Non-thermal liquid-to-solid Si conversion induced by electron beam irradiation

A liquid precursor for the semiconductor, Si, called liquid Si (liq-Si), was synthesized. Although liq-Si is converted to semiconducting Si by heating at 400 °C, herein, we demonstrate liquid-to-solid Si conversion without heating using liquid-phase electron beam-induced deposition. This technique realizes the direct deposition of semiconducting Si by irradiating liq-Si with an electron beam. Specifically, at electron beam (diameter, ∼50 nm) irradiation, a Si deposit with a diameter of approximately 240 nm was obtained. It is expected that the application of this developed method will enable the production of high-resolution Si nanostructures and grant access to previously inaccessible devices. (author)