THE hostile relationship between different metals may give engineers a way to
manufacture hundreds of nanowires quickly.
杏吧原创s at Michigan Technological University in Houghton heated tin and
germanium on a wafer. Little tin blobs formed, and because tin is reluctant to
mix with germanium, they burrowed through the alloy pushing germanium out of the
way. This left germanium ridges or 鈥渜uantum wires鈥� a few dozen atoms across
(Physical Review Letters, vol 80, p 1022).
鈥淲e can make a whole wafer full of quantum wires in five minutes,鈥� says team
member Mohan Krishnamurthy. The wires meander randomly, making them useless for
wiring in electronics. But they could be used in lasers, which rely on electrons
jumping between confined energy states.
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