Microstructures and IR spectra of long amorphous SiO2/Si nanowires

Abstract Long Si nanowires were tried to form using a thermal gradient evaporation method. Amorphous SiO2/Si nanowires longer than 6 mm were formed at 1403–1433 K. The long nanowires consist of a silicon single core of 50–100 nm in diameter and an amorphous SiO2 outer layer of 10–15 nm in thickness. The growth direction of the long Si nanowires was 〈1 1 1〉. The nanowires showed IR absorption peaks at 1130, 1160 and 1200 cm−1 due to the disordered structure of SiO2/Si nanowires.