Gold nanowires from silicon nanowire templates

Abstract

We report a simple method for producing gold nanowires (AuNWs) by using silicon nanowires (SiNWs) as templates. Uniform AuNWs were formed in the core of SiNWs, when SiNWs coated with Au were furnace annealed at ∼880 °C at 10−2 Torr. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) examination showed the AuNWs had diameters of ∼10 nm. High-resolution TEM revealed lattice fringes with an interlayer spacing of 0.235 nm, which corresponds to the spacing in Au crystal, confirming the AuNWs are crystalline.