Young's Modulus, Residual Stress, and Crystal Orientation of Doubly Clamped Silicon Nanowire Beams.

Initial or residual stress plays an important role in nanoelectronics. Valley degeneracy in silicon nanowires (SiNWs) is partially lifted due to built-in stresses, and consequently, electron-phonon scattering rate is reduced and device mobility and performance are improved. In this study we use a nonlinear model describing the force-deflection relationship to extract the Young's modulus, the residual stress, and the crystallographic growth orientation of SiNW beams. Measurements were performed on suspended doubly clamped SiNWs subjected to atomic force microscopy (AFM) three-point bending constraints. The nanowires comprised different growth directions and two SiO2 sheath thicknesses, and underwent different rapid thermal annealing processes. Analysis showed that rapid thermal annealing introduces compressive strains into the SiNWs and may result in buckling of the SiNWs. Furthermore, the core-shell model together with the residual stress analysis accurately describe the Young's modulus of oxide covered SiNWs and the crystal orientation of the measured nanowires.

Control of morphology and crystal purity of InP nanowires by variation of phosphine flux during selective area MOMBE.

We present experimental results showing how the growth rate, morphology and crystal structure of Au-catalyzed InP nanowires (NWs) fabricated by selective area metal organic molecular beam epitaxy can be tuned by the growth parameters: temperature and phosphine flux. The InP NWs with 20-65 nm diameters are grown at temperatures of 420 and 480 °C with the PH3 flow varying from 1 to 9 sccm. The NW tapering is suppressed at a higher temperature, while pure wurtzite crystal structure is preferred at higher phosphine flows. Therefore, by combining high temperature and high phosphine flux, we are able to fabricate non-tapered and stacking fault-free InP NWs with the quality that other methods rarely achieve. We also develop a model for NW growth and crystal structure which explains fairly well the observed experimental tendencies.

Shadowing and mask opening effects during selective-area vapor-liquid-solid growth of InP nanowires by metalorganic molecular beam epitaxy.

Indium phosphide nanowires were grown by metalorganic molecular beam epitaxy using the selective-area vapor-liquid-solid method. We show experimentally and theoretically that the size of the annular opening around the nanowire has a major impact on nanowire growth rate. In addition, we observed a considerable reduction of the growth rate in dense two-dimensional arrays, in agreement with a calculation of the shadowing of the scattered precursors. Due to the impact of these effects on growth, they should be considered during selective-area vapor-liquid-solid nanowire epitaxy.