Sub-100 nm nanowire programming via the Geode Process

Maritza’s paper showing that it is possible to program the composition in semiconductor nanowires with sub-100 nm precision using the Geode Process is now published in Nano Letters!

The Geode Process is a scalable route to single-crystal semiconductor nanowires. Reactant gases diffuse through the porous microcapsule wall, decompose at the metallic nanoparticles that line the interior, and drive nanowire growth. Microcapsules are converted into microgeodes!

The microcapsules serve as a high surface area substrate, offering productivity increases of several orders-of-magnitude.

In this work, we take an important step forward: we show that nanowire composition can be encoded with a precision equivalent to traditional flat substrates. Thus, we’ve gone from a world where you could have either scale or nanoscale control to one where you can have both.