Abstract

One-dimensional (1D) nanostructures, such as nanowires (NWs), rods, belts, and tubes, have been studied extensively for more than two decades, due to their novel and remarkable mechanical, electrical, optical, thermal, and chemical properties. Among these, Si nanowires (SiNWs) receive exceptional attention, primarily due to their semiconductor nature and compatibility with the current Si-based semiconductor technology. A tremendous amount of progress has been made in the field of 1D nanostructures in the past decades. It is generally accepted that NWs provide a good system to investigate the dependence of mechanical, electrical, or thermal transport properties on dimensionality, size reduction, and quantum confinement. SiNWs also play a critical role in both interconnects and functional units in fabricating electronic, electromechanical, optoelectronic, and electrochemical devices with small dimensions. As compared with 0D quantum dots and quantum wells, the significant advancement of 1D SiNWs is benefited from the relatively easy, reasonably low cost, and robust synthesis and fabrication with well-controlled dimensions, surface morphology, phase purity, and chemical composition.