Influence of vacuum annealing on mechanical characteristics of focused ion beam fabricated silicon nanowires

This paper describes the influence of vacuum annealing on the mechanical characteristics of silicon (Si) nanowires (NWs) fabricated using focused ion beam (FIB) technologies. Two types of Si NWs having a cross-sectional one-side length or diameter ranging from 19 to 447 nm are prepared using the direct milling and Ga ion doping functions of FIB. The Si NWs prepared are annealed at 400–700 °C in high vacuum for 10 min, followed by quasi-static uniaxial tensile testing using a microelectromechanical system based tensile test system in a scanning electron microscope. All the Si NWs fracture in a brittle manner. Young's modulus of submicrometer-sized Si NWs shows both annealing and specimen size influences in the range from 120 to 170 GPa, whereas that of nano-sized Si NWs shows only annealing influence in the range from 60 to 110 GPa. Tensile strength scatters greatly, ranging from 1.0 to 7.2 GPa, which increases with increasing the NW size. A transmission electron microscope and an atomic force microscope suggest that, by annealing, recrystallization happens in the damaged layer introduced by FIB milling and the NW surface morphology changes due to its recrystallization and gallium (Ga) ion evaporation. Fracture origin is discussed through the comparison between surface roughness and crack length estimated by the Griffith theory of brittle fracture.