Fabrication of iron silicide nanowires from nanowire templates

The authors demonstrate that Fe silicide nanowires can be fabricated from vapor-liquid-solid grown Si nanowire templates. By heating simple Si nanowires with Fe, Fe infuses into Si nanowires through a surface oxide layer and Si nanowires are converted to alpha-FeSi2 or epsilon-FeSi partially. Furthermore, when Au catalyst forms Au/Si heterostructured nanowires, heating with Fe results in the formation of beta-FeSi2. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.