SiC nanowires: material and devices

SiC nanowires are of high interest since they combine the physical properties of SiC with those induced by their low dimensionality. For this reason, a large number of scientific studies have been dedicated to their fabrication and characterization as well as to their application in devices. SiC nanowires' growth involving different growth mechanisms and configurations was the main theme for the large majority of these studies. Various physical characterization methods have been employed for evaluating SiC nanowire quality. SiC nanowires with narrow-diameter (< 10 nm) and/or free of planar defects have not been demonstrated and these are some of the main challenges. Another issue is the high unintentional doping of the nanowires that does not allow the demonstration of high-performance field-effect transistors using SiC nanowires as the channel material. On the other hand, the grown nanowires are suitable for field-emission applications and to be used as reinforcing material in composite structures as well as for increasing the hydrophobicity of Si surfaces. All these aspects are examined in detail in different sections of this paper.