Synthesis, Contact Printing, and Device Characterization of Ni-Catalyzed, Crystalline InAs Nanowires

TL;DR

This paper reports the synthesis of high-quality, crystalline InAs nanowires using Ni catalysts, their contact printing, and characterization, demonstrating their potential for high-performance, printable transistors with excellent electrical properties.

Contribution

It introduces a Ni-catalyzed growth method for InAs nanowires on amorphous substrates, enabling scalable, high-yield production with tunable diameters and high electrical performance.

Findings

Nanowires exhibit electron mobility ~2,700 cm2/Vs.

Large-scale parallel arrays enable high ON currents (~400 nanowires).

Nanowires show high uniformity and purity.

Abstract

InAs nanowires have been actively explored as the channel material for high performance transistors owing to their high electron mobility and ease of ohmic metal contact formation. The catalytic growth of non-epitaxial InAs nanowires, however, has often relied on the use of Au colloids which is non-CMOS compatible. Here, we demonstrate the successful synthesis of high yield of crystalline InAs nanowires with high yield and tunable diameters by using Ni nanoparticles as the catalyst material on amorphous SiO2 substrates. The nanowires show superb electrical properties with field-effect electron mobility ~2,700 cm2/Vs and ION/IOFF >103. The uniformity and purity of the grown InAs nanowires are further demonstrated by large-scale assembly of parallel arrays of nanowires on substrates via the contact printing process that enables high performance, printable transistors, capable of delivering 5-10 mA ON currents (~400 nanowires).