Endotaxial silicide nanowires

We demonstrate the growth of self-assembled nanowires of cobalt silicide on Si(111), (100), and (110) substrates during deposition of Co onto a heated Si substrate. Silicide islands form via an endotaxial mechanism, growing into the substrate along inclined Si{(1) over bar 11} planes, which breaks the symmetry of the surface and leads to a long, thin nanowire shape. During growth, both the length and width of the islands increase with time in a fixed proportion that varies strongly with growth temperature, which shows that the nanowire shape is kinetically determined. It is expected that nanowires could form in many other overlayer/substrate systems via this mechanism.