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- Title
Evolution of Cu-In Catalyst Nanoparticles under Hydrogen Plasma Treatment and Silicon Nanowire Growth Conditions.
- Authors
Wang, Weixi; Ngo, Éric; Bulkin, Pavel; Zhang, Zhengyu; Foldyna, Martin; Roca i Cabarrocas, Pere; Johnson, Erik V.; Maurice, Jean-Luc
- Abstract
We report silicon nanowire (SiNW) growth with a novel Cu-In bimetallic catalyst using a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) method. We study the structure of the catalyst nanoparticles (NPs) throughout a two-step process that includes a hydrogen plasma pre-treatment at 200 °C and the SiNW growth itself in a hydrogen-silane plasma at 420 °C. We show that the H2-plasma induces a coalescence of the Cu-rich cores of as-deposited thermally evaporated NPs that does not occur when the same annealing is applied without plasma. The SiNW growth process at 420 °C induces a phase transformation of the catalyst cores to Cu7In3; while a hydrogen plasma treatment at 420 °C without silane can lead to the formation of the Cu11In9 phase. In situ transmission electron microscopy experiments show that the SiNWs synthesis with Cu-In bimetallic catalyst NPs follows an essentially vapor-solid–solid process. By adjusting the catalyst composition, we manage to obtain small-diameter SiNWs—below 10 nm—among which we observe the metastable hexagonal diamond phase of Si, which is predicted to have a direct bandgap.
- Subjects
SILICON nanowires; HYDROGEN plasmas; PLASMA-enhanced chemical vapor deposition; CATALYST structure; CATALYSTS; PHASE transitions
- Publication
Nanomaterials (2079-4991), 2023, Vol 13, Issue 14, p2061
- ISSN
2079-4991
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3390/nano13142061