Fabrication of Highly Ordered Silicon Nanowires by Metal Assisted Chemical Etching Combined with a Nanoimprinting Process

Abstract

Highly ordered silicon nanowires with a high aspect ratio were fabricated by a metal assisted chemical etching (MACE) process combined with a nanoimprinting-assisted metal patterning method. A polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) layer was coated on a silicon wafer as a sacrificial lift-off layer, and the highly ordered nanodot structures were ultraviolet (UV) nanoimprinted on the PMMA layer. The Au nanomesh arrayed catalyst layer for the MACE process was fabricated on a silicon wafer using a lift-off method with a UV imprinted nanodot barrier. The etching rate of the MACE process was analyzed for accurate control of the length of the silicon nanowires.