Metal-assisted chemical etching (MACE) is a versatile anisotropic etch for silicon although its mechanism is not well understood. Here we propose that the Schottky junction formed between metal and silicon plays an essential role on the distribution of holes in silicon injected from hydrogen peroxide. The proposed mechanism can be used to explain the dependence of the etching kinetics on the do...

Large-area, vertically aligned silicon nanowires with a uniform diameter along the height direction were fabricated by combining in situ-formed anodic aluminum oxide template and metal-assisted chemical etching. The etching rate of the Si catalyzed using a thick Au mesh is much faster than that catalyzed using a thin one, which is suggested to be induced by the charge transport process. The thi...

Silicon nanowires fabricated by metal-assisted chemical etching can present low porosity and a rough surface depending on the doping level of the original silicon wafer. In this case, wiring of silicon nanowires may represent a challenging task. We investigated two different approaches to realize the electrical contacts in order to enable electrical measurement on a rough silicon nanowire devic...

Creating high aspect ratio (AR) nanostructures by top-down fabrication without surface damage remains challenging for III-V semiconductors. Here, we demonstrate uniform, array-based InP nanostructures with lateral dimensions as small as sub-20 nm and AR > 35 using inverse metal-assisted chemical etching (I-MacEtch) in hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and sulfuric acid (H2SO4), a purely solution-based y...

A combination of template-assisted metal catalytic etching and self-limiting oxidation has been successfully implemented to yield core-shell silicon nanowire arrays with inner diameter down to sub-10 nm. The diameter of the polystyrene spheres after reactive ion etching and the thickness of the deposited Ag film are both crucial for the removal of the polystyrene spheres. The mean diameter of t...

Porous silicon was successfully prepared using metal-assisted chemical etching method. The Effect of HF/H2O2 concentration in etching solution as an affecting parameter on the prepared porosity type and size was investigated. Field emission electron microscopy (FE-SEM) confirmed that all etched samples had porous structure and the sample which was immersed into HF/H2O2 withmolar ratio of 7/3.53...

We report the fabrication of degenerately doped silicon (Si) nanowires of different aspect ratios using a simple, low-cost and effective technique that involves metal-assisted chemical etching (MacEtch) combined with soft lithography or thermal dewetting metal patterning. We demonstrate sub-micron diameter Si nanowire arrays with aspect ratios as high as 180:1, and present the challenges in pro...