Raman scattering on silicon nanowires: The thermal conductivity of the environment determines the optical phonon frequency

We studied the Raman spectra of silicon nanowires as a function of excitation power for various ambient gases. For a given excitation power, we find that the gas thermal conductivity determines the wire temperature, which can be detected by a change in phonon frequency. This shows that the redshift of the optical phonon in silicon nanowires compared to bulk silicon is mainly due to the lower thermal conductivity of nanowires and an increase in laser heating. The spectra of nanowires allow distinguishing gases on the basis of their thermal conductivity.