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Industrially Scalable Process for Silicon Nanowires for Seebeck Generators

The observation that the thermal conductivity of single-crystalline silicon nanowires with diameter on the length scale of 25 nm is lower than that of bulk material by two orders of magnitude has attracted the interest onto silicon as a potentially effective thermoelectric material. However, the potential interest has a hope of transforming in a practical interest only if poly-crystalline silicon can replace single crystalline silicon and the preparation of nanowires does not involve any advanced photolithography. In this work we show that a technique, based on the controlled etching and filling of recessed regions and employing standard photolithography and deposition-etching methods, succeeds in the preparation of poly-crystalline silicon nanowires (with diameter of 25 nm and length on the centimetre scale) at a linear density of 3E6 cm^-1.