Nanowire – Applications & Advantages

What are Nanowires?

Nanowires are based up on a flat substrate of semiconductor materials, such as silicon and germanium. Nanowires are simply very tiny wires. They are composed of metals such as silver, gold or iron. Nanometer is measured as spatial measurement that is about 10-9 meters which are mostly used in nanotechnologies for the manufacturing of nano machines. The small nanowire is created by Nano particles with a diameter as small as nanometer.

A brief about Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is considered to be in authority of matter at dimensions of approximately 1 to 100 nanometers, where only one of its type phenomenons allows description applications. Surrounding nonascale science, engineering and technology, nanotechnology involves imaging, measuring, designing, and manipulating matter at this length scale. Because of nanotechnology, the speed of computers has become greater than before while the worth of computing has decreased.

Nanotechnologies have several applications which are like nanowires, nanoelectronics, nanobots, nanomaterials, nanochondria, etc. Hence, nanotechnology refers to the development act or capability to effort with materials or substance at the scale of 1 to 100 nanometers. The capacity of implementing at this extent renders novel compensation to numerous products and applications such as those establish in the semiconductor manufacturing, substance in science, and medicine, etc.

Electronics uses of nanotechnology

Nanotechnology in technology field increases the capability of electronics devices while dropping their weight and power consumption.

• Improves display screens on electronics devices.
• Increasing the density of memory chips
• Reducing the size of transistors used in integrated circuits

Nanotechnology may grip the key to create space running away more convenient. Advancements in nanomaterials make insubstantial solar based devices and a wire for the space winch possible. By extensively dropping the quantity of rocket fuel required, these advances could lower the cost of accomplishment orbit and traveling in space.

Basics of Nanowires

Basically the diameter of nanowires is one nanometer, engineer’s works with 30 and 60 nanometers.

Figure is consisting of ion beam rod on which shutter, aperture, target and detector are mounted on it which is in the form of tube. A nanowire plays a significant role in field of quantum computers and nanorobots are very tiny machines which are planned for a specific function or tasks repeatedly with some accuracy at nonascale dimension. A wide variety of elemental, binary and compound semiconductor nanowires has been synthesized via the VLS method, and comparatively good control over the nanowires diameter and diameter distribution has been achieved.

There are two basic approaches to synthesizing nanowires: top-down and bottom-up. A top-down come within reach of reduce a large piece of substance to small pieces. A bottom-up approach synthesizes the nanowire by combining component ad atoms. Most synthesis techniques use a bottom-up approach. Nanowire transistors made with conventional lithographic fabrication methods can improve performance in nonascale electronics.

There are different types of nanowires in technology, they are: Metallic nanowires, semiconducting nanowires, insulating nanowires. The structure of nanowires is very simple, made of variety of materials.

A simple Silicon Nanowire Transistors is shown in figure. Silicon nanowire transistor simplifies both processing and allows the devices to be switched on and off more easily.

The 60 nanometer wide channels exhibit a much greater difference in current between the on and off states than is true for larger reference channels up to 5 micrometers wide. This suggests that when a channel is scaled down to the nano regime, the ultra-narrow proportions significantly reduce the current leakage associated with defects in silicon. As a result, the transistors are less sensitive to electronic noise in the channel and can be turned on and off more effectively.

Properties of nanowire:

• Mechanical property:

The enormous amount of grain boundaries in a bulk material are made of nanoparticles which allow extending the grain boundaries sliding leads to high flexibility. The figure below consists of gate insulator device and substrate which involve in the operation of the mechanical property of nanowire.

• Magnetic property:

In the magnetic property of nanoparticles the energy of magnetic anisotropy might be that miniature that the vector of magnetization fluctuates thermally, this is called super magnetism. Such materials are free from reminisce and coercitivity. Touching super magnetic particles are loosing this special property by get in touch with expect the particles are kept at distance. Unusually electronic and magnetic characteristics are established at non zero temperature such as the metal insulator alteration in metal oxides non Fermi liquid performance of highly interrelated f-electron compound, uncharacteristic symmetry state of high-Tc superconductor device. Combining the particles with high energy of anisotropy with a super magnetic may over leads to a new class of permanent magnetic materials.

• Catalytic property:

Due to large surface of area, the nanoparticles which are made of transition materials oxide exhibits motivating catalytic properties. In some of the special cases catalysis may be improved and additional specific by decorating these particles with gold and platinum duster.

• Optical property:

 In optical property the allotment of non-agglomerated nano particles in a polymer are used to the directory of refraction. In addition, such a procedure may manufacture material with non linear optical properties or visual property. Gold and Cd se nano particles in glass leads to red or orange coloration semi conducting nano practices and some oxide polymer nano compositor exhibits fluorescence performance is blue shift with decreasing particles size. Faraday rotation is one of the magneto optical effects extremely premeditated for Ferro fluid.

Applications of Nanowires:

• Nanowire devices can be assembled in a rational and predictable because:
  • Nanowires can be precisely controlled during synthesis
  • Chemical composition
  • Diameter
  • Length
  • Nanowires are used in hertostructure which are sub divided as axial hetrostructure for ex- Gap-GaAs, radial hetrostructure ex- SiGe and nano superlatticles.
  • Nanowires are mostly applicable in sensors like ph sensor and Gas sensor.

  

• Used in the manufacturing of nanophotons and nanoprobes with high temperature and high laser technology.
• Reliable methods exist for their parallel assembly.

Nanowires are represents the best-defined class of nanoscale building blocks and this precise control over key variables has correspondingly enabled a wide range of devices and integration strategies to be pursued.

Photo Credit:

• Nanowire by nist
• Nanowire by gstatic
• mechanical property of nanowire by gstatic
• Optical property by gstatic
• Applications of Nanowire by gstatic