Lateral assembly of millimetre-long silicon nanowires for multiple device integration

Abstract

Ultralong one-dimensional nanostructures can serve as unique building blocks that interlink nanometre-scale materials with those in the real macroscopic world. Here we report on the lateral assembly of millimetre-long silicon (Si) nano-wires (MML-SiNWs) synthesized through a metal-catalyzed vapor-liquid-liquid method by a soft-contact-printing (SCP) process. In our approach, the pressure and shear force between NWs and the substrate surface were systematically varied by the gliding angle and weight of the receiver substrate, which can assemble MML-SiNWs into parallel arrays with a controlled density. These MML-SiNW building blocks have been configured as multiple device arrays by wiring hundreds of electrodes onto a single wire by conventional photolithography. Transport measurements demonstrated uniform electrical properties along the millimetre-length of the SiNWs with a high-channel conductance of similar to 5 mu S.