Materials InnovaƟons Silcon Materials | Review ArƟcle | hƩp://doi.org/10.54738/MI.2022.2302 Bottom-up and Top-down Strategies for Fabrication of Silicon Nanowires OPEN ACCESS This arƟcle is part of the special issue on ”Women in Materials Science” Received: 12 February 2022 Accepted: 03 March 2022 Published: 30 March 2022 Editor(s): Sarish Rehman CitaƟon: Nur Celik A, BT, Avishan N, Nasir Shah S, Hussain N (2022) BoƩom-up and Top-down Strategies for FabricaƟon of Silicon Nanowires. Materials InnovaƟons 2 (3), 69-82. ∗ Correspondences: (Syed Nasir Shah) nasir.shah@ueƩaxila.edu.pk (Naveed Hussain) nhussain@metu.edu.tr # These authors contributed equally Copyright: © 2022 Nur Celik A, BT, Avishan N, Nasir Shah S, Hussain N. This is an open access arƟcle distributed under the terms of the CreaƟve Commons AƩribuƟon License, which permits unrestricted use, distribuƟon, and reproducƟon in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Published By Hexa Publishers ISSN Electronic: 2790-1963 Ayse Nur Celik 1# , Bilge Tuncel 1,2# , Nardin Avishan 3# , Syed Nasir Shah 4∗ , Naveed Hussain 1,5∗ 1 Department of Physics, Faculty of Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences,, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, 06800, Turkey 2 Department of Energy Engineering, Ankara University, Department of Energy Engineering, Ankara University, Ankara, 06560, Turkey 3 Micro and Nanotechnology Program, Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Middle East Technical University,, Ankara, 06800, Turkey 4 Department of Energy Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical and AeronauƟcal Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology Taxila, Taxila, Rawalpindi, 47080, Pakistan 5 Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, University of California, CA, USA Silicon (Si) is an important technological material with widespread applicaƟons, especially in electronics and optoelectronics. Due to its specific bandgap and low light absorpƟon coefficient, the efficiency of Si-based photodetectors and solar cells is not sufficient for growing industrial needs. By paƩerning Si into nanowire structures, not only the light-trapping efficiency of the Si can be increased for solar cell and photodetector applicaƟons, but the process also imparts other funcƟonaliƟes to nanowires suitable for applicaƟons such as anƟbacterial surfaces, sensing, baƩeries, etc. Large scale applicaƟons of Si nanowires depend on their scalable fabricaƟon. In this arƟcle, we summarize the most commonly used fabricaƟon techniques for Si nanowires and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. Keywords: Silicon, Nanowires, Bottom-up, Growth, Top-down INTRODUCTION S ilicon is a material that offers quali- tative solutions to the recent techni- cal problems of the modern world by its wide spectrum of applications in numerous areas. Especially, in elec- tronic and photovoltaic (PV) industries the strong domination of Si is highly related to its advantageous properties. One of the most important points is its abundance on earth, ensuring the avail- ability of large single crystals with high purity. Besides, having benign thermal and mechanical properties, superior opto- electronic properties of Si provide numer- ous applications in energy conversion technology. The bandgap of Si, 1.1 eV, matches with the visible spectrum. Thus, it lies in the optimum range in the solar spectra to harvest solar energy. Hence, silicon is the prior element in the pho- tovoltaic industry and 90% of the solar cells employed in solar energy conver- sion technology are based on Si today. 1 However, having indirect bandgap nature which leads to losses in absorption and emission of light is a significant draw- back of silicon PVs. Also, relatively low absorption in the solar spectra requires a Materials InnovaƟons | 2022 | hƩps://materialsinnovaƟons.hexapb.com/ 69