Direct Quantification of Gold along a Single Si Nanowire

Abstract

The presence of gold on the sidewall of a tapered, single silicon nanowire is directly quantified from core-level nanospectra using energy-filtered photoelectron emission microscopy. The uniform island-type partial coverage of gold determined as 0.42+/-0.06 (approximately 1.8 ML) is in quantitative agreement with the diameter reduction of the gold catalyst observed by scanning electron microscopy and is confirmed by a splitting of the photothresholds collected from the sidewall, from which characteristic local work functions are extracted using a model of the full secondary electron distributions.

High Density Germanium Nanowire Growth Directly from Copper Foil by Self-Induced Solid Seeding

“…11 Recently, metal seeded growth has shifted towards solid catalysts consisting of Cu, 12 Ni 13,14 and Fe 15 in an effort to limit the diffusion of metal atoms into the NWs associated with the use of Au, which can severely impact the electrical properties of the NWs. 16,17 The emergence of storage and PV applications places new demands on synthetic protocols for Ge NWs, with production directly from the current collector, in high yield and low cost, desirable.…”

High‐resolution XPS spectromicroscopy

“…Finally, soft X-rays from a suitable synchrotron radiation beamline can also be used. An important set of results in core-level imaging of a wide range of heterogeneous materials (polycrystals, [26,35] single nanostructures, [36] patterned surfaces [3,37,38] ) have been obtained with synchrotron radiation over the last years. The illuminated sample sits typically at a distance of 1.8 mm with respect to the first lens of the PEEM column (the extractor), which obviously introduces constraints regarding the available space.…”

Self-catalyzed growth mechanism of InAs nanowires and growth of InAs/GaSb heterostructured nanowires on Si substrates

“…Unfortunately, Au may degrade the electronic properties of III-V NWs [13,14] and form unwanted deep-level recombination centers in Si band gap [15,16]. Therefore, it is highly desirable to develop the growth of III-V NWs without the use of any foreign catalysts [17].…”