Abstract
Low-resistivity TiSi 2 nanowires were synthesized on silicon with TiF 4 precursor and without catalysts. The growth was found to follow vapor-solid mechanism. The single crystalline nanowires are of 054-TiSi 2 phase with the diameters and lengths being 20-50 nm and 1.-2 micrometers, respectively. The field emission properties of the TiSi 2 nanowires were measured, and the turn on voltage is 8 V/μm when the current density attained 1 μA/cm 2 . The field enhancement factor is about 800 with the measured work function of 4.6 eV. In addition, long term stability of field emission was found. The resistivity of the TiSi 2 nanowire was measured to be 30 μΩ cm. by the two-probe measurement. The metallic TiSi 2 nanowires exhibited a failure current density of as high as 3 × 10 8 A/cm 2 . The low resistivity, high failure current density, and high field emission stability of the TiSi 2 nanowires indicate that they are potentially applicable in the interconnecting electronic architectures and silicon-based field emission devices. © 2009 American Chemical Society.