Amorphous Silicon Nanowire Arrays Synthesized by Electric Field

Amorphous silicon nanowire arrays have been successfully prepared by thermal evaporation under electric field. The dependence on electric field of the growth of amorphous silicon nanowires is studied with the help of scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy disperse X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) attached to SEM, transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results show that silicon nanowires grown along straight line and paralleled to each other are located in the middle of two knots. The formation of Si nanowire arrays is controlled by the charged cluster model. And, we suggested that this method can be applied to synthesize other kinds of nanowire arrays