Electrical characterization of silicon nanowire p-i-n diodes arrays with varying diameters

Silicon based p-i-n diodes arrays with varying diameters were fabricated on SOI wafer using CMOS compatible top-down approach. Each array comprises 500 identical Si nanowires (SiNWs) in parallel. Different exposure dose was used for different arrays to define silicon fins with varying widths. The fins were subsequently oxidized to form SiNWs with different diameters. Strong rectifying characteristics were observed. It was also noted that ideality factor increases from 1.09 to 1.95 as SiNW diameter decreases, which is due to the increase surface recombination sites as a result of larger surface area to volume ratio.