Precise Control of Nanowire Formation Based on Polysilane for Photoelectronic Device Application

A High-energy single ion trajectory in a Si-based polymer thin film produces a cross-linked polymer nanowire with the length of 10–1000 nm and the thickness of 4.0–19.4 nm (radius of the cross section). The energy density deposited by incident ions and the molecular weight of the target polymer materials principally determine the thickness of the nanowires at any discrete radius in this range. Surface treatment of a substrate completely controls the adhesion of the nanowires, which makes it possible to pattern the nanowire distribution on the substrate. Nanogap platinum electrodes with 100 nm gap width are fabricated on the nanowire dispersed SiO2 substrate by a lift-off method with electron beam lithography techniques. Current-voltage analysis of the nanowires in the gap clearly indicates intrinsic semiconductive features based on crosslinked polysilanes.