Study of silicon dioxide nanowires grown via rapid thermal annealing of sputtered amorphous carbon films doped with Si

Silica nanowires are usually synthesized by means of vapor liquid solid method with metal catalyst introduced at the top which will unambiguously affect the excellent light emission properties of silica nanowires in optoelectronic devices and optical signal sensors. In this study, silicon dioxide nanowires without traces of catalyst are grown via rapid thermal annealing of magnetron sputtered amorphous carbon film doped with silicon. These high density silicon dioxide nanowires were amorphous with a length longer than 20 μm and a diameter of 30-140 nm. Detailed morphology and microstructure analysis are conducted with field emission scanning electron microscopy and high resolution transmission electron microscopy. Graphitization of carbon and oxidation of silicon during rapid thermal annealing were revealed by Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. This study indicates that high growth rate of >6 μm/min of high purity silicon dioxide nanowire is possible simply by sputtering followed by rapid thermal annealing and an additional heating treatment.