Plasmon-assisted interaction of Si with light, for cancer hyperthermia and electromagnetic energy harvest

Abstract

Metal-assisted chemical etching (MACE) is applied for fabrication of silicon nanowires (SiNWs). We have shown the effect of amorphous sheath of SiNWs by treating the nanowires with SF6 and the resulting reduction of absorption bandwidth, i.e. making SiNWs semi-transparent in near-infrared (IR). For the first time, by treating the fabricated SiNWs with copper containing HF∕H2O2∕H2O solution, we have generated crystalline nanowires with broader light absorption spectrum, up to λ = 1 μm. Both the absorption and photo-luminescence (PL) of the SiNWs are observed from visible to IR wavelengths. It is found that the SiNWs have PL at visible and near Infrared wavelengths, which may infer presence of mechanisms such as forbidden gap transitions other can involvement of plasmonic resonances. Non-radiative recombination of excitons is one of the reasons behind absorption of SiNWs. Also, on the dielectric metal interface, the absorption mechanism can be due to plasmonic dissipation or plasmon-assisted generation of excitons in the indirect band-gap material. Comparison between nanowires with and without metallic nanoparticles has revealed the effect of nanoparticles on absorption enhancement. The broader near IR absorption, paves the way for applications like hyperthermia of cancer while the optical transition in near IR also facilitates harvesting electromagnetic energy at a broad spectrum from visible to IR.