Department of Physics and Materials Scien Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, Hon Department of Biology and Chemistry, Cit Avenue, Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kon Centre for Functional Photonics (CFP), Cit Avenue, Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kon Shenzhen Research Institute, City Universit † Electronic supplementary informa 10.1039/c4ra06172a ‡ These authors contributed equally to th Cite this: ...

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...

Abstract The effect of the etching solution concentration on profile vertical microscale holes formed a Si(100) substrate by metal-assisted chemical (MacEtch) was investigated. MacEtch performed at different ratios (characterized their molar ratio <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/Mat...

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...

A simple and effective method is presented for producing light-emitting porous silicon ~PSi!. A thin (d,10 nm! layer of Au, Pt, or Au/Pd is deposited on the ~100! Si surface prior to immersion in a solution of HF and H2O2 . Depending on the type of metal deposited and Si doping type and doping level, PSi with different morphologies and light-emitting properties is produced. PSi production occur...

We report solar cells with both black Si antireflection and SiO2 surface passivation provided by inexpensive liquid-phase chemistry, rather than by conventional vacuum-based techniques. Preliminary cell efficiency has reached 16.4%. Nanoporous black Si antireflection on crystalline Si by aqueous etching promises low surface reflection for high photon utilization, together with lower manufacturi...

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...

In this work, we use a two-step metal-assisted chemical etching method to produce films of silicon nanowires shaped in micrograins from metallurgical-grade polycrystalline silicon powder. The first step is an electroless plating process where the powder was dipped for few minutes in an aqueous solution of silver nitrite and hydrofluoric acid to permit Ag plating of the Si micrograins. During th...