Epitaxy of Ge nanowires grown from biotemplated Au nanoparticle catalysts

Semiconductor nanowires (NWs) are being actively investigated due to their unique functional properties which result from their quasi-one-dimensional structure. However, control over the crystallographic growth direction, diameter, location, and morphology of high-density NWs is essential to achieve the desirable properties and to integrate these NWs into miniaturized devices. This article presents evidence for the suitability of a biological templated catalyst approach to achieve high-density, epitaxial growth of NWs via the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) mechanism. Bacterial surface-layer protein lattices from Deinococcus radiodurans were adsorbed onto germanium substrates of (111), (110), and (100) crystallographic orientations and used to template gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) of different diameters. Orientation-controlled growth of GeNWs was achieved from very small size (5-20 nm) biotemplated AuNP catalysts on all of the substrates studied. Biotemplated GeNWs exhibited improved morphologies, higher densities (NW/microm(2)), and more uniform length as compared to GeNWs grown from nontemplated AuNPs on the substrate surfaces. The results offer an integrated overview of the interplay of parameters such as catalyst size, catalyst density, substrate crystallographic orientation, and the presence of the protein template in determining the morphology and growth direction of GeNWs. A comparison between templated and nontemplated growth provides additional insight into the mechanism of VLS growth of biotemplated NWs.