Fabrication of uniaxially strained silicon nanowires

In this letter we propose a method for the fabrication of suspended strained silicon nanowires. Tensile uniaxially strained silicon is obtained by elastic strain relaxation of patterned tensile biaxially strained silicon on insulator layer. Electron beam lithography, reactive ion etching and oxidation are employed to write and transfer the nanowires down to a dimension of 15 nm in diameter. Surface smoothing and wire diameter reduction are controlled by an oxidation process. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.