Abbreviated Journal Title
Nat. Commun.
Keywords
OPTICAL-FIBER; ELECTRICAL-CONDUCTIVITY; POLYCRYSTALLINE SILICON; Multidisciplinary Sciences
Abstract
The ability to produce small scale, crystalline silicon spheres is of significant technological and scientific importance, yet scalable methods for doing so have remained elusive. Here we demonstrate a silicon nanosphere fabrication process based on an optical fibre drawing technique. A silica-cladded silicon-core fibre with diameters down to 340 nm is continuously fed into a flame defining an axial thermal gradient and the continuous formation of spheres whose size is controlled by the feed speed is demonstrated. In particular, spheres of diameter < 500 nm smaller than those produced under isothermal heating conditions are shown and analysed. A fibre with dual cores, p-type and n-type silicon, is drawn and processed into spheres. Spatially coherent break-up leads to the joining of the spheres into a bispherical silicon 'p-n molecule'. The resulting device is measured to reveal a rectifying I-V curve consistent with the formation of a p-n junction.
Journal Title
Nature Communications
Volume
4
Publication Date
1-1-2013
Document Type
Article
DOI Link
Language
English
First Page
8
WOS Identifier
ISSN
2041-1723
Recommended Citation
Gumennik, Alexander; Wei, Lei; Lestoquoy, Guillaume; Stolyarov, Alexander M.; Jia, Xiaoting; Rekemeyer, Paul H.; Smith, Matthew J.; Liang, Xiangdong; Grena, Benjamin J.-B.; Johnson, Steven G.; Gradečak, Silvija; Abouraddy, Ayman F.; Joannopoulos, John D.; and Fink, Yoel, "Silicon-in-silica spheres via axial thermal gradient in-fibre capillary instabilities" (2013). Faculty Bibliography 2010s. 4063.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/facultybib2010/4063
Comments
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