Si-NWs: Major advances in synthesis and applications

Surfaces and interfaces have a special significance to nanotechnology because the surface/volume ratio of nanomaterials is larger than for the bulk ones. Therefore, interfaces of nanomaterials are more important to the properties of the nanomaterials than for larger scale materials. Moreover, crystal growth and more particularly Nanowires (NWs) growth occurs at the interfaces between the growing crystals and the supply media. This chapter focuses on the silicon nanowires grown using a Vapor-Liquid-Solid (VLS) concept. One of the key advantages of VLS is that controlled placement or templating of the seed metal produces templated NW growth. This templating is required for integration of NWs with other devices, which is desirable for many applications. The authors discuss issues on the discovery of fundamentally new phenomena versus performance benchmarking for many of the Si-NW applications. Finally, the authors attempt to look into the future and offer their personal opinions on the upcoming trends in nanowire research.