Transmission Electron Microscopy studies of the nanostructural characteristics of the Inductively Coupled Plasma synthesized Silicon Nanowires

The aim of this work was devoted to the investigation of the properties and growth mechanism of Silicon nanowires (SiNWs) synthesized via an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) based process. To this purpose, three classes of Si nanostructures have been extensively studied, namely SiNWs, chapelet-like Si nanostructures and SiNC chains, produced by the novel technique of ICP. Focus has been put on the correlation between the structural characterization of the Si nanostructures and their optical properties, in order to understand the occurrence of QC effects related to their nanosize. An approach based on the use of Transmission Electron Microscopy techniques has been used to accomplish the investigation of the structural and chemical characteristics of the SiNWs, leading to the understanding of their growth mechanism. In a second step of this project, the effects of post-synthesis thermal treatments on the nanostructural changes of these SiNWs have been studied. All these results constitute a solid basis towards the production of SiNWs via the ICP technique. The ICP is a genuinely bulk process, which can be advantageously exploited for large scale fabrication of thin SiNWs needed to integrate Si into attractive large-area optoelectronic devices and flexible electronics.