High Reactivity of Silicon Suboxide Vapor

Silicon oxide is a critical source material in the oxide-assisted growth as described above. It also plays important roles, as is well known, in many fields such as electronics, optical communications, and thin-film technology. Our recent finding of silicon oxide in the synthesis of silicon nanowires, as we reviewed in the previous part of this chapter, would extend further the important new application of silicon oxide. 

Thermal and Chemical Stabilities of Pure Silicon Nanostructured Materials 

For application of the SiNWs in advanced areas, their oxide sheath has to be removed. If the silicon core were not saturated, the stability of the structure would be very poor. Demonstrations of their stability would be useful for understanding the related problems. Other issues of pure silicon nanostructures including the structure and property of the thinnest nanowire and the stability of silicon nanotubes are also interesting. Summarized below are our computational efforts regarding these issues. 

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