Charge transport studies on Si nanopillars for photodetectors fabricated using vapor phase metal-assisted chemical etching.

Si nanopillars (SiNPLs) were fabricated using a novel vapor phase metal-assisted chemical etching (V-Mace) and nanosphere lithography. The temperature dependent current–voltage (I–V) characteristics have been studied over a broad temperature range 170–360 K. The SiNPLs show a Schottky diode-like behavior at a temperature below 300 K and the rectification (about two orders of magnitude) is more prominent at temperature < 210 K. The electrical properties are discussed in detail using Cheung’s and Norde methods, and the Schottky diode parameters, such as barrier height, ideality factor, series resistance, are carefully figured out and compared with different methods. Moreover, the light sensitivity of the SiNPLs has been studied using I–V characteristics in dark and under the illumination of white light and UV light. The SiNPLs show fast response to the white light and UV light (response time of 0.18 and 0.26 s) under reverse bias condition and the mechanism explained using band diagram. The ratio of photo-to-dark current shows a peak value of 9.8 and 6.9 for white light and UV light, respectively. The Si nanopillars exhibit reflectance < 4% over the wavelength region 250–800 nm with a minimum reflectance of 2.13% for the optimized sample. The superior light absorption of the SiNPLs induced fast response in the I–V characteristics under UV light and white light. The work function of the SiNPLs in dark and under illumination has been also studied using Kelvin probe to confirm the light sensitivity

Synthesis of silver nanowires towards the development the ultrasensitive AgNWs/SiNPLs hybrid photodetector and flexible transparent conductor.

In this paper, we report the synthesis of silver nanowires (AgNWs) via polyol method towards the fabrication of low cost high sensitive hybrid photodetector. During AgNWs synthesis, NaCl was added to the reaction for controlling the free Ag+ ions concentration during the formation of initial Ag seeds. Field emission scanning electron microscopy results show that AgNWs of diameter ~ 50–80 nm and length ~ 5–30 µm can be achieved. UV–Visible absorption spectroscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy results indicate the formation of AgNWs in highly pure phase. Hybrid detector was fabricated by depositing the AgNWs film on silicon nanopillar (SiNPLs) substrate. Fabricated hybrid AgNWs/SiNPLs photodetector exhibits ~ 10 times more sensitivity as compared to SiNPLs based detector. In addition, AgNWs/SiNPLs detector shows outstanding stability against 20 days exposure to ambient conditions. These results indicate that AgNWs can be utilized to fabricate the high performance one dimensional hybrid photodetectors. The effectiveness of AgNWs to make the transparent flexible devices has also been demonstrated. AgNWs film deposited on a flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate revealed a maximum total transmittance and sheet resistance of ~ 94% and ~ 200/sq., respectively

Tailored periodic Si nanopillar based architectures as highly sensitive universal SERS biosensing platform.

We report a skeleton key platform for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) based biosensor, utilizing ordered arrays of Si nanopillars (SiNPLs) with plasmonic silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). The optimized SiNPLs based SERS (SiNPLs-SERS) sensor exhibited high enhancement factor (EF) of 2.4 × 108 for thiophenol with sensitivity down to 10−13 M of R6G molecules. The ordered array of SiNPLs stabilizes the distribution of AgNPs along with the light trapping properties, which resulted in high EF and excellent reproducibility. The uniformity in the arrangement of AgNPs makes a single SiNPLs-SERS substrate to work for all types of biomolecules such as positively and negatively charged proteins, hydrophobic proteins, cells and dyes, etc. The experiments conducted on differently charged proteins, amyloid beta (the protein responsible for alzheimers), E. coli cells, healthy and malaria infected RBCs provide a proof of concept for employing universal SiNPLs-SERS substrate for trace biomolecule detection. The FDTD simulations substantiate the superior performance of the sensor achieved by the tremendous increase in the hotspot distribution compared to the bare Si sensor

Evolution mechanism of mesoporous silicon nanopillars grown by metal-assisted chemical etching and nanosphere lithography: correlation of Raman spectra and red photoluminescence

