Size-reduced silicon nanowires:: Fabrication and electrical characterization

Silicon nanowires of diameters down to 100 nm and typical lengths of 1-3 mu m have been fabricated in silicon-on-insulator material by electron beam lithography and plasma etching. They were subsequently size-reduced by photoelectrochemical etching resulting in wire widths down to 10 nm. To enable accurate control of the photoelectrochemical size-reduction, a micro-electrochemical cell was developed, enabling single nanowires to be exposed to the etching solution while being illuminated by a laser or a lamp. The arrangement allows contact leads to be extended to metal contact pads located outside the cell, which can be connected by probes, allowing in situ electrical characterization of a nanowire during etching. In this paper, we describe the experimental setup, the fabrication method and show examples of achieved wire widths together with some preliminary results from the electrical characterization. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.