Reducing the porosity and reflection loss of silicon nanowires by a sticky tape

Junjun Liu, Jeffery HUANG

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

Engineering the porosity of silicon nanowires (SiNWs) is of fundamental importance, and this work introduces a new method for doing so. Metal-assisted chemical etching (MACE) of heavily doped Si(100) creates mesoporous silicon nanowires (mp-SiNWs). mp-SiNWs are transferred from the MACE-treated wafer to a sticky tape, leaving residues composed of broken mp-SiNWs and a mesoporous Si layer on the wafer. Then the taped wafer is re-treated by MACE, without changing the etching conditions. The second MACE treatment generates mp-SiNWs that are less porous and longer than those generated by the first MACE treatment, which can be attributed to the difference in the surface topography at the beginning of the etching process. Less porous mp-SiNWs reduce optical scattering from the porous Si skeletons, and vertically protrude on the wafer without aggregation to facilitate optical trapping. Consequently, less porous mp-SiNWs effectively reduce ultraviolet-visible reflection loss.

Original languageEnglish
Article number185601
JournalNanotechnology
Volume26
Issue number18
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 8 May 2015

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Bioengineering
  • General Chemistry
  • General Materials Science
  • Mechanics of Materials
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

User-Defined Keywords

  • Antireflection
  • Mesoporous silicon nanowires
  • Metal-assisted chemical etching
  • Taping off

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