On the formation of silicon wires produced by high-energy ion irradiation

We present a detailed study of simulated and experimentally observed factors which influence the formation of wires in p-type silicon which is irradiated with a high energy, small diameter proton beam, and subsequently electrochemically etched in dilute hydrofluoric acid. A better understanding of the variety of factors influencing wire formation enables a better control of their size, gap between adjacent wires and shape. This addresses a previous limitation in fabricating such structures, such as uncontrollable wire shape and undefined minimum gaps. Furthermore it removes limitations in their application in photonics, such as the difficulty in coupling light between adjacent waveguides, a smearing of the band gap of photonic crystals due to imperfect periodicity, and difficulty in moving the photonic band gap towards near infra-red range. Therefore, the present work allows better control in fabricating components for three dimensional silicon machining and silicon photonics using ion irradiation in conjunction with electrochemical etching.