Study of the morphological, optical, structural and electrical properties of silicon nanowires at varying concentrations of the catalyst precursor

Silicon nanowires (SiNWs) were grown by metal-assisted chemical etching of a p-type (100) silicon wafer. AgNO3 was used as a precursor for the metal catalyst (Ag). The concentration of AgNO3 was varied for studying the properties of SiNWs. SiNWs with the longest length (11.49 mu m) and smallest diameter (55.05 nm) were obtained by using 20 mmol of AgNO3 (20S). Their optical properties were studied using UV-Vis spectroscopy. The SiNWs showed space charge limited conduction characteristics. An ideality factor and a barrier height of 2.92 and 0.93 eV, respectively, were obtained for the 20S sample.

Automated summary

The study investigated the effects of varying concentrations of AgNO3 on the properties of SiNWs, with the results showing that SiNWs obtained using 20mmol of AgNO3 had the longest length and smallest diameter, and exhibited specific space charge limited conduction characteristics.