Fabrication and characterization of silicon nanowire

Abstract

Well aligned Silicon (Si) nanowires (NWs) are successfully fabricated by metal induced etching (MIE) technique. Effect of etching time on the porosification of Si has been studied. The effect of Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) deposition time on the the porosification of Si has also been studied. Image J software is used to estimate the porosity of different samples. It is observed that porosity of samples (containing SiNWs) increases as AgNPs deposition time (prior to porosification) increases. The optimized parameter for the fabrication of SiNWs has been discussed. Photoluminescence (PL) has been carried out to see quantum confinement effect in SiNWs samples. Raman spectroscopy has been utilized to confirm the presence of nanostructures in the samples. Asymmetrically broadened Raman spectra are observed from SiNWs samples. Bond polarizability model (BPM) is used to estimate the SiNWs size present in the samples from Raman scattering data. This study is important to understand the mechanism of fabrication of SiNWs and their properties.