Fabrication of crystalline selenium microwire

A method of fabricating selenium (Se) microwire is demonstrated. A multimaterial fiber with amorphous selenium (a-Se) core and multicomponent phosphate glass cladding is drawn by using a conventional optical fiber drawing technique. Then the a-Se core of the fiber is crystallized by a post thermal process at 150℃. After the multicomponent phosphate glass cladding is stripped from the multimaterial fiber by marinating the fiber in HF acid solution, a crystalline selenium (c-Se) microwire with high uniformity and smooth surface is obtained. Based on microstructure measurements, the c-Se microwire is identified to consist of most hexagonal state particles and very few trigonal state whiskers. The good photoconduction property of c-Se microwire with high quality and longer continuous length makes it possible to apply to functional devices and arrays.