CONTENTS 1
1INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Silicon and its significance 1
1.2 Overview of one-dimensional materials 4
1.3 From three-dimensional to one-dimensional silicon 8
1.4 Progress in silicon nanowires research 11
2OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT 14
3RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 15
3.1 Principle of the laser ablation method 15
3.2 Experimental 22
4CHARACTERIZATION OF SILICON NANOWIRES 24
4.1 Morphologies of silicon nanowires 24
4.2 Structure of silicon nanowires 27
4.3 Special morphologies 30
4.4 Photoluminescence(PL) 34
4.5 Effects of growth conditions 35
4.5.1 Different carrying gases 35
4.5.2 Different starting materials 44
4.5.3 Surface morphology of the target 53
4.6 Synthesis by direct thermal evaporation 60
5DISCUSSION ON GROWTH MECHANISM 70
6APPLICATIONS OF SILICON NANOWIRES 84
7SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF RELATED NANOWIRES 93
7.1 Germanium nanowires 93
7.2 Germanium dioxide nanowires 105
7.3 Amorphous carbon nanowires 114
8．CONCLUSIONS 123
9．LIST AND ABSTRACT OF PUBLICATIONS 126
10．APPENDICES 158