NANOSCALE SILICON WIRES SYNTHESIZED USING SIMPLE PHYSICAL EVAPORATION

We report the large-scale synthesis of silicon nanowires (SiNWs) using a simple but effective approach, High purity SiNWs of uniform diamete rs around 15 nm were obtained by sublimating a hot-pressed silicon pow der target at 1200 degrees C in a flowing carrier gas environment. The SiNWs emit stable blue light which seems unrelated to quantum confine ment, but related to an amorphous overcoating layer of silicon oxide. Our approach can be used, in principle, as a general method for synthe sis of other one-dimensional semiconducting, or conducting nanowires. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.