Strain-induced generation of silicon nanopillars

Silicon metal-assisted chemical etching (MACE) is a nanostructuring technique exploiting the enhancement of the silicon etch rate at some metal–silicon interfaces. Compared to more traditional approaches, MACE is a high-throughput technique, and it is one of the few that enables the growth of vertical 1D structures of virtually unlimited length. As such, it has already found relevant technological applications in fields ranging from energy conversion to biosensing. Yet, its implementation has always required metal patterning to obtain nanopillars. Here, we report how MACE may lead to the formation of porous silicon nanopillars even in the absence of gold patterning. We show how the use of inhomogeneous yet continuous gold layers leads to the generation of a stress field causing spontaneous local delamination of the metal—and to the formation of silicon nanopillars where the metal disruption occurs. We observed the spontaneous formation of nanopillars with diameters ranging from 40 to 65 nm and heights up to 1 μm. Strain-controlled generation of nanopillars is consistent with a mechanism of silicon oxidation by hole injection through the metal layer. Spontaneous nanopillar formation could enable applications of this method to contexts where ordered distributions of nanopillars are not required, while patterning by high-resolution techniques is either impractical or unaffordable. (paper)