One-dimensional Si/Ge nanowires and their heterostructures for multifunctional applications-a review

Remarkable progress has been made in the field of one-dimensional semiconductor nanostructures for electronic and photonic devices. Group-IV semiconductors and their heterostructures have dominated the years of success in microelectronic industry. However their use in photonic devices is limited since they exhibit poor optical activity due to indirect band gap nature of Si and Ge. Reducing their dimensions below a characteristic length scale of various fundamental parameters like exciton Bohr radius, phonon mean free path, critical size of magnetic domains, exciton diffusion length etc result in the significant modification of bulk properties. In particular, light emission from Si/Ge nanowires due to quantum confinement, strain induced band structure modification and impurity doping may lead to the integration of photonic components with mature silicon CMOS technology in near future. Several promising applications based on Si and Ge nanowires have already been well established and studied, while others are now at the early demonstration stage. The control over various forms of energy and carrier transport through the unconstrained dimension makes Si and Ge nanowires a promising platform to manufacture advanced solid-state devices. This review presents the progress of the research with emphasis on their potential application of Si/Ge nanowires and their heterostructures for electronic, photonic, sensing and energy devices.