Determining the Electronic Performance Limitationsin Top-Down-Fabricated Si Nanowires with Mean Widths Down to 4 nm.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Mirza, Muhammad M.; MacLaren, Donald A.; Samarelli, Antonio; Holmes, Barry M.; Zhou, Haiping; Thoms, Stephen; MacIntyre, Douglas; Paul, Douglas J.
- Source
- Nano Letters. Nov2014, Vol. 14 Issue 11, p6056-6060. 5p.
- Subject
- *FABRICATION (Manufacturing)
*SILICON nanowires
*LIGHT scattering
*SURFACE chemistry
*ELECTRIC conductivity
- Language
- ISSN
- 1530-6984
Siliconnanowires have been patterned with mean widths down to 4 nm usingtop-down lithography and dry etching. Performance-limiting scatteringprocesses have been measured directly which provide new insight intothe electronic conduction mechanisms within the nanowires. Resultsdemonstrate a transition from 3-dimensional (3D) to 2D and then 1Das the nanowire mean widths are reduced from 12 to 4 nm. The importanceof high quality surface passivation is demonstrated by a lack of significantdonor deactivation, resulting in neutral impurity scattering ultimatelylimiting the electronic performance. The results indicate the importantparameters requiring optimization when fabricating nanowires withatomic dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]