Abstract

Over the years, silicon has proved to be the standard material in the electronics market, dominating the microelectronics industry with approximately 90% of all semiconductor devices sold worldwide. Silicon is the second most abundant element in the earth’s crust and has demonstrated repeatedly to be a practical and versatile material for a wide range of applications in electronic, photovoltaic devices, and electron field emitters. Silicon nanomaterials are also popular since they can be synthesized on a large scale and inexpensively by several methods, and in various morphologies including silicon nanowires (SiNWs), nanorods, nanobelts, and nanoparticles. Quasi-one-dimensional (1D) SiNW semiconductors have attracted much attention because of their distinctive optical, electronic, and mechanical properties (Lee et al. 2016; Schwartz et al. 2016), suitable for modern applications in electron field emission due to their high electron mobility (Liu and Fan 2005; Chen et al. 2006; Chan et al. 2008; Shao et al. 2010; Fan et al. 2011). Recently, there has been an increase in applications of quasi-1D SiNWs due to their compatibility with existing semiconductor technology, evidenced by the successful incorporation of SiNWs in field-effect transistors and in UHD full-color flat panel displays (Chen et al. 2011).