A Review on Synthesis of Silicon Nanowires by Laser Ablation

Abstract

Silicon (Si) is the most widely used semiconductor since many decades. Due to the developments in the synthesis and manufacturing technology new semiconductor materials have been introduced in semiconductor industry. Along with the newly developed semiconductors, Si is still considered the most reliable and durable semiconductor. The synthesis techniques of the Si have also been affected by the technological revolution and different Si based materials engineered at the nano-scale have been synthesized. Silicon nanowires (SiNWs) are one of the newly developed semiconductors of Si. SiNWs have interesting features due to their high aspect ratio and small size. The chemical, mechanical and electrical properties of SiNWs have opened new ways for the research in this field. Especially the charge carrying abilities and quantum confinement effects have gathered much attention of the scientific community. Different efforts have been made to synthesize SiNWs over the course of few years. Synthesis of SiNWs by laser ablation is one of the methods widely used due to its simplicity and good control over the parameters of the process. Different modifications have been made in this synthesis process by different researchers. The variations in laser ablation synthesis process and its outputs have been analyzed in this review paper. And effect of different parameters on the properties of SiNWs has been discussed.

Keywords: Laser ablation, Nanowires, Supersaturation, Vapor liquid solid mechanism, Lithography, Catalyst