ABSTRACT
The history of silicon nanowire (SiNW) arrays started almost 60 years ago when Treuting and Arnold reported on the formation of "silicon whiskers" in the vapor deposition process. Indeed, silicon is one of fundamental materials of modern microelectronics, and silicon technologies are well developed, which makes integration of the SiNW arrays with present electronics easy. In contrast to micro- or mesoporous silicon, optical properties of SiNW arrays in visible and near-infrared (IR) regions can hardly be described in terms of so-called effective refractive index, and new approaches should be developed. Besides, the SiNW arrays are in close connection with highly discussed metasurfaces. Apart from the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) mechanism of the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) nanowire growth described earlier, the silicon atoms participating in the VLS process can be obtained in electron beam evaporation (EBE) process. Another variation of the VLS technique is synthesis of the SiNWs with help of laser ablation of a target consisting of silicon and a catalyst.
