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Arrays of indefinitely long uniform nanowires and nanotubes

Nature Materials volume 10, pages 494–501 (2011)Cite this article

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An Erratum to this article was published on 23 August 2011

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Abstract

Nanowires are arguably the most studied nanomaterial model to make functional devices and arrays1,2. Although there is remarkable maturity in the chemical synthesis of complex nanowire structures3,4, their integration and interfacing to macro systems with high yields and repeatability5,6,7 still require elaborate aligning, positioning and interfacing and post-synthesis techniques8,9. Top-down fabrication methods for nanowire production, such as lithography and electrospinning, have not enjoyed comparable growth. Here we report a new thermal size-reduction process to produce well-ordered, globally oriented, indefinitely long nanowire and nanotube arrays with different materials. The new technique involves iterative co-drawing of hermetically sealed multimaterials in compatible polymer matrices similar to fibre drawing. Globally oriented, endlessly parallel, axially and radially uniform semiconducting and piezoelectric nanowire and nanotube arrays hundreds of metres long, with nanowire diameters less than 15 nm, are obtained. The resulting nanostructures are sealed inside a flexible substrate, facilitating the handling of and electrical contacting to the nanowires. Inexpensive, high-throughput, multimaterial nanowire arrays pave the way for applications including nanowire-based large-area flexible sensor platforms, phase-changememory, nanostructure-enhanced photovoltaics, semiconductor nanophotonics, dielectric metamaterials,linear and nonlinear photonics and nanowire-enabled high-performance composites.

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Figure 1: A new nanofabrication technique, based on iterative size reduction, to produce ordered, indefinitely long nanowire and nanotube arrays.
Figure 2: Globally ordered, multimaterial nanowire, nanotube and cylindrical core–shell arrays.
Figure 3: Regular size reduction and ultimate achievable limit with multimaterial iterative size-reduction technique.
Figure 4: Radial and axial uniformity of the nanowire arrays.
Figure 5: Photoconductivity of selenium microwire and nanowire arrays.

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  • 19 July 2011

    In the version of this Letter previously published, the key for Fig. 5c was incorrect. This error has now been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the State Planning Organization (DPT) and TUBITAK under project No 106G090. M.B. acknowledges support from the Turkish Academy of Sciences Distinguished Young Scientist Award (TUBA GEBIP).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UNAM-National Nanotechnology Research Center, Bilkent University, 06800 Ankara, Turkey

    Mecit Yaman, Tural Khudiyev, Erol Ozgur, Mehmet Kanik, Ozan Aktas, Ekin O. Ozgur, Hakan Deniz, Enes Korkut & Mehmet Bayindir

  2. Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, Bilkent University, 06800 Ankara, Turkey

    Mecit Yaman, Tural Khudiyev, Erol Ozgur, Mehmet Kanik, Ekin O. Ozgur, Hakan Deniz, Enes Korkut & Mehmet Bayindir

  3. Department of Physics, Bilkent University, 06800 Ankara, Turkey

    Ozan Aktas & Mehmet Bayindir

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  1. Mecit Yaman
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Contributions

M.Y. and M.B. designed and carried out research, analysed data and wrote the paper. M.K., T.K., M.Y., and M.B. carried out fabrication of nanowires and nanotubes. E.O. and O.A. made photoconduction measurements, E.O.O. and H.D. took SEM and transmission electron microscope micrographs and E.K. and M.B. drew schematic representations.

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Correspondence to Mehmet Bayindir.

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Yaman, M., Khudiyev, T., Ozgur, E. et al. Arrays of indefinitely long uniform nanowires and nanotubes. Nature Mater 10, 494–501 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3038

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