Silicon crystal nanowires produced by metal-induced lateral crystallization

New findings on the growth of Si crystal nanowires by metal-induced lateral crystallization (MILCusing Ni as a catalyst are described. MILC grains are formed as a result of the growth of Si crystal nanowires due to the migration of NiSi₂ precipitates, which are located at the crystallization front, along the (111direction. To investigate the behavior of Si nanowires in detail, we carried out Ni-MILC of an amorphous Si (a-Sifilm patterned by photolithography or UV nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL). By limiting the growth area, the flexible growth of Si crystal nanowires was found to appear, and the grain-filtering of MILC crystals was also found to be possible by decreasing pattern width. On the other hand, in the case of Ni-MILC of a-Si narrow wires prepared by UV-NIL, MILC growth length reduced with decreasing a-Si wire width. However, Ni-MILC crystals could grow even in a region as narrow as 150 nm wide, which is almost the same as the width of Si crystal nanowires produced by Ni-MILC.