Laser ablation of whisker precursor alloys

Laser ablation [74] is a new generic method that facilitates the production of nanowhiskers or nanowires from semiconductor materials. Nanowires grown so far include silicon (Si) and 

Sheath core Si02 / Si nanowire with Fe tip solid) Single crystal silicon nanowire solid phase) 

Except for initially producing a sheath/core SiOz/Si nanowhisker, the laser ablation process parallels the metal catalyzed chemical vapor deposition process (Chapter 2.2.3). In this process, the Si that is desired is generated by chemical vapor deposition and dissolved in molten metal droplets, e.g., Au or Fe. The molten alloy droplets, e.g., SIAu, which result in this process sequence, give rise to the grovrth of single crystal Si micro-whiskers by a similar overall VLS phase transformation. 

The laser ablation process has been demonstrated so far only for Si and Ge nanowires [74], but it is clear that it is a new generic tool for growing crystalline nanowires. Thus, it should be possible to make nanowires or nanowhiskers of SiC, GaAs, Bi2Te3 and BN in this way and perhaps, in the presence of atomic hydrogen, even diamond nanowires [74]. 

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