Nanowires of four epitaxial hexagonal silicides grown on Si(001)

Epitaxial self-assembled silicide nanowires can be grown on Si (001) if the magnitude of the lattice mismatch between epilayer and substrate is large along one crystal axis and small along the perpendicular axis. This phenomenon is illustrated with four examples: ${\mathrm{ScSi}}_2,$ ${\mathrm{ErSi}}_2,$ ${\mathrm{DySi}}_2,$ and ${\mathrm{GdSi}}_2,$ which have lattice mismatches of −4.6%, 6.3%, 7.6%, and 8.9%, respectively, along one of the Si 〈110〉 directions and mismatches of 0.8%, −1.6%, −0.1%, and 0.8%, respectively, along the perpendicular Si〈110〉 direction. The resulting self-assembled nanowires have widths and heights in the range of 3–11 and 0.2–3 nm, depending on the lattice mismatches. The average lengths of the nanowires are in the range 150–450 nm, and are determined primarily by kinetic issues. The epitaxial growth of silicide nanowires should prove interesting to those studying quasi-one- dimensional systems.