Bulk synthesis of long silicon nitride nanowires on silicon wafer
A Nickel-catalyzed synthesis method was developed to grow large-scale Si<inf>3</inf>N<inf>4</inf> nanowires on silicon wafer in forming gas of N<inf>2</inf>/H<inf>2</inf>(5%) under 1200°C. These nanowires consisted of uniform diameter ranging from 50 to 100 nm with length up to 500 µm. Vapor-liquid-solid mechanism was proposed to interpret the nanowire growth procedure. It was characterized that the nanowires were mainly composed of single-crystal α-Si<inf>3</inf>N<inf>4</inf>, growing along the [120] direction.