Investigation of Au and In as solvents for the growth of silicon nanowires on Si(1 1 1)

This paper reports on the bahavior of Au and In as solvents for the growth of silicon nanowires on a Si(1 1 1) substrate via vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) mechanism. Gold is the mostly used solvent for growing silicon nanowires but in the present work indium was also applied, as it may bring some advantages for later electronic application of the wires. The main focus of this work is the behavior of gold and indium on a silicon substrate but also the different morphologies and distributions of the grown wires are compared. Individual metal droplets have been located in pre-structured nanopores to serve as starting points for wire growth. The method used to exactly position the metal droplets and thus obtain a regular arrangement of nanowires is also presented.