Monolithic fabrication of silicon nanowires

What is it about?

This work describes a simple fabrication technology, where silicon nanowires are “carved” within a silicon crystal such that they are fully integrated with other silicon structures that are thousands of times bigger. The critical (minimum) dimension obtained is only about 20 nm (20 parts of 1 millionth of a millimeter). Nanowires resemble suspended cables hanging a distance of 1 percent of a millimeter from the ground.

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Why is it important?

The appealing aspect of the technology is that the nanowires and the bigger structures are formed simultaneously allowing on-the-spot fabrication of silicon nanowires so that they are perfectly aligned with respect to the surrounding architecture. This opens up the possibility of bridging very thick structures with very thin channels without any need of carrying, manipulating and gluing the nanowires to the desired location. Hence, one can form millions of such bridges in parallel.