Ordered silicon microwire arrays grown from substrates patterned using imprint lithography and electrodeposition.

Silicon microwires grown by the vapor-liquid-solid process have attracted a great deal of interest as potential light absorbers for solar energy conversion. However, the research-scale techniques that have been demonstrated to produce ordered arrays of micro and nanowires may not be optimal for use as high-throughput processes needed for large-scale manufacturing. Herein we demonstrate the use of microimprint lithography to fabricate patterned templates for the confinement of an electrodeposited Cu catalyst for the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) growth of Si microwires.