"Silicon Nanowires: Innovative Control Growth Enabling Advanced Applications"

Abstract

This article reviews the growth concept of silicon nanowires with an attention to semiconductor nanowires filling the gap in the knowledge from the very original work to the very recent innovative experimental work. The objectives of this article are as follows:1) To describe the original work of epitaxial growth of semiconductor nanowires, 2) To discuss the recently emerged technique of nanoscale templating controlling the growth position of nanowires, and 3) To explore the possible technological applications of position-controlled silicon nanowires. Comprehensive description of the first reported successful Vapor-Liquid-Solid (VLS) 1-D growth of silicon crystals is given. The growth approach of bottom-up, and the supersaturation in a three-phase system of VLS is presented along with the nucleation at the Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) processes. Positional assembly of silicon nanowires using current available techniques along with the recently invented one of Nanoscale Chemical Templating (NCT). Several applied and conceptional methods of developing available energy applications using nanowires are included, such as, photovoltaic (PV) cells, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors (MOSFET) are explained. The finial section of this review showed statistical trends in nanowires and nanorods scientific studies.