Plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition growth of Si nanowires with low melting point metal catalysts: an effective alternative to Au-mediated growth

et al. 2015

Silicon

Silicon nanowire homojunction p-n solar cells were fabricated using Zn and Au metals as catalysts for growing the NWs. This design consisted of SiNWs, doped as p and n-types, catalyzed with Zn and Au catalysts to fabricate p-n homojunctions within each wire. The surface morphology, structure, and photovoltaic properties were investigated. The morphology for each of the catalyzed SiNWs was significantly different; the Zn catalyst produced short and thick NWs with diameters ranging from 190nm to 260nm, whereas the Au catalyst produced long SiNWs with diameters ranging from 140nm to 210nm. The Zncatalyzed SiNW p-n solar cell showed a higher efficiency of 1.01% compared with the Aucatalyzed SiNW p-n solar cell with an efficiency of 0.67%.

Section: J-v Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 63%

“…Also, other authors have used Sn and Al catalysts to grow SiNWs by PPECVD and PECVD methods [16,20]. They found that these grown SiNWs exhibited amorphous structure.…”

Section: Crystalline Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

Fabrication and Characterization of Solar Cells Based on Silicon Nanowire Homojunctions

et al. 2015

Silicon

“…Using the PECVD to prepare an amorphous layer over the wire, which led to a reduction in the crystallinity of the as-grown SiNWs [30][31][32]. Another reason for the weak crystallinity is that the wires were grown with a polycrystalline structure and the strength of the diffraction peaks in the XRD pattern is dependent on the particle size and the larger particles dominate [33].…”

Section: Crystalline Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) is another deposition method that has been used to produce SiNWs [19]. In PECVD, the plasma is used to promote the decomposition of precursor sources into reactive species [20]. The objective of the present work is to synthesize SiNWs via pulsed PECVD using Zn as a catalyst and to study the effects of varying catalyst thickness on the morphology and structural properties of SiNWs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Growth and characterization of silicon nanowires catalyzed by Zn metal via Pulsed Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition

Superlattices and Microstructures

et al. 2014

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 proof before it is published in its final 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. 1 Growth and Characterization of Silicon Nanowires Catalyzed by Zn Metal Via Pulsed Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition AbstractHigh-density silicon nanowires (SiNWs) were grown via Pulsed Plasma-EnhancedChemical Vapor Deposition at 400°C. Zinc (Zn) metal thin films with varying thickness from 10nm to 100nm were used as a catalyst to synthesize the SiNWs. The surface morphology, crystalline structure, and optical properties of the grown SiNWs were investigated. Results indicated that increasing the Zn thickness from 10nm to 100nm led to an increase in wire diameter from 65nm to 205nm, resulting in a reduction of SiNW density. The wires grown with Zn thicknesses of 10 and 80nm exhibited high crystallinity as shown by the X-ray diffraction patterns. Three emission bands (green, blue, and red) were observed in the photoluminescence spectra of the SiNWs prepared using various Zn catalyst thicknesses. The SiNWs prepared using 10 and 80nm Zn thicknesses displayed a sharp Raman peak that corresponded to the first-order 2 transverse optical phonon mode in contrast to the other samples that produced SiNWs with a broad Raman band.

“…Parlevliet and Jennings have shown previously that SiNWs synthesized by PPECVD with a Sn catalyst are entirely amorphous [23]. Moreover, SiNWs grown by PECVD using Al as a catalyst on Si at 600 °C were also amorphous in structure [30]. Yu et al studied the growth temperature effect on the structure and properties of the SiNWs produced by Sn-catalyzed PECVD [31].…”

Section: X-ray Diffractionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Controlling the diameter of silicon nanowires grown using a tin catalyst

Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing

et al. 2013

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.