Plasma-plasmonics synergy in the Ga-catalyzed growth of Si-nanowires

This paper reports on the growth of Si nanowires (NWs) by SiH4/H2 plasmas using the non-noble Ga-nanoparticles (NPs) catalysts. A comparative investigation of conventional Si-NWs vapour–liquid–solid (VLS) growth catalyzed by Au NPs is also reported. We investigate the use of a hydrogen plasma and of a SiH4/H2 plasma for removing Ga oxide shell and for enhancing the Si dissolution into the catalyst, respectively. By exploiting the Ga NPs surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensitivity to their surface chemistry, the SPR characteristic of Ga NPs has been monitored by real time spectroscopic ellipsometry in order to control the hydrogen plasma/Ga NPs interaction and the involved processes (oxide removal and NPs dissolution by volatile gallium hydride). Using in situ laser reflectance interferometry the metal catalyzed Si NWs growth process has been investigated to find the effect of the plasma activation on the growth kinetics. The role of atomic hydrogen in the NWs growth mechanism and, in particular, in the SiH4 dissolution into the catalysts, is discussed. We show that while Au catalysts because of the re-aggregation of NPs yields NWs that do not correspond to the original size of the Au NPs catalyst, the NWs grown by the Ga catalyst retains the diameter dictated by the size of the Ga NPs. Therefore, the advantage of Ga NPs as catalysts for controlling NWs diameter is demonstrated.