Evolution of Etching Kinetics and Directional Transition of Nanowires Formed on Pyramidal Microtextures

Fabrication of Orientation-Tunable Si Nanowires on Silicon Pyramids with Omnidirectional Light Absorption

In this work, the different orientation of SiNWs on Si pyramids by a two step MACE method have been fabricated. By tuning the structure of Ag catalyst film and controlling the concentration of H₂O₂ or the etching temperature, the tunability of the orientation of SiNWs from <111> to <100> on Si pyramids was realized. Si structures composed of Si pyramids and SiNWs exhibit better omnidirectional light-trapping ability by multiple reflections. Si structures with structural tunability and enhanced light harvesting performance will find a wide variety of significant applications in solar cells, photodetectors, and optoelectronic devices.

Photoactive PANI/TiO2/Si composite coatings with 3D bio-inspired structures

We showed that 3D compound-eye coatings with excellent photo-activity could be obtained by anisotropic wet etching, hydrothermal synthesis and chemical oxidation.

Unveiling the shape-diversified silicon nanowires made by HF/HNO3 isotropic etching with the assistance of silver

Hydrofluoric (HF)/nitric (HNO3)/acetic (CH3COOH) acid, normally referred to as the HNA method, is a widely utilized technique for performing isotropic etching on silicon (Si) in industrial Si-based processing and device construction. Here, we reported a novel etching strategy based on a HF/HNO3 process with the assistance of silver (Ag) nano-seeds, offering good controllability in preparing diversified Si nanostructure arrays with particularly smooth top surfaces. The involved mechanism was visualized by systematically investigating both the time and temperature dependencies on the etching kinetics with various ratios of HF to HNO3. Moreover, by testing different Ag(+)-ion containing oxidants on Si etching, we have re-examined the state-of-the-art metal-assisted chemical etching (MaCE) using HF/AgNO3 etchants. In contrast with previous reports, we found that the interplay of hole injections from Ag(+) and NO3(-) ions to the valence band of Si collectively contributes to the unidirectional dissolution of Si. Finally, we explored the engineering of the Ag nano-seeds to regularize the orientation of the etched nanowires formed on non-Si (100) wafers, which further provides a reliable pathway for constructing the desired morphologies of one-dimensional Si nanostructures regardless of wafer orientation.

Deep etching of single- and polycrystalline silicon with high speed, high aspect ratio, high uniformity, and 3D complexity by electric bias-attenuated metal-assisted chemical etching (EMaCE)

In this work, a novel wet silicon (Si) etching method, electric bias-attenuated metal-assisted chemical etching (EMaCE), is demonstrated to be readily available for three-dimensional (3D) electronic integration, microelectromechinal systems, and a broad range of 3D electronic components with low cost. On the basis of the traditional metal-assisted chemical etching process, an electric bias was applied to the Si substrate in EMaCE. The 3D geometry of the etching profile was effectively controlled by the bias in a real-time manner. The reported method successfully fabricated an array of over 10 000 vertical holes with diameters of 28 μm on 1 cm(2) silicon chips at a rate of up to 11 μm/min. The sidewall roughness was kept below 50 nm, and a high aspect ratio of over 10:1 was achieved. The 3D geometry could be attenuated by the variable applied bias in real time. Vertical deep etching was realized on (100)-, (111)-Si, and polycrystalline Si substrates. Complex features with lateral dimensions of 0.8-500 μm were also fabricated with submicron accuracy.