Selective growth and ordering of SiGe nanowires for band gap engineering

Selective growth and self-organization of silicon-germanium (SiGe) nanowires (NWs) on focused ion beam (FIB) patterned Si(111) substrates is reported. In its first step, the process involves the selective synthesis of Au catalysts in ##IMG## [http://ift.tt/1AxYuaB] {${\rm Si}{{{\rm O}}_{2}}$} -free areas; its second step involves the preferential nucleation and growth of SiGe NWs on the catalysts. The selective synthesis process is based on a simple, room-temperature reduction of gold salts ( ##IMG## [http://ift.tt/1xyrASS] {${\rm A}{{{\rm u}}^{3+}}{\rm Cl}_{4}^{-}$} ) in aqueous solution, which provides well-organized Au catalysts. By optimizing the reduction process, we are able to generate a bidimensional regular array of Au catalysts with self-limited sizes positioned in ##IMG## [http://ej.iop.org/...] {${\rm Si}{{{\rm O}}_{2}}$}

A Benkouider, A Ronda, A Gouyé, C Herrier, L Favre, D J Lockwood, N L Rowell, A Delobbe, P Sudraud and I Berbezier

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