Rate controlled metal assisted chemical etching to fabricate vertical and uniform Si nanowires

Mac(metal assisted chemical) etching is a simple, low-cost and anisotropic etching method to make Si NWs (silicon nanowires). In this method, smaller surface area is damaged compared to dry etching process, either. Mac etching uses a combination of an oxide removal acid (e.g. HF), an oxidant (e.g. H2O2) with a noble metal (e.g. Au, Ag, Pt, etc.) as the catalyst. Typically, the Si beneath the noble metal is etched faster than the Si without noble metal coverage by electron transfer mechanism at the noble metal/solution and the noble metal/Si interface. While Mac etching to build Si NWs, unwanted etching occurs in the bulk silicon layer resulting from excess hole diffusion caused by the increase in hole concentration at the nearby metal layers. In this study, we explored the ratio of oxidant to oxide removal acid in the Mac etching solution that is most effective in etching the Si underneath the noble metal layer suppressing the unwanted etching. At the optimized ratio, Si NWs were fabricated at a faster rate with good uniformity