that the first order transverse band shifted toward lower frequencies compared with the c-Si band location.

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