Study of the morphological, optical, structural and electrical properties of silicon nanowires at varying concentrations of the catalyst precursor

Abstract

Silicon nanowires (SiNWs) were grown by metal-assisted chemical etching of a p-type (100) silicon wafer. AgNO₃ was used as a precursor for the metal catalyst (Ag). The concentration of AgNO₃ was varied for studying the properties of SiNWs. SiNWs with the longest length (11.49 μm) and smallest diameter (55.05 nm) were obtained by using 20 mmol of AgNO₃ (20S). Their optical properties were studied using UV-Vis spectroscopy. The SiNWs showed space charge limited conduction characteristics. An ideality factor and a barrier height of 2.92 and 0.93 eV, respectively, were obtained for the 20S sample.