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1 PublicationBottom-up Fabrication of FeSb₂ Nanowires on Crystalline GaAs Substrates with Ion-induced Pre-patterning
Weinert, T.; Erb, D.; Hübner, R.; Facsko, S.
Most industrial processes are generating waste heat that can be converted into electrical energy with thermoelectric generators (TEGs). For efficient energy harvesting, it is necessary to significantly improve the properties like Seebeck coefficient, electrical and thermal conductivity of the thermoelectric materials in the TEGs. One promising approach are thermoelectric nanostructures to reduce the thermal conductivity while maintaining constant electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient. For that reason, this study investigated the possibility of preparing nanowires of the thermoelectric material iron antimonide (FeSb₂) on crystalline gallium arsenide GaAs(001) substrates with ion-induced surface nanopatterning.
The GaAs(001) substrates were pre-patterned using 1 keV Ar⁺ ion irradiation. By using an ion source with a broad, unfocused ion beam at normal incidence, the patterned area can be scaled to nearly any size. The self-organized surface structure is formed by reverse epitaxy and is characterized by almost perfectly parallel-aligned ripples at the nanometer scale. For the fabrication of FeSb₂ nanowires, iron and antimony were successively deposited on the prepatterned GaAs substrates at grazing incidence and then annealed. They were characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), in particular high-resolution TEM imaging for structure analysis and spectrum imaging analysis based on energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy
for element characterization.
With the presented fabrication method, FeSb₂ nanowires were produced successfully on GaAs(001) substrates with an ion-induced nanopatterned surface. The nanowires have a polycristalline structure and a cross-sectional area which is scalable up to 22×22nm². Due to the highly ordered nanostructure of the GaAs substrates, the nanowires have a length of several micrometer. These bottom-up nanofabrication based on ion-induced patterning can be a viable alternative to top-down procedures regarding to efficiency and costs.
Keywords: bottom-up nanofabrication; ion-induced nanopatterning; physical vapor deposition; transmission electron microscopy; energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy
Involved research facilities
- Ion Beam Center DOI: 10.17815/jlsrf-3-159
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- DOI: 10.17815/jlsrf-3-159 is cited by this (Id 36264) publication
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Data publication: Bottom-up Fabrication of FeSb₂ Nanowires on Crystalline GaAs …
ROBIS: 36517 HZDR-primary research data are used by this (Id 36264) publication
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Frontiers in Physics 11(2023), 1149608
DOI: 10.3389/fphy.2023.1149608
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Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-36264