Wafer-level site-controlled growth of silicon nanowires by Cu pattern dewetting

An approach for the wafer-level synthesis of size- and site-controlled amorphous silicon nanowires (α-SiNWs) is presented in this paper. Microscale Cu pattern arrays are precisely defined on SiO₂ films with the help of photolithography and wet etching. Due to dewetting, Cu atoms shrink to the center of patterns during the annealing process, and react with the SiO₂ film to open a diffusion channel for Si atoms to the substrate. α-SiNWs finally grow at the center of Cu patterns, and can be tuned by varying critical factors such as Cu pattern volume, SiO₂ thickness, and annealing time. This offers a simple way to synthesize and accurately position a SiNW array on a large area.