Wires For A Nanoworld

Abstract

Driven by the principle that smaller is better, researchers around the globe in recent years have come up with ways to further shrink already small circuit elements. Tiny transistors, microscopic diodes, and other electronic components have debuted as parts of miniature data-storage instruments, logic devices, and chemical sensors. Scientists have now devised new procedures for preparing arrays of nanowires that may serve as interconnects for the components of even smaller circuits. In one study, researchers at the University of California, Irvine, use structural features on graphite surfaces as molds to form molybdenum nanowires. In another investigation, a team of scientists at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, fashions polymers into templates that direct growth of cobalt nanowires. Both groups assemble wires from molecular precursors via electrodeposition procedures [ Science , 290, 2120 and 2126 (2000)]. Chemistry professor Reginald M. Penner, who led the Irvine group, notes that nanoscale wir...