Nucleation and growth of metal-catalyzed silicon nanowires under plasma

0539179 - FZÚ 2021 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Hývl, Matěj - Müller, Martin - Stuchlíková, The-Ha - Stuchlík, Jiří - Šilhavík, Martin - Kočka, Jan - Fejfar, Antonín - Červenka, Jiří
Nucleation and growth of metal-catalyzed silicon nanowires under plasma.
Nanotechnology. Roč. 31, č. 22 (2020), s. 1-11, č. článku 225601. ISSN 0957-4484. E-ISSN 1361-6528
R&D Projects: GA MŠMT LM2015087; GA MŠMT(CZ) EF16_019/0000760; GA ČR GA16-12355S
Grant - others:OP VVV - SOLID21(XE) CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000760
Institutional support: RVO:68378271
Keywords : nanowire * silicon * growth mechanism * catalyst * plasma * PECVD * nucleation
OECD category: Condensed matter physics (including formerly solid state physics, supercond.)
Impact factor: 3.874, year: 2020
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6528/ab76ef

We report the results of a microscopic study of the nucleation and early growth stages of metal-catalyzed silicon nanowires in plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. The nucleation ofsilicon nanowires is investigated as a function of different deposition conditions and metalcatalysts(Sn, In and Au)using correlation of atomic force microscopy and scanning electronmicroscopy. This correlation method enabled us to visualize individual catalytic nanoparticlesbefore and after the nanowire growth and identify the key parameters influencing the nanowirenucleation under plasma. The size and position of catalytic nanoparticles are found to play asignificant role in the nucleation. We demonstrate that only small isolated nanoparticles in therange of 10–20 nm contribute to the nanowire growth under plasma, while larger nanoparticlesare inactive because they get buried under a layer of a-Si:H before reaching supersaturation.Systematic analysis of different growth parameters reveals that the nanowire growth in plasmacontradicts the vapor–liquid–solid mechanism at thermal equilibrium in many ways. Thenanowire growth is much faster and proceeds even at negligible silicon solubility and bellow theeutectic temperature of the metal-silicon alloy. Based on the observations, we propose thenanowire growth under plasma to be characterized by the rapid solidification mechanism, wherea crystalline silicon phase emerges from a metastable supersaturated liquid metal-silicon phase inlocal nonequilibrium.

Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0316879