Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 February 2015
We study how the period of transient thermal gradient impacts on morphologies of nanostructures on the Si(001) surface. Strain-free, self-assembled nanodots as well as periodic nanowires are fabricated directly on Si(001) surfaces by applying high power laser pulses on the surface interferentially. The morphologies of the nanostructures are studied by atomic force microscopy. Generally, the laser irradiated surfaces show nanowires but nanodots are also observed. The nanowire width increases with interference period. The narrowest nanowires observed have the width smaller than 50 nm, which is four times smaller than the interference period while the nanodots have a base width of 43 nm and height of 8 nm.