Growth Characteristics of Amorphous Silicon Oxide Nanowires Synthesized via Annealing of Ni/SiO2/Si Substrates

In this work, we investigate the growth behavior of silicon oxide nanowires via a solid-liquid-solid process. Silicon oxide nanowires were synthesized at $1000^{\circ}C$ in an Ar and $H_2$ mixed gas. A pre-oxidized silicon wafer and a nickel film are used as the substrate and catalyst, respectively. We propose two distinctive growth modes for the silicon oxide nanowires that both act as a unique solid-liquid-solid growth process. We named the two growth mechanisms "grounded-growth" and "branched-growth" modes to characterize their unique solid-liquid-solid growth behavior. The two growth modes were classified by the generation site of the nanowires. The grounded-growth mode in which the grown nanowires are generated from the substrate and the branchedgrowth mode where the nanowires are grown from the side of the previously grown nanowires or at the metal catalyst drop attached at the tip of the nanowire stem.