We have fabricated highly ordered, vertically aligned, high aspect ratio silicon nanopillars (SiNPLs) of diameter ~80 nm by combining metal-assisted chemical etching and nanosphere lithography. The evolution of surface morphology of porous silicon nanopillars has been explained, and the presence of mesoporous structures was detected on the top of silicon nanopillars using field emission scanning electron microscopy. The mesoporosity of the SiNPLs is confirmed by Brunauer–Emmett–Teller measurements. The peak shift and the splitting of optical phonon modes into LO and TO modes in the micro-Raman spectra of mesoporous SiNPLs manifest the presence of 2–3 nm porous Si nanocrystallites (P-SiNCs) on the top of SiNPLs and the size of crystallites was calculated using bond polarizability model for spherical phonon confinement. The origin of red luminescence is explained using quantum confinement (QC) and QC luminescent center models for the P-SiNCs, which is correlated with the micro-Raman spectra. Finally, we confirmed the origin of the red luminescence is from the P-SiNCs formed on surface of SiNPLs, highly desired for LED devices by suitably tailoring the substrate

Improved broadband and omnidirectional light absorption in silicon nanopillars achieved through gradient mesoporosity induced leaky waveguide modulation

Metal assisted chemical etching in combination with nanosphere lithography is a low cost fabrication method to produce Si nanopillars (SiNPLs) with controlled size, periodicity and high aspect ratio on a large scale. These SiNPLs show a refractive index gradient condition from top to bottom of the SiNPLs due to the presence of inhomogeneous mesoporous structures. Here, for the first time we report the omnidirectional and polarization insensitive light coupling through mesoporosity induced waveguiding in SiNPLs. The optimized sample shows a minimum reflectance of <4% over a broad range of angles of incidence 8–48°. The inhomogeneous mesoporous structures on the top of SiNPLs act like a three dimensional grating to couple the light into waveguide modes and made headway for the omnidirectional light absorption. By using angle resolved reflectance spectra and angle dependent Raman scattering, we confirmed that the inhomogeneous porosity plays a significant role in the omnidirectional light trapping, especially in the lower wavelength region, where the nanopillar absorption dominates. Finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulations have been performed to examine the omnidirectional light absorption theoretically and to find the leaky waveguide modes associated with the SiNPLs. This work focuses on the porosity induced fundamental light trapping in SiNPLs, which is highly desired in the design of photonic and optoelectronic devices

Practice patterns and outcomes after stroke across countries at different economic levels (INTERSTROKE):an international observational study

Background: Stroke disproportionately affects people in low-income and middle-income countries. Although improvements in stroke care and outcomes have been reported in high-income countries, little is known about practice and outcomes in low and middle-income countries. We aimed to compare patterns of care available and their association with patient outcomes across countries at different economic levels. Methods: We studied the patterns and effect of practice variations (ie, treatments used and access to services) among participants in the INTERSTROKE study, an international observational study that enrolled 13 447 stroke patients from 142 clinical sites in 32 countries between Jan 11, 2007, and Aug 8, 2015. We supplemented patient data with a questionnaire about health-care and stroke service facilities at all participating hospitals. Using univariate and multivariate regression analyses to account for patient casemix and service clustering, we estimated the association between services available, treatments given, and patient outcomes (death or dependency) at 1 month. Findings: We obtained full information for 12 342 (92%) of 13 447 INTERSTROKE patients, from 108 hospitals in 28 countries; 2576 from 38 hospitals in ten high-income countries and 9766 from 70 hospitals in 18 low and middle-income countries. Patients in low-income and middle-income countries more often had severe strokes, intracerebral haemorrhage, poorer access to services, and used fewer investigations and treatments (p&lt;0·0001) than those in high-income countries, although only differences in patient characteristics explained the poorer clinical outcomes in low and middle-income countries. However across all countries, irrespective of economic level, access to a stroke unit was associated with improved use of investigations and treatments, access to other rehabilitation services, and improved survival without severe dependency (odds ratio [OR] 1·29; 95% CI 1·14–1·44; all p&lt;0·0001), which was independent of patient casemix characteristics and other measures of care. Use of acute antiplatelet treatment was associated with improved survival (1·39; 1·12–1·72) irrespective of other patient and service characteristics. Interpretation: Evidence-based treatments, diagnostics, and stroke units were less commonly available or used in low and middle-income countries. Access to stroke units and appropriate use of antiplatelet treatment were associated with improved recovery. Improved care and facilities in low-income and middle-income countries are essential to improve outcomes