Abstract
The optical properties of the silicon naniwires (SiNWs) fabricated by a method of metal-assisted electroless etching have been investigated. The optical parameters of both SiNWs and the Si wafer, including dielectric function (epsilon(omega)) and the effective refractive index (N(omega)), could be obtained from the light-absorption theory and Kramers-Kronig relation. From the comparation of calculated characteristics, we can observe that the refractive index of the SiNWs is reduced to 1.26 while that of Si wafer is changing from 2.4 to 6.2 in the range of 1.5-4eV, and the imaginary part of complex dielectric constant of Si NWs is about two orders of magnitude lower than that of Si wafer. There are two peak positions in the curve of Si wafer, while just one broad peak position in that of Si NWs. These differences could be considered as the reasons for the special characteristic of the Si NWs.