Synthesis parameter space of bismuth catalyzed germanium nanowires

Abstract

The synthesis parameter space of bismuth catalyzed germanium nanowires by chemical vapor deposition is determined. The process window for high aspect ratio nanowires is found to be extremely narrow. The optimal conditions are found to be 300 °C and 150 Torr gas pressure. For lower temperatures, the solubility of Ge in Bi is too low for the nucleation of Ge nanowires to occur. For higher temperatures, small Bi droplets tend to evaporate leading to an extreme reduction in the nanowire density. The extremely low process temperature makes Bi a good candidate for its growth on low cost and low thermal budget substrates such as plastics.

Single crystalline and core–shell indium-catalyzed germanium nanowires—a systematic thermal CVD growth study

“…Incorporated in the matrix, gold forms a deep level in the bandgap and is responsible for the reduction of lifetime of the carriers [14,15]. It is for this reason that the use of alternative catalysts such as aluminum, indium, bismuth and gallium has been investigated [14,[16][17][18][19][20]. These metals are slightly less soluble than gold in silicon and germanium and at the same time do not form deep level traps [21].…”

Microwave synthesis of bismuth nanospheres using bismuth citrate as a precursor

“…Among the metal nanostructures, monodisperse metallic nanospheres have attracted considerable attention because of their unique optical, catalytic, novel chemical and biological properties [16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. For instance, spherical bismuth was a good catalyst for the growth of SnS 2 nanotubes and germanium nanowires [23,24]. Thus, much effort has been devoted to the preparation of metal nanospheres and their functional transformation [25][26][27][28][29][30].…”

GaAs nanowires and related prismatic heterostructures

“…This can significantly harm the opto-electronic properties of the devices. Therefore, growth of nanowires catalyst-free or by using alternative catalysts has been extensively studied in the past years [16][17][18][19]. Recently, growth without an external catalyst has been demonstrated both by using metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) [20][21][22][23].…”