Silicon nanowires grown along the <100>-direction with a bulk Si core are studied with density functional calculations. Two surface reconstructions prevail after exploration of a large fraction of the phase space of nanowire reconstructions. Despite their energetical equivalence, one of the reconstructions is found to be strongly metallic while the other one is semi-metallic. This electronic-structure behavior is dictated by the particular surface states of each reconstruction. These results imply that doping is not required in order to obtain good conducting Si nanowires.
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0412218,
title = {Metallic and semi-metallic <100> silicon nanowires},
author = {R. Rurali and N. Lorente},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0412218},
year = {2009}
}