Gate-all-arround single-crystalline silicon nanowire optical sensor

In this paper, we demonstrate gate-all-around (GAA) single crystalline nanowires (SiNWs) that are fabricated using top-down standard CMOS front-end processes. The GAA silicon nanowires are fabricated in well-defined locations with high-quality electrical contacts, and controlled geometry and alignment. Individual SiNWs are good candidates for high resolution optical sensing and allow for tuning of optical absorption by precise control of the nanowire geometry and orientation. The p-i-n silicon nanowires are highly sensitive to the intensity and polarization of the incident light. These top-down fabricated SiNWs can be easily integrated in high density arrays for enhanced light absorption, resulting in imaging sensors with nanoscale spatial resolution.