Bulk synthesis of long silicon nitride nanowires on silicon wafer

A Nickel-catalyzed synthesis method was developed to grow large-scale Si
₃
N
₄
nanowires on silicon wafer in forming gas of N
₂
/H
₂
(5%) under 1200°C. These nanowires consisted of uniform diameter ranging from 50 to 100 nm with length up to 500 μm. Vapor-liquid-solid mechanism was proposed to interpret the nanowire growth procedure. It was characterized that the nanowires were mainly composed of single-crystal α-Si
₃
N
₄
, growing along the [120] direction.