A novel method was applied to grow silicon nanowires; (Si-NWs) doped with Er ions. At first the gold nanoparticles were sputtered to clean Si (100) surfaces, they were then coated with Si or Al source sol-gel solutions. Finally, the Si-NWs grew by a vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) mechanism, at the same time, the coating layers were sintered to oxide layers. This method was easy and lessened energy consumes. The oxide-doping layer was so thin that our eyes cannot observe it.

Keywords: Er ion; silicon nanowires; VLS mechanism; sol-gel