Pt-Catalyzed Growth of Amorphous SiOx Nanowires

Hyoun Woo Kim, Seung Hyun Shim, Jong Woo Lee, Mi Kyoung Park, Jae-Won Soh, Keun Hyeung Lee, Wan In Lee, Ik-Mo Lee and Sang-Eon Park

We have fabricated SiO$_x$ nanowires on a large scale through a Pt-catalyzed process. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) investigation revealed that the nanowires had diameters in the range of 30 $\sim$ 130 nm. X-ray diffraction (XRD), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analyses indicated that the nanowires were amorphous and consisted only of Si and O elements. The growth of the SiO$_x$ nanowires was most likely controlled by the base-growth mechanism with the assistance of the underlying Pt layer. The room-temperature PL spectrum measurement showed a broad emission band, peaking around 3.0 eV. This simple heating method, with the effectiveness of the Pt catalyst, can be applied to a wide range of substrate materials, which may contribute to producing various useful nanostructures